NAMES IN THE NEWS : Tomlin Cuts Performance Short

The audience was kind when actress Lily Tomlin cut short her one-woman show.

After just 30 minutes Tuesday night, Tomlin gave a lengthy apology to a near-capacity crowd. “I just cannot serve the play,” she said, explaining she had an extremely dry mouth because of an anti-flu medication.

She asked the audience what she should do and was greeted with shouts of “Don’t push yourself!” and “We love you anyway!”

Audience members were offered a refund or tickets to another performance of Tomlin’s “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.”

Tomlin told the crowd that she felt particularly bad “because you all got dressed up and flossed your teeth and everything.”