Bad Audience Behavior

[Piazzaslight]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:26pm

This topic needs a resurface. It's amazing what bad the audience can do. I don't have very good stories, but i
have a few:

- At Phantom, there was this woman and I think her daughter, and before the show started they were having a Playbill fight, and the mother kept turning her head from side to side, which got annoying.

- This one is my dad's. When he saw The Producer's, there was a guy in a weelchair that needed to get through, and they are all there standing patiently on the sides, and this man with two cups of water comes barging through, with no consideration.

- At Pillowman, a woman unwrapped some gum in front of me before the show. Wasn't distracting, but still.

Okay, enough about my experiences. What are some of yours? I love threads like this.

[JulianHookbucks]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:34pm

I went to a production of Our Town on Thursday, and there were the typical kids who made fun of the show or talked back to the characters... one of the questions that was asked to the audience, which wasn't supposed to get a response... prompted a kid to say "great." And if you have any comon sense, you know not to talk to actors unless it's an acutla question...

And you don't talk during the show...

Once when Romeo stabbed Paris a kid at another school production says "Oh, ****..." like really loud... not cool.

People going "whoo!" when too people kiss...

polite applause and laughter are accepted...

but cell phones have to be turned off,

and sleeping is one of my pet peeves...

once there was a girl who atually put her coat over her head, and fell asleep...

oy...

[Piazzaslight]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:37pm

Hookbucks: You have it worse than I do.

[MUSICALS FAN]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:39pm

bad enough wen audience is rude but wen the cast cant behave in theater a certain george maguire from billy elliot whooped an shouted all through james lomas final show.avin said that i was tempted to cheer his last show to lol

[Kevo711]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:41pm

Just countless people eating hard candies and unwrapping things too! It's just so distracting!

[JulianHookbucks]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 1:55pm

I don't really consider polite applause for a lead by the cast at bows, but when it's louder than the audience... that's wrong...

and when something like I said earlier happens, it doesn't really ruin a production... it's just distracting for a second... but I tend to remember them.

Afew of them weren't mine personally, but stories I've heard from friends who do a lot of performances for schools... which is a mistake that the New York Stage board of Education made in trying to culture it's students... because if you won't even give something a chance, then you shouldn't be given the opportunity to see if it's worth it... which is slightly hypocritical of me... because there are things that I won't give a chance, which maybe I should change because of this thread...

BWW changes another life. hehe.

[thespian geek]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 2:00pm

Last night I went to a production of A Clockwork Orange and during the scene where Alex sees his parents for the first time after being released from jail and they're just blowing him off? Obviously this is a serious scene, right? This group of people near me, who had obviously been drinking WAY too much or just found something ridiculously funny, kept snickering and covering their mouths so they wouldn't laugh too loudly. I wanted to go over there and smack them.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 2:04pm

People with pneumonia who really, really want to see the show. Ack! Splutter! Hack! Kuhaah, akahakah-hlaah. Gurgle.

and

At Piazza one time there was this old guy wearing one of those sound amplifying machines the theatre gives out sitting beside his wife in front of me and the overture starts and he yells "It's too loud! The orchestra's too loud!" About forty people gave him dirty looks but he didn't get the message.

"Statues and Stories" started up and he yelled it again whereupon the same forty people shooshed him and he got my hand on his shoulder with my "shoosh" right in his ear and then he said "Okay" and was a good old quiet boy for the rest of the show.

[neocomposer]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 2:08pm

Well, this wasn't the WORST thing ever. But I kind of wanted to go bop the kid on the head.

At spelling bee a couple of weeks ago, I was doing standing room and this boy a few rows below me kept yelling-not toooo loud, but loud enough "throw me the m&m's!" during "My unfortunate Erection". His parents quieted him after like, the 3rd time, because they were sitting on the other end of like 5 kids. But it was like he thought we were at a Pep rally or something.

Updated On: 10/22/05 at 02:08 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 2:10pm

Late comers - who I always pass a comment to if I have to get up

Cell Phones Going off-especially after a million announcements
are made to turn them off & when they keep talking

People with cell phones who can take pictures with them doing it repeatedly

People who talk constantly who I also say something to

Updated On: 10/22/05 at 02:10 PM

[sciguy]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 3:49pm

I always love these threads.
My worst was at a recent performance of Fiddler. Ten minutes before the show started the guy next to me spread a dish towel across his lap and began eating a tuna fish sandwich. I was in disbelief, but couldn't work up the nerve to say something. It was really smelly.
What can you say?

[jimmirae]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 3:51pm

There is always a little old blue haired lady in the shows I see. She says "UGH!" if a character lights a cigarette, She makes a ticking noise if the say "Dirty Words", She shrieks if anyone takes their clothes off, She moans at all blue humor, She opens candy that is wrapped extra tight in a real loud cracky plastic wrap and she has to leave just as soon as the act curtain comes down before the bows - Oh yes, she has to go back in on some shows as she jumped the gun and it wasn't over. I blocked her once and told her I would let her by after the curtain fell, she was mad as hell and I kept encouraging her "Applaud Honey, Applaud!"

[Anakela]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:02pm

I think I've mentiond this one here before- my worst was at Wicked: 1) one parent w/2 kids sharing only two seats total, their third seat was rows back, mom won the lotto for two tix and then bought a random third tix off someone on the street so that they could all three enter the theatre, but planned to have them all three just sit in their 2 seats, and then 2) she and the children kept talking about *nonsense* all during Act 1 (I don't mean talking like a kid asking a question about the show talking, I mean talking as in I heard all about the pool at the hotel, where they sat when they saw Chitty, etc.).

She ignored the looks and shushes of me and others around her, so during intermission I got an usher on her for breaking the one butt per seat rule, and then they were quiet through all of Act 2.

[greenegirl87]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:07pm

this summer i saw AmericanBallet Theatre do Le Corsaire,and there was this rather old crochety man in front of me, and this asian couple behind me. The asian couple was on the phone, and talking in another language..quietly but loud enough for the old man to hear....so he turns around and yells a me, a white girl, about 50 times the entire show...making tons of noise himself. granted...it is possible that i would know an eastern language...but i was with an entire group of americans. I dont think he saw any of the ballet.Then during INTERMISSION..i shifted my bag around so i didnt kick it and make it crinkle during the show..and he yet again turned and scowled at me... i quietly informed him i could wait until the ballet started up again to make noise if he wanted. i understand people saying something to you if you are bothering them...but this man was to the poin that there was no way he enjoyed ANY of the show...and it wasnt even me that was irritating him!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:32pm

Saw some woman barefoot at Rent. There's no excuse for that ever, it's just so white trash. I'm surprised someone with no class like that could afford the $90 theater ticket, let alone think it's an appropriate environment for them.

Now, hard candies, sometimes are necessary. I HAVE to see a show tonight for a class and I have a really bad cough. I never see shows when I'm sick, because I think it's just rude for everyone involved, but this is a necessity (I have to give a detailed review of the production that's worth 20% of my grade). I put off seeing it through the worst of my cold, but tonight is the last performance and I'm still slightly sick. I'm bringing peppermint Lifesavers in my purse to suck on should my cough start to bother me. I actually put thought into my choice, the peppermint Lifesavers are quieter knocking against your teeth than cough drops and the wrappers aren't very loud either.

Am I wrong in thinking that other audience members would rather me quickly unwrap the candy (to suck on, not crunch) than spewing my germs everywhere and disrupting the whole performance with my coughing?

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:39pm

"- At Pillowman, a woman unwrapped some gum in front of me before the show. Wasn't distracting, but still. "


What? Isn't that when you want them opening things? When did chewing gum become bad behavior? lol

[aces25]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:40pm

Cell phones should be turned off except for physicians or doctors!

[Piazzaslight]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:42pm

Carl: I know that, but I'm just such an audience behavior fanatic I just had to post that. And isn't food and drink not allowed in the Theatre? Interesting...

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 4:51pm

aces, that's why they say in playbills that you can leave your cell phone/pager at the coat check. Ushers can come get the doctor or whatever in the audience in case there's an emergency.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 5:58pm

I know it's not a broadway show, but about 3-4 years ago, I was conducting during a school concert at the one elementary school I teach at. We were doing a "Lion King" medley, and the other music teacher had planned that as the kids sang "The Circle of Life" at the end, they would walk off the stage. Well, imagine my surprise as I turned around to thank the audience for coming and saw no one sitting in the seats. Obviously they thought that if the kids were going, they could too!

This inspired my master's thesis on parent audience etiquette at school concerts (since it's awful at my other school too!).

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 6:01pm

MF- uncalled for

when i went to see Brooklyn there was a SRO people fight during the entire show. it was horrible.

[MUSICALS FAN]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 6:13pm

caroline-where u there that night.no well i was

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 6:17pm

Caroline do you mean a fist fight?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 6:19pm

verbally. all the SRO people were fighting over a seat and yelling and such.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 10/22/05 at 6:57pm

1) At Beauty and the Beast, the lady behind me kept going into a plastic bag to get something.

2) A guy on the Hairspray tour who sat a few rows back, he began to clap to a beat at something while the whole audience was quiet, and all I did was simply look back to see who it was and turned my head back around, and I heard the guy go, "Excuse me..." like he was pis*ed off at me.

I don't think I've ever been to a show where there wasn't a latecomer.