Kevin Williamson throws a cell phone, Twitter responds to a vigilante

Kevin D. Williamson is a correspondent for The National Review and a theatre critic for The New Criterion. It is in that second capacity that he attended a production of the new musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 earlier this week. Often critics are billed as the villains of the artistic world, but on that night Kevin Williamson became a hero to many theatre lovers when he grabbed a cell phone from another audience member and threw it across the room.

The basic story starts as an all too familiar one. Audience members were using their cell phones (talking and surfing) to the distraction of Williamson who wanted to focus on the play he came to see. After asking a woman to stop using her phone and being rebuffed by her Williamson then did what many of us have only dreamed of. He grabbed the woman’s phone and threw it across the theatre.

Williamson and the woman were both ejected from the show. There may be criminal charges.

Williamson tells his story in a piece called Theatre Night: Vigilantes 1, Vulgarians 0. Additional detail about the incident is in The Gothamist.

So what do you think? Was Williamson’s actions justified? What should be done when audience members refuse to stop using cell phones?

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