So most loyal readers of this blog know that it was here where the September 13, 2009 incident involving Hugh Jackman and a rude and oblivious Broadway ticket-holder first broke. So, I can tell you here that this really happened and I witnessed it and thought it worthy of sharing with y'all. [see: Hugh Jackman Talks to Woman in Row P]
That said... I couldn't help but wonder about the odds of something quite similar happening again not two weeks later at the same Broadway show but this time well within the sightlines of a hand-held videocamera so that within hours the video had gone completely viral.
See, when I posted my description of the witty dressing down delivered by Mr. Jackman, it never dawned on me that within a day it'd be picked up by Broadwayworld.com and cause such a stir. But I had to wonder yesterday when there was virtually pristine video posted to TMZ.com and then promoted on yahoo and Huffington Post: If I were a publicist working on A Steady Rain, would I ever consider sending a team of two undercover operatives into the theatre to re-create what had already provided the show with a lot of free publicity?
Is this completley insane of me to even imagine? I mean, it somehow seems too convenient that someone's cell phone would go off in the front orchestra and that someone in the front row of the mezzanine would have a camera phone at the ready to capture Jackman's almost word-for-word identical response to another rude Broadway theatregoer.
What do you think? In the age of viral video and online mania, are traditional Broadway publicists savvy enough to harness the power of the internet? Or do you think it was just dumb luck and the stunning coincidence of the crazy world in which we live?
