Hugh Jackman knows how to stop the show.

He did it recently when a cellphone call interrupted a preview performance of A Steady Rain, the Broadway play that stars Jackman and Daniel Craig.

The moment captured on an amateur video shown by TMZ.com appears to have been recorded by someone in the audience.

Annoyed

It shows Jackman breaking character to tell the owner of the ringing cellphone, "You want to get that?" as the audience erupts in cheers. As the ringing persists, Jackman pleads: "Come on, just turn it off." He then paces the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, waits about a minute for the ringing to stop and the play resumes.

Producers of A Steady Rain declined to comment.

The interruption occurred during an intense moment in the play, when Jackman's character, a Chicago policeman, reveals haunting memories.

Potent box-office winner

A customary loudspeaker announcement reminds theatregoers to turn off their phones. Since the incident, ushers who seat patrons and pass out playbills at Schoenfeld are also instructing patrons to silence their phones.

A Steady Rain, a taut drama about the relationship between two policemen, opened yesterday and has proven to be a potent box-office winner, playing to capacity audiences since it began previews on September 10.

Jackman won a Tony Award in 2004 for his performance as Peter Allen in the musical, The Boy from Oz. Craig, filmdom's latest James Bond, is making his Broadway debut.