Priscilla's dramatic fall - actress left dangling above Civic stage

Thursday night at Auckland's Civic theatre got a little more dramatic than the musical Priscilla's producers intended as one of its actresses was left hanging in mid-air during the closing act.

Thursday night at Auckland's Civic Theatre got a little more dramatic than the producers of musical Priscilla intended as one of its actresses was left hanging in mid-air during the closing act.

The unplanned fall, off a suspended perch, happened during the show's second act, when one member of a signing trio, Ellie Leah, slipped.

Fairfax reported the actress looked petrified as she was left dangling and screaming above the stage.

Stuff staffer Aisling O'Sullivan was in the audience and said, up until the incident, the show, which came to the Auckland stage from West End, had been almost "pitch perfect".

She told Fairfax the three singers had appeared throughout the musical and were "brilliant".

"Then towards the end, suddenly one of them let out a scream. My sister pointed out, 'Oh my god, look! Something's happened to her wire'. She looked like she was at an angle and that one of the wires may have twisted or broken, it went on like this for about 30 seconds."

She told Fairfax the singers stopped singing, which then prompted the actors below to look up and run towards the area where Leah was dangling.

"She looked petrified because she was quite high up, the bus was turning on a stile and they think maybe she was too low down and it hit her."

The unplanned on-stage drama brought the whole show to halt as they sorted out the problem.

O'Sullivan said the music stopped and the curtain was drawn before a voice advised the audience something had gone wrong.

"You could hear the whole audience talking about it because it was a pretty full house, we were sitting there for about five minutes wondering if it was going to come back on."

She said the routine eventually started again without Leah.