West End actress accused of being petty after audience member swore at her during performance

• Phobe Southworth, The Telegraph

A West End actress has been accused of being "petty" after criticising an audience member who swore at her during a performance.

Hayley Tamaddon, 42, complained to her Twitter followers after a heckler shouted "f*** you" at her during a poignant moment of the musical “Everybody's Talking About Jamie” on Saturday night.

The former soap star, who is playing Miss Hedge in the production at London's Apollo Theatre, published a picture of some audience etiquette guidelines after the interruption.

She captioned the shot: "To the lady in the audience who shouted “f**k you” at me during a very serious scene last night.whilst I’m so grateful that you believed in my character - I’d like to remind you, you were in a theatre, not watching tv. Please respect the actors and the audience. With kindness X ".

Many sympathised with Ms Tamaddon's complaint and said the heckler should have been thrown out of the theatre. 

But others said she was being too sensitive and should be flattered that the audience member was so engrossed in her performance.

Others berated her for publicly shaming the person on social media. 

One Twitter user commented: "This is some petty a** s***. That audience member may have been out of line, but she was emotional connected to the scene, & lost herself a bit in it. I’m pretty sure she was embarrassed enough to have had the outburst without you calling her out on social media for it."

Another said:  "Try to take it as a compliment that she got so engrossed in your character".