Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images
Debra Messingwon’t soon forget her most recent opening night!
TheWill & Gracestar, 53, celebrated the opening night of her Broadway playBirthday Candleson Sunday at the Roundabout American Airlines Theatre. There, she posed for pictures with the New York City firefighters who responded to the manhole fires that occurred just steps away in Times Square.
Shortly before 7 p.m., a manhole exploded near 215 W. 43rd Street,ABC 7reported. A bang went off, and sent crowds scrambling, while at least one other manhole cover started smoking.
A rep for Con Edison toldCNNthat cable failures triggered the trouble, and that there were no injuries or outages.NBC New Yorkreported that two officers were hospitalized for ringing in their ears.
A rep for the energy company did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Firefighters found raised carbon monoxide levels at a building on West 229th Street and later handed the situation over to utility crews, per NBC.
ABC reported that traffic was closed to vehicles and pedestrians at West 43rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues following the incident.
It remains unclear what type of manhole cover caught fire; no further information was available as of Monday morning.
On Instagram, Playbill posted a picture of Messing posing with the first responders on the red carpet on the opening night ofBirthday Candles.
“This is how you make an ENTRANCE,” the theater magazine wrote on theirInstagram Stories.
In the 90-minute show, whichstarted performancesFriday ahead of the official Sunday opening, Messing plays Ernestine Ashworth, who celebrates birthdays from 17 to 101 over the course of the evening.
“Bringing this new, gorgeous play to Broadway is more thrilling than any birthday wish I could imagine,” Messing told PEOPLE, which had its world premiere in 2018 at the Detroit Public Theatre.
Messing, who was last seen on Broadway in the 2014 production ofOutside Mullingar, said that her return to the Great White Way feels “like coming home to the home I’ve always wanted.”
source: people.com
