Metro

Broadway’s ‘Motown the Musical’ goes on despite suicide on roof

The show must go on!

A man’s body hit the roof of Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre from 50 stories up on Friday night — but “Motown the Musical” kept on keepin’ on, despite the deafening sound made by the apparent suicide.

“That’s Broadway for ya,” one law-enforcement source said, incredulous that the cast and crew ignored the startling thud, leaving the victim’s splayed corpse undiscovered until Saturday morning.

“People paid good money for their tickets, so the show had to go on,” the source observed.

Cast and crew were in the midst of their pre-show scramble — preparing for the 8 p.m. curtain time — when a 37-year-old Brooklyn man jumped from the 53rd-floor roof of the W New York Hotel on West 47th Street, officials said.

Wesley Hunter, of Downtown Brooklyn, landed with a crash atop the 104-year-old theater.

He was not a guest at the hotel. Video shows that he instead had walked in off the street, taking a one-way elevator ride to the roof at about 6:50 a.m., law-enforcement sources said.

He left no note, and the motive for his death was unclear, a source added.

It’s unknown whether any of the ticket-holders heard the man fall as they queued up on West 46th Street outside the theater, eager to enjoy such hits as “Stop in the Name of Love,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

But inside, the sound couldn’t be ignored. At least not for more than a second or two.

The impact shook the crystal chandeliers and sent a shiver through the theatrical muses painted across the 100-foot-high ceiling mural, ear-witnesses told The Post.

“It was a loud boom. We didn’t know what it was,” said ensemble actor Ephraim Sykes.

Workers paused but briefly, and when nothing further happened, they carried on with their checklists and warm-ups.

The body wasn’t found until more than 12 hours later, when a guest in the W’s 10th-floor gym glanced out the windows during her morning workout — and saw the corpse on the theater roof below.

The rattled woman contacted hotel security, who called the police.

The body was finally removed at 11:52 a.m. Saturday — in a black body bag — carried through the theater and out the stage door before the next matinee.