Adam Lambert isn’t here for inappropriate audience laughter during his Broadway run in Cabaret.

Earlier this month, Lambert made headlines for stopping mid-show to reprimand an audience member who was doing just that. During an appearance on The View on Monday, Lambert opened up about the viral experience and why it was important to break character.

“One of the big themes in the show is antisemitism,” he told The View hosts. “There’s a scene in the musical where I sing a song to a gorilla, and it’s called ‘If You Could See Her.'” The long-running musical is set in pre-World War II Germany, as the Nazis are rising in power.

According to Lambert, the point of this particular number is to comment on what happened prior to the song, wherein an older couple — one of which is Jewish and the other is not — are talking about the challenges they face being a couple in that society.

“It’s satire, it’s supposed to be like, ‘Yeah, we’re back in the nightclub, and we’re doing a cute little number,’ but it’s actually about a really dark, sad thing about how society sees people,” Lambert explained. “And they make it into the gorilla being the Jewish person. So the end of the song I say, ‘If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.'”

It’s at this point in the song where some audience members have laughed, and one night Lambert couldn’t stay silent anymore.

“Sometimes people in the audience, there were a few people here and there, they’ve had a few too many to drink during the intermission, and they’re not listening,” he said. “They’re not getting the message of the show, because the beginning is so permissive and fun and free.”

“And sometimes it gets a laugh as if it were a joke,” he continued, “and there have been a few shows — one in particular, where this person commented, and I stopped, and I just looked at the audience, and said, ‘No, no, no, no, This isn’t comedy. Pay attention.'”

Lambert also talked about how the musical — which first opened on Broadway on November 20, 1966 — is more relevant than ever today.

“The first act of the show is really fun and naughty and kind of like dirty humor and it’s a good time,” he said. “When we get to Act II, we talk about the reality of the Nazis coming into power and what that means for people that are alternative and other in a society that once embraced them and very quickly are vilifying them.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

“So it’s not that dissimilar to what we see going on in the world right now,” he said. “The show is very relevant. It has been since the late ’60s when it first came out, but right now, in particular, it’s eerie to be up there and to be talking about things that are happening again in our country.”

Lambert first took over as Cabaret‘s emcee in September 20204, and will play that character through March 29.