Stagehand falls to death inside Broadway theatre

A stagehand fell to his death inside a Broadway theater in Midtown on Thursday morning. The 54-year-old worker fell from scaffolding inside the Winter Garden Theatre. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital.

According to reports, the stagehand, whose name has not been released, was removing the set of "Beetlejuice" in preparation for the theater's next show, "The Music Man." It is unknown as to why work was being done in the space since the show is not planned to open until late 2021.

A witness told the New York Post, “I was cleaning up under the stage when I heard a loud noise,” a 38-year-old theater porter who gave the name Mike told The Post. “It was right above me. It sounded like a bomb. It scared me. I ran up the steps to what it was.

“I said, ‘Oh my God!’ My heart started pounding. He was on his back. He had one shoe on. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. I don’t know if it came off when he fell. Stagehands always wear helmets,” he added.

The theatre's longest tenant was Cats, which opened on October 7, 1982 and ran 7,485 performances spanning nearly eighteen years.

So far that has been no comment from the Broadway League or the stagehand union, IATSE.