went out there an understudy. She came back a tough cookie.

And a showbiz disaster became a "beautiful theatrical moment, and the actors onstage and the 2,700 people in the audience shared something." That's how Clark recalled it all Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, in the midst of the quietest moment in the hugely popular Broadway tour of "Wicked" at the State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, a drunken, obscenity-filled brawl broke out in the audience, tour manager Steve Quinn said.

Clark, a standby filling in as Elphaba, the green witch, had to make a quick decision as police and others scuffled with -- and eventually handcuffed and forcibly removed -- a screaming woman in the audience, Quinn said.

Clark could have followed Hugh Jackman and Patti LuPone, who recently stopped shows when cell phones rang in the audience. Instead, Clark sang the sad, beautiful "I'm Not That Girl" despite the increasing volume and invective, until the perpetrator was dragged out kicking.

"I thought, 'If the show stops, then she wins. If I go on, she loses.' "

As Clark sang the last notes in the newly minted silence, the audience rose to give her an ovation that "felt like a whole minute, and I guess I kind of took a bow. It was very magical."

As for the other woman in the tale, Cleveland police identified her as Kathleen Holmes, 49, of Rock Creek. She was charged with two misdemeanors, and would have been released if she hadn't attacked the booking officer, police said. She was charged with felonious assault and was in jail Wednesday night.

Holmes will get her chance to sing this morning, when she's due to be in the audience of a judge.

BONUS VIDEO: Hugh Jackman stops a show because of a cell phone ringing: