Oprah couldn’t be there in person when Gayle King made her Broadway debut Thursday night, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying the show.
King, 70, made a guest appearance in the ensemble of The Lion King, but it was her famous best friend’s antics that truly grabbed the audience’s attention.
Winfrey, 71, was not physically present for King’s debut. Instead, she had a savvy workaround: employing an assistant to sit in the audience and hold up a phone so that Winfrey could watch the show on FaceTime.
CBS Mornings shared a clip of Winfrey’s FaceTime antics via Instagram on Friday. In the video, an unidentified audience member FaceTimes Winfrey while holding up their phone with its camera pointed at the stage.
The CBS Mornings account clarified that Winfrey had obtained “special permission” to watch the performance on FaceTime. However, the move quickly earned the ire of fans online, as phones are typically strictly forbidden in Broadway shows.
One fan, whose comment on the post was later hidden, called the FaceTime stunt “Rude, obnoxious and very narcissistic.”
The fan added, “It fits in with that billionaire set [you’re] friends with now,” a reference to Winfrey and King’s attendance at the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in June.
The controversial video also shows a glimpse of King, who joined the cast for one night only alongside Oprah Daily creative director Adam Glassman.
The pair’s one-night stint in the cast was part of their new YouTube series, The Adventures of Adam & Gayle.
The CBS Mornings host appeared in the opening number as “Bird Lady,” donning a white gown with white birds attached to her hands and headdress. Glassman appeared as the back end of a rhino.
Discussing her Broadway debut on Friday’s episode of CBS Mornings, King didn’t mention Oprah’s virtual attendance. However, she did joke, “No one’s going to be asking us back, but we are so thankful.”
