Set breakdown mars the Broadway debut of British star Rebecca Hall

British actress Rebecca Hall was caught up in a real-life drama when the set broke down during the opening night of her first Broadway play.

The star of Iron Man 3 and Parade’s End was making her New York debut in a revival of Machinal by US playwright Sophie Treadwell.

But just 20 minutes into the performance London-based designer Es Devlin’s revolving set stopped working when the motor rotating the turntable broke down The Roundabout Theatre Company production — whose audience at the American Airlines Theater in Times Square included Hollywood stars Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon — had to be halted. Its English director Lyndsey Turner, making her Broadway debut following her West End hit Chimerica last autumn, went on stage and defiantly announced: “We’re going to make this happen.”

The set’s operators were among the audience and they pushed the revolving set back into place. The show re-started an hour later.

Ironically, the play’s theme is the oppressive nature of machinery on the individual. Hall, 31, plays an unnamed young woman executed for murdering her husband in the 1928 play, which has not been performed on Broadway for 86 years.

Afterwards she told the Standard: “It was quite an event, an unfortunate situation — or perhaps a fortunate one because we made a plus out of a minus. It will go down in my personal history book as one of the most memorable opening nights of my life.”

There has been talk of a London transfer and Hall said she is keen to bring the play over, adding: “I’m proud of this production and I’d definitely like to do it in London.”

Hall received mostly rave reviews from US critics, with New York Magazine hailing her “overwhelming performance”. The New York Times had reservations about the production but critic Ben Brantley wrote: “It’s a thrill to have as illuminating a guide as Ms Hall to take us through the twisting corridors of derangement.”

Last night in London Emilia Fox suffered a similar set malfunction in the opening night of Rapture, Blister, Burn at the Hampstead Theatre after the hydraulics responsible for the revolving set ground to a halt.

During the five minute interruption the 39-year-old actress — best known for her role as Dr Nikki Alexander in the BBC series Silent Witness — joked with the audience that she was glad to be wearing more than her underwear when the set jammed. In the previous scene she was in just a black bra and knickers.

She then shared a high-five with co-star Shannon Tarbet as the stage whirred back into motion, prompting a round of applause from the audience.