Taron Egerton has left the revival of the play Cock in London's West End following recent heath scares.
The Golden Globe-winning actor "has had to withdraw from the production due to personal reasons," read a April 1 message on the play's Instagram page, which was posted 10 days after the Rocketman star temporarily exited his role of M in the Ambassador Theatre production after testing positive for COVID-19 and almost a month after he fainted onstage on opening night.
The message said West End performer and singer Joel Harper-Jackson will take over the Rocketman actor's role in the play until the end of its run" on June 4. The post continued, "Joel understudied the role and has been playing the part of M for the past ten days while Taron was absent from the production having tested positive for Covid."
Play organizers had announced in a since-deleted March 23 Instagram post that Egerton had contracted the virus and was isolating "in accordance with the production's health and safety protocols." At the time, they said they expected him to return to the show the following week.
On March 5, the 32-year-old Golden Globe-winning actor fainted while performing on opening night of Cock, promoting Harper-Jackson to quickly take his place. Egerton later wrote on his Instagram Story, "As some of you may have heard, I passed out during the first performance of COCK last night. I am completely fine. Slightly sore neck and a bruised ego but I'm fine."
He continued, "I've decided to put a positive spin on it and I would appreciate it if anyone who was in the theatre last night just said that I gave such a committed, electrifying performance that my body couldn't handle it and checked out. That being said, apparently you're meant to actually do the full show and not just three quarters of it. So I'll be back with a vengeance tomorrow night."
Egerton later posted a video of himself rocking out to Simple Minds' 1985 song "Alive and Kicking," captioning the clip, "@bbc6music soundtracking my life."
In Cock, a revival of a 2009 play, Egerton plays the boyfriend of John, played by Bridgerton actor Jonathan Bailey. A love triangle later develops when the latter character falls for a woman.
Cock marked Egerton's third major theater gig, following his West End debut in The Last of the Haussmans in 2012.