Legally Blonde musical fans 'gutted' as matinee is cancelled last-minute after star Amber Davies fell ill mid-show and her understudy was forced to step in amid the pair's 'backstage rivalry'

Legally Blonde The Musical fans have been left 'genuinely devastated' and 'frustrated' after the Thursday's matinee was cancelled just two hours before the show was meant to start.

The hit musical, based on the iconic 2001 film, has been touring the country for the past month, with Amber Davies starring as leading lady Elle Woods.

However, on Wednesday the Strictly star, 29, was forced to pull out of the performance after falling ill mid-show and was replaced for the second half by understudy Hannah Lowther.

Taking to Instagram after the performance to give a health update, she confessed that her appearance in The Great Gatsby, her last-minute call-up to Strictly and her immediate start in Legally Blonde had affected her health. 

Alongside a selfie, Amber penned two lengthy captions explaining that she was fending off illness and taking antibiotics, and would be off-stage indefinitely. 

But it appears the production has struggled to adjust to the Love Island star's last-minute hiatus, as the matinee performance due to take place at Milton Keynes Theatre at 2:30pm was duly cancelled.

The theatre announced the news on their official Instagram page on Thursday at midday, with the statement reading: 'This afternoon’s matinee performance of Legally Blonde has unfortunately been cancelled due to cast illness.

'All ticket holders have been contacted via email regarding alternative options to see the production or receive a refund.

'This evening's performances will go ahead as scheduled. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.'  

While Hannah usually takes the role of Elle for Thursday matinees, it is thought that it has been cancelled in order for her to have enough rest time, now that she is taking on the evening performances.

Italia Conti Academy-trained Hannah, who is a TikTok favourite with 1.3m followers, later confirmed that she would be starring in the evening performance, taking to her Instagram Stories to write: 'I will be playing Elle for this evenings show'. 

Meanwhile, in an unfortunate stroke of luck, the wider Legally Blonde cast has also been hit by a slew of illness and injury.

Rosanna Harris, who plays Serena in the production, took to her Instagram on Thursday to reveal she was suffering from a sore throat, sharing a snap of chesty cough medication and lozenges with the caption: 'Today is sponsored by...'

Ty-Reece Stewart, who stars as Kyle, has also been struck down by a bad cough, and reshared the theatre's cancellation post with the caption: 'Be kind to yourself everyone *cough cough* he says on his deathbed'.

While Daisy Twells, who is the stand-in for Margot when Hannah is taking over as Elle, is reportedly off for the week with an injury.

Though many expressed their sympathies to the cast and well-wishes, the cancellation announcement was also met with a flood of disappointed comments from would-be attendees, with many having travelled in for the show.

They lamented: 'Whilst I hope the cast and crew are well, this was absolutely not enough notice for those of us who have travelled here';

'So gutted :( can’t even rebook to see it in the evening'; 'We’ve not had an offer of a refund only a credit voucher which isn’t ideal to be honest'; 

'gutted as i’d already travelled in, but hoping that everyone gets well soon! there’ll be other chances i can see the show, so all it means is i wait a bit longer till the times right'.

'I hope everyone is okay but genuinely devastated as I had planned this for months.'; 'Gutted, but more importantly also wish everyone well';

'This is devastating. Genuinely.'; 'So gutted... It seems like it's pretty much sold out so no way of going'; 'No singer/actor/dancer wants to let an audience down, just bitter pill when you’re so excited!';

'Such a shame! Was already at the venue after a few hours of travelling and had to go home, absolutely gutted. Unfortunate that the matinee got cancelled when the evening performance is still going ahead. And there’s no way of seeing it now either'.

The production shake-up comes amid reported simmering tensions between Amber and Hannah behind the scenes, with peers believing Hannah to be 'a million times better', according to Daily Mail+'s Olivia Kemp. 

Insiders exclusively revealed to Mail+ that the growing attention surrounding Hannah’s performances has become difficult for the show’s cast to ignore.

Abd the buzz became only more intense on Wednesday night, as Hannah won praise for audience members for smoothly stepping in for Amber at the last-minute, with one fan sharing a clip from the show and writing: ‘Hannah Lowther went from Margot to Elle mid show in act 1 this afternoon! She's a superhero!!!‘ 

The source said: ‘Everyone backstage is professional, but it would be fair to say the atmosphere between the two girls can be a bit tense at times. When an “alternate” starts getting that much praise online, it inevitably becomes a talking point.’

Amber candidly opened up on suffering from burnout in her Instagram post, writing: 'Ok update: After talking to my doctor, being on antibiotics and trying to recover whilst doing shows is getting me and my health NOWHERE...

'Been working on this lingering illness for a month now so I'll be off again from my beautiful Elle Woods... This is the last thing I want but there's no other way...

'I fear if I keep "pushing through". I will be battling with this for longer than I need to be. I can't wait to be back on stage and feel like me again!!! Thank you - Amber x'. 

She continued in another post: 'Also I keep having to remind myself I went from Gatsby, to a last min Strictly then to Elle so my body's evidently fighting for its life...

'I also keep reminding myself that it's ok to be poorly, we are human. Just a reminder there's absolutely never a right time to be poorly in a musical theatre schedule.'