The opening night performance of I’m Every Woman: The Musical, starring Alexandra Burke, was delayed by 40 minutes at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in north London after guest of honour Chaka Khan arrived late. Organisers held the curtain for the 73-year-old music legend, who was delayed carrying out red carpet interviews before taking her seat around 7.40pm for the scheduled 7pm start.
The ten-time Grammy winner kept the audience waiting as tension grew inside the venue. One attendee told the Daily Mail: "Chaka was really late arriving for the show. She kept everyone waiting. It was a nightmare for the organisers. They couldn’t start the show without her, so they had to keep everyone waiting."
The attendee added: "The crowd got very restless. Everyone was told to be seated by 7pm, so when the show didn’t start, people got annoyed. After a while, some people got fed up with waiting and went back out to go to the loo. The whole event was chaotic. It was really insulting to the cast and crew."
Naga Munchetty Interval Departure
During the interval, BBC presenter Naga Munchetty left the theatre and did not return for the second half of the performance. She had been among the last celebrity guests to arrive and bypassed the red carpet despite the publicity team hoping invited stars would pose for photographs.
Video obtained by the Daily Mail showed Munchetty smoking a cigarette before walking hand-in-hand with her husband James Haggar towards the local Tube station. A source said: "Naga’s early departure is likely to ruffle feathers among the publicity team. The venue was at capacity for the performance, and they were only able to offer VIP tickets to a select number of celebs."
The difficult opening night comes as the production received poor reviews, including a one-star verdict from The Standard. The show tells the untold story of Chaka Khan’s life and has a running time of two hours and 30 minutes, with ticket prices ranging between £28 and £65.
BBC Breakfast Exit and Controversies
Munchetty’s appearance came days after it was announced she will leave BBC Breakfast after 17 years. The presenter is preparing to join Radio 5 Live’s flagship breakfast programme from the new year, replacing Rachel Burden, 51, and Rick Edwards, 47, after they announced in December that they would step down.
Her move towards a full-time radio role follows a series of controversies at the BBC. Her future at BBC Breakfast was thrown into doubt last year when a formal probe was launched over allegations she had bullied a junior staffer. She was accused of bullying a female colleague and making a "wildly unprofessional off-air sex joke that left a co-worker 'humiliated,'" though she remained in her job at the BBC.
The broadcaster was also called into a meeting over a sex jibe made during an ad break on her radio programme. The probe into Munchetty was launched following an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations into the flagship breakfast programme last year. This came after BBC Breakfast editor Richard Frediani took an extended period of leave after facing his own allegations of bullying and misconduct.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail revealed that Munchetty believes she was made to look like a "monster" during the fallout from the complaints. Sources close to the presenter claimed her exit marks a victory for Frediani and his so-called "boys’ club," with sources telling the Daily Mail that BBC bosses faced an ultimatum between keeping the presenter or her editor.
