Jackman stops play to chide cell phone offender

NEW YORK — Hugh Jackman knows how to stop the show.

He did it recently when a cell phone call interrupted a preview performance of “A Steady Rain,” the Broadway play that stars Jackman and Daniel Craig.

The moment captured on an amateur videotape shown by the TMZ.com Web site appears to have been recorded by someone in the audience.

It shows Jackman breaking character to tell the owner of the ringing cell phone, “You want to get that?” as the audience erupts in cheers. As the ringing persists, Jackman pleads: “Come on, just turn it off.” He then paces the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, waits about a minute for the ringing to stop and the play resumes.

Producers of “A Steady Rain” declined to comment.

The interruption occurred during an intense moment in the play, when Jackman’s character, a Chicago policeman, reveals haunting memories.

A customary loudspeaker announcement reminds theatergoers to turn off their phones. Since the incident, ushers who seat patrons and pass out playbills at Schoenfeld are also instructing patrons to silence their phones.

“A Steady Rain,” a taut drama about the relationship between two policemen, opens Tuesday for a limited engagement through Dec. 6. The play by Keith Huff already has proven to be a potent box-office winner, playing to capacity audiences since it began previews on Sept. 10.

Jackman won a Tony Award in 2004 for his performance as Peter Allen in the musical “The Boy from Oz.” Craig, filmdom’s latest James Bond, is making his Broadway debut.