The Nance Patron Takes a Tumble and Falls onto the Lyceum Theatre Marquee

An audience member managed to steal the spotlight from Drama League Award winner Nathan Lane before the May 19 performance of The Nance. Ten minutes before curtain, patron George Poulos fell through a second floor window and onto the Lyceum Theatre marquee, according to the New York Post. Poulos was rescued by firefighters and brought to Bellevue Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries. Lincoln Center Theater had no comment on the accident.

The Nance is the latest play by playwright Douglas Carter Beane and Tony-winning director Jack O’Brien. The burlesque-set drama stars Lane as Chauncey Miles, a gay nance performer working during the period when New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia was trying to ban burlesque. Integrating burlesque sketches into the drama, The Nance paints the portrait of a homosexual man, living and working in the secretive and dangerous gay world of 1930s New York, whose outrageous antics on the burlesque stage stand in marked contrast to his messy offstage life.

In addition to Lane, the play stars Tony winner Cady Huffman, Andréa Burns, Lewis J. Stadlen, Jenni Barber and Jonny Orsini.