Amber Davies requests audience member filming Legally Blonde be removed from auditorium

Legally Blonde star Amber Davies has taken to social media to call out filming during the musical’s run.

Speaking on Instagram Stories this weekend, Davies said: “This is your daily reminder not to film at the theatre. Unfortunately tonight at the Bord Gáis, we’ve got a beautiful audience, but there’s just one woman in the front row being filming the entirety of act one. It’s had us all distracted. It’s ruined the morale of our wonderful eighth show on a Saturday night from selfish actions.”

Davies said she requested the audience member be removed from the performance: “Hopefully she’s not back for act two. I’ve asked, can she go so we can just enjoy ourselves. There has been a couple of people filming in Ireland this week. I’m the type of person that will count how many seats away you are from what door, and you will be told and asked to leave. So, um, yeah, guys, don’t film. Let’s just enjoy the two and a half hours together. We don’t need to film everything.”

Phone use in theatres has become a red-hot topic in recent years, with Cynthia Erivo recently requesting an audience member be removed for capturing her performance in Dracula in the West End. Rosamund Pike similarly criticised an audience member for being on their phone.

The much-loved musical, which follows a misjudged young woman who overcomes social expectations and becomes a successful Harvard Law School graduate, is heading to various cities across the UK on its new tour.

With music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, and a book by Heather Hach, the musical is based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture of the same name.

It was first seen on Broadway in 2007, with a West End production opening in 2010, where it won four WhatsOnStage Awards and three Olivier Awards. A hit revival subsequently began life at Curve in Leicester, before embarking on a tour. The show was last seen in the UK in a WhatsOnStage Award-winning revival at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2022.

Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster directs the new production, produced by Curve and ROYO, who also collaborated on the tour of Kinky Boots which has just concluded its West End run.