Former Love Island winner Amber Davies has hit out at a ‘selfish’ theatre goer for ‘ruining’ her West End performance in The Great Gatsby.
The theatre actress, 28, took to Instagram in full stage make-up while backstage at the London Coliseum following her latest show.
After Saturday evening’s performance, Amber issued a warning to those attending the musical after being distracted by someone in the audience.
She told Instagram followers: ‘This is a PSA. The closer you are to the stage when you’re watching a show the more obvious it is when you’re filming.
‘This is the entire stalls. If you’re filming in the stalls we can see you! From someone who’s on stage, I just wanna tell you a little bit about what we see. So we see like a dark canvas and outlines of people’s heads.
‘If you’re filming, the reflection from the lights bounce straight back off your … the back of your iPhone onto us on stage. So it is the one thing we can see.’ She then criticised one particular audience member.
Former Love Island winner Amber Davies has hit out at a ‘selfish’ theatre goer for ‘ruining’ her West End performance in The Great Gatsby
After Saturday evening’s performance, Amber issued a warning to those attending the musical after being distracted by someone in the audience
‘So to the woman filming New Money tonight – you distracted absolutely everybody on that stage.
‘And not only that, it takes us out of the Gatsby world because you’re filming and you’ve basically ruined that moment for everybody else who was watching the show tonight.’
‘Please don’t be selfish. Stop filming shows. If someone is filming during a show know that this is the consequences that it has to the people on stage and tell them to stop because honestly it’s annoying.
‘Also, I single-handedly will count how many seats back you are and tell our stage manager where you’re sitting and what colour hair you’ve got, and trust me, in the interval they will come and ask you to delete the footage so you’ve basically done it for nothing.
‘Okay, I’m gonna enjoy act two now.’
The production, running at the London Coliseum from April 16 to September 7, brings F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic story to life in dazzling style.
In February, the complete casting for the West End production was revealed.
Joining the previously announced Jamie Muscato as Jay Gatsby and Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy Buchanan are Corbin Bleu as Nick Carraway, Amber Davies as Jordan Baker, Joel Montague as George Wilson, John Owen-Jones as Meyer Wolfsheim, Jon Robyns as Tom Buchanan and Rachel Tucker as Myrtle Wilson.
The theatre actress took to Instagram in full stage make-up while backstage at the London Coliseum following her latest show
Adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, The Great Gatsby follows the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quest to win back the heart of married socialite Daisy Buchanan, his former flame.
This musical adaptation arrives in London following its 2024 Broadway premiere, where it won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design.
Earlier in January, the star lashed out at trolls who criticised her for her work schedule.
The beauty, who won Love Island back in 2017, took to Instagram at the time to share a snap of herself returning to work at the Universal Music Group studios, where she was thought to be recording her podcast Call to Stage.
Captioning her mirror selfie, Amber penned: ‘First working day of 2025’, before adding: ‘Time to buckle up.’
And while the West End star seemed in good spirits about getting back to the grind, she found herself facing backlash at having only just returned to work 20 days into the new year.
This musical adaptation arrives in London following its 2024 Broadway premiere, where it won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design
A second image on Amber’s stories then showed the response she received on her last post, with one person responding: ‘Imagine going over half the month without working ‘ alongside eye roll emojis.
Clearly unimpressed with the criticism, Amber then wrote over the screenshot, hitting out at the person as she remarked that she ‘needed the break’ before urging them to not judge.
She wrote: ‘Erm I need the break. I lived out of a suitcase on tour for a whole year with no day off in sight, whilst doing 8 shows a week & then worked all the way up to week before Xmas so … Don’t judge my unemployed downtime.’
Amber’s hard work she referred to was her year-long role as Vivian Ward in the touring production of the Pretty Woman musical.
The star then went on to further address the criticism in a video shared to her stories as she opened up about the difficulties of self-employed working and noted that she would have worked ‘if the work was there’.
Speaking to the camera, Amber said: ‘I literally love the internet. Everyone’s like “you don’t need to justify yourself”. And I’m like “justify myself for being self-employed?”.’
She went on: ‘Like, yes, I’ve had half of the month off, the majority of the month off, because 1) I’m self-employed and 2) I did need a break, but if the work was there, I would have worked.’
Captioning her clip, she added: ‘Love to the self employed’.
