Rocketman star Taron Egerton reveals why he quit West End’s revival of Cock

Taron Egerton has explained his decision to leave the West End production Cock, which ended its 12-week long limited run last month.

At the time of his departure, Cock producers said that the 32-year-old’s exit was due to “personal reasons” while Egerton’s understudy Joel Harper-Jackson fulfilled the role alongside Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey.

Egerton’s departure occurred a month into the revival of Mike Bartlett’s comedy, after a series of unfortunate events for the Rocketman star. 

In the first preview of the play, Egerton fainted onstage mid-performance and after a brief return to the production, he tested positive for COVID and was forced to pull out and isolate.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Egerton explained that his exit from the play was due to a close family member being diagnosed with cancer.

Photo: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Egerton said: “Toward the end of last year, a close family member was diagnosed with cancer, and I dropped out of a film to come home and be with that person.

“I thought that, with the play, I was ready to go back to work, but I wasn’t. I had to leave, and it was sad, and absolutely one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make.”

Directed by Marianne Elliott, Cock is a play about a man named John (Bailey) who falls in love with a woman (Jade Anouka) while on a break from his boyfriend (Egerton/Harper-Jackson). 

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