Tony-Award winning actor Richard Easton collapsed near the end of the first act Wednesday night during a performance of Coast of Utopia at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. Easton, 73, was revived and taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and was reported in stable condition.
He is now undergoing tests, said Barbara Carroll, a spokesperson for Lincoln Center Theater. She said she did not know at which hospital Easton was having the tests. Carroll said Easton did not have a heart attack.
According to The New York Times, Easton, playing the role of Alexander Bakunin in Tom Stoppard's epic play, was trying to persuade his son, played by Ethan Hawke, to take a job, rather than continue his studies. "You can't go to Berlin!" he said, and then made his exit. As he neared the wing, he staggered, then collapsed.
Hawke and other cast members gathered near him, and a minute later, Hawke asked if there was a doctor in the house, the Times reported. The audience members weren't sure what was happening at first; then, about 20 people rushed to the stage. The rest of the audience was cleared from the house and the show was canceled.
David Manis, Easton's understudy, will perform the role tonight, a spokesman for Lincoln Center told the Times. In 2001, Easton won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk award for his work in another Stoppard play, The Invention of Love.