Actor Jodie Comer stopped Wednesday's matinee of the Broadway play "Prima Facie," in which she stars, when she had difficulty breathing due to the current severe weather conditions and poor air quality in New York City.

"Today's matinee of Prima Facie was halted approximately 10 minutes into the performance after Jodie Comer had difficulty breathing due to the poor air quality in New York City because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires," Jim Byk, a representative for "Prima Facie," told CNN in a statement on Wednesday.

Byk added that Comer's understudy Dani Arlington took her place on stage and that the matinee started again from the top.

CNN has reached out to Comer's representatives for comment.

More than 55 million people across the Northeast, Midwest and mid-Atlantic in the US are under air quality alerts as wildfire smoke originating from Canada shrouds major US cities.

This story is developing.