It’s difficult for Amanda Abbington to sell tickets for her first acting venture after Strictly Come Dancing.
The 50-year-old Sherlock star, who left Strictly Come Dancing after just five weeks, has been the subject of gossip for the past year. Since then, she has accused Giovanni Pernice, her professional partner, of misbehavior and abuse at the rehearsal space; he disputes these claims.
Her claims sparked an investigation into the BBC dancing competition that is still ongoing, focusing on both celebrities and professionals. Giovanni, who was initially charged by Amanda, has vehemently refuted all of the allegations leveled against him.
Now that the BBC’s ongoing inquiry is about to conclude, Amanda wants to move on from the incident. Amanda plays the mother in the play When It Happens to You, which is now on stage. The piece deals with voice problems and not getting listened to.
However, The Sun claims that since the play began earlier this week, fewer than half of the 200 seats in the theater have been occupied, indicating that the production has been having trouble drawing in audiences. This is despite the thunderous cheers from the crowd on Wednesday, July 31, the play’s opening night.
The publication said that during the first full public run of the show, over a dozen seats were unoccupied. This is a major surprise because the play’s opening night is usually touted as the biggest during its run at a particular theater.
It happened only a few weeks after Amanda sobbed uncontrollably during touching interviews regarding her Strictly experience. Amanda broke down in a candid conversation with competitor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, sharing the story of what happened to her and the hateful comments she received from internet trolls.
Like everyone else, Amanda is waiting to hear the final results of the internal investigation into the broadcast while she deals with her alleged harassment by BBC executives as well as Italian Gio. She called the Sicilian celebrity’s actions “abusive, cruel, and nasty,” and said that enraged fans had threatened to rape her and her family and even killed them.
Giovanni, meantime, is said to have obtained additional proof that “proved” Amanda was making up her complaints. The Sun reported last week that Amanda apologized for “being a nightmare” to work within a “bombshell” voice note discovered by Giovanni’s legal team.
It is thought that the BBC videotaped the session while the producers were filming the impending show’s rehearsals. The conversation is “the type of everyday discussions that go on between partners and pros that go on in rehearsals, which can be very fraught,” an insider close to Amanda told the publication, rejecting the tape.