Beauty And The Beast musical star suspended over ‘inappropriate comments’ to female crew member

THE lead in the Beauty And The Beast musical has been suspended over “inappropriate comments” to a female crew member.

Emmanuel Kojo, 30, was banned after a dozen cast members and creatives threatened to quit unless bosses investigated the allegations.

The actor has not appeared in the past five shows at the Liverpool Empire, with understudy Alyn Hawke playing the Beast in the Disney classic until closing night tomorrow.

A source said: “Women think his behaviour is unacceptable.

“It has been claimed he was on the side of the stage and made a comment to a female member of the crew about the way she was looking at him.

“She was very uncomfortable and the comment was overheard.”

Kojo was suspended on Sunday with Disney insisting he will not perform again until the accusations have been fully investigated

It said the complaint was being taken “very seriously”.

Kojo has been nominated for Olivier Awards for performances in Showboat and Oklahoma!.

Beauty And The Beast The Musical, with Courtney Stapleton as Belle, is based on Disney’s 1991 film and has music by Alan Menken and Tim Rice.

The production goes on to Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sunderland, Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin.

The show was hit by controversy earlier this year when director Rob Roth quit after he belittled an actress in an email.