Splash NewsWe guess Shia LaBeouf just had to see what he was missing out on.
A month after quitting the Broadway play Orphans after clashing with director Daniel Sullivan and costar Alec Baldwin over the usual "creative differences," the 26-year-old Hollywood star took in the show's first preview performance on Wednesday at the Schoenfeld Theater—from the front row.
A spokeswoman for the production told The New York Times that LaBeouf turned up solo after buying a ticket and did not formally alert producers that he planned on attending.
At one point midway through the play, Baldwin appeared to notice the thesp from the stage, but did not react. At the curtain call, LaBeouf reportedly was among the first rise to his feet for the standing ovation and applauded fervently.
When Ben Foster—the actor who replaced him—took his bow and pointed to him, Shia was said to have smacked the stage with his palm in approval. He then bolted the theater shortly thereafter and could not be reached for comment.
A revival of Lyle Kessler's 1983 play, Orphans would have marked LaBeouf's debut on the Great White Way. However, his abrupt exit just two weeks into rehearsals ended up creating unwanted drama for the production team after he took to Twitter and leaked email correspondence between him, Sullivan, Baldwin and costar Tom Sturridge that revealed some serious clashes behind the scenes.
The show quickly got back on track with Foster, the 32-year-old star of The Messenger who originally auditioned for the role of one of the two titular orphaned brothers living in a run-down Philadelphia row house, but who initially lost out to LaBeouf. In the end, it was Foster who stepped in to fill the void.
Orphans is set to open on April 7.