A Seaford man reached viral status this week when a cell phone video caught him in the act of brazenly climbing onto a Broadway stage to charge his dying iPhone.
Nick Silvestri, 19, and his family were taking in Broadway’s “Hand of God” on July 2 when he crawled onto the set during the show and plugged his power-starved iPhone into an outlet that turned out to be fake. His unsuccessful attempt caused an immediate ruckus, shocking the audience and prompting security to intervene. A video of the episode posted on YouTube four days later with the title “Moron jumps on stage on Broadway to try and charge his phone in a fake outlet” has nearly a quarter of a million views.
The Nassau County Community College student revealed in an interview with Playbill that he interrupted the show because his phone was running low on juice, not in response to a dare. He first got anxious at dinner, when he tried and failed to charge the phone at a nearby restaurant. Silvestri said they had enjoyed a few drinks and “were a little banged up.”
“I was thinking that they were probably going to plug something in there on the set, and I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal if my phone was up there, too,” he told Playbill.
After his attempt, Silvestri lobbied the security guards to let him retrieve his phone, Playbill reported. Instead, one of the guards grabbed it and took Silvestri back to his seat. They allowed him to remain for the rest of the show.
His initial apology appeared to lack remorse.
“Hey, I’m sorry if I delayed your show five minutes,” he told Playbill. “But you got a lot of attention from this, so maybe I made your show a little better [known].”
Members of the cast were not amused by his antics–even if they inadvertently generated publicity for their production.
The star of the show, Steven Boyer, told the New York Daily News that Silvestri’s distraction delayed the show by five minutes.
The News and other city tabloids have reported that actors such as prize-winning Patti LuPone, a Northport native, have recently been going public to complain about irritating theatergoers sending text messages, glancing at their watches, and falling asleep during their performances. LuPone, without stepping out of character, saw a woman seated at the end of the second row texting on her phone, went into the audience and grabbed it from her before she could react. The woman had to wait until the performance was over to get it back from the stage manager. LuPone’s taking matters in her own hands prompted editorial praise at Newsday, the Daily News and the New York Post.
Silvestri reportedly issued a formal apology to the cast on Friday. It’s not known whether he phoned it in.
