Broadway needs to fight back- Page 2

[IlanaKeller]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 11:58am

Unfortunately, I think that would just lead to people taking pics/video of that.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:02pm

"Unfortunately, I think that would just lead to people taking pics/video of that."

 

Good point, never mind - lol.

 

Updated On: 12/30/15 at 12:02 PM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:02pm

"It would make no difference at all."

Very sad !!

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:04pm

"That'd take away a bit from the magic of theater."

Good point, first glimps of performer in costume should be start of the show.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:07pm

it's 2015, it's simply ridiculous to ask people in New York City to not bring their phones into the theater. Where do you propose they leave them? in the street? on the subway / taxi / uber? because you better believe I (not living there, but going as a tourist) would not leave my phone at the hotel. I obviously fully support turning off phones at the start of the show simply because they detract from the experience, but we live in an age where not having your phone on your person is never going to happen.

[HamfourHam]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:21pm

The people raging about the guy filming fiddler would be the first ones to watch his video if he put it on youtube. Lol.

[mc1227]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 12:23pm

yankeefan7 said: "Question for everyone. Do you think it would make a difference if before the show the "stars" of the show stepped on the stage and made the cell phone/filming/photo taking announcements to the audience?

 

I understand that Annaleigh Ashford and Matthew Broderick had to stop their performances a few weeks back due to a disruption of a woman on a phone call!  It was reported that the audience cheered them when they had to start the scene over, so maybe that would remind people that the actors are very affected by noise in the audience.  It's probably worth a try.  

 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 1:20pm

Here's the incident you speak of: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/exclusive-annaleigh-ashford-speaks-out-after-cell-phone-user-halts-sylvia-mid-show-375024

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 1:44pm

"because you better believe I (not living there, but going as a tourist) would not leave my phone at the hotel."

 

I don't know about you but every hotel I have stayed at in NYC has a safe.

Updated On: 12/30/15 at 01:44 PM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 1:47pm

"I understand that Annaleigh Ashford and Matthew Broderick had to stop their performances a few weeks back due to a disruption of a woman on a phone call!  It was reported that the audience cheered them when they had to start the scene over, so maybe that would remind people that the actors are very affected by noise in the audience.  It's probably worth a try.  "

 

That is great, glad they did it. I wonder if these people get embarassed when they get called out or they still don't care.

Updated On: 12/30/15 at 01:47 PM

[IlanaKeller]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 3:02pm

Asking people to leave cells home is extreme. I don't think it's a good idea for many reasons. I would support checking them over that, but I'm still not quite on board with that.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 3:12pm

"Asking people to leave cells home is extreme. I don't think it's a good idea for many reasons. I would support checking them over that, but I'm still not quite on board with that."

 

The weekend before Christmas my family and I went to NYC and saw several Broadway shows, Christmas concert at Birdland and Radio City Christmas show.  We did not see the need for everyone to bring their phone so out of the four of us, there was only one phone. I used this as an example that if phones were checked and people did the same as us there amount of phones would be less. 

I truly understand the reservation about checking phones and I only brought it up as a drastic action to try and stop the nonsense in theaters today. I don't think it would ever happen because it is an annoyance and not a "crisis" for theater owners.

 

Updated On: 12/30/15 at 03:12 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 3:30pm

People are not going to leave their phones home. Let's just assume this is a non-negotiable, because I don't think that part of the problem is worth fighting. The issue here is drumming into people what is and isn't acceptable use of said phones in certain venues.

Updated On: 12/30/15 at 03:30 PM

[exedore]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 4:05pm

Here in Germany we have a rather sensible practice at most shows:

Photos of the set before the show? Fine. Photo/video of the curtain call/encore? Fine. People get their souvenirs, and the shows get free advertising from it all going up on social. Win/Win for everybody.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 4:15pm

Dave Chapelle has some ideas:

http://perezhilton.com/2015-12-06-dave-chappelle-yondr-cell-phones-shows-video-tape-locked-no-filming#.VoRI2VJd2po

[IlanaKeller]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 4:21pm

exedore said: "Here in Germany we have a rather sensible practice at most shows:

Photos of the set before the show? Fine. Photo/video of the curtain call/encore? Fine. People get their souvenirs, and the shows get free advertising from it all going up on social. Win/Win for everybody."

 

Do you think that cuts down on cell usage during the show itself?

 

[Jose]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 4:43pm

A good article Ilana.  In another thread on this topic I suggested that performers themselves are in the best position to stop this insidious practice (recording).  The same for audience members using their cell phones while a performance is in progress.  Producers and theatre management have an obligation to enforce the law.  Performers who stop the show when they see an audience member(s) recording the show or using their phones for conversation are within their rights to bring the curtain down until that(those) members of the audience is(are) escorted out.  Let that happen several times and these incidents of dis-courteousness and theivery would become less and less frequent. 

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 5:02pm

"The issue here is drumming into people what is and isn't acceptable use of said phones in certain venues."

 

It is drummed into their head but certain people IMO just don't care and unless punished will not stop. Every Broadway show, concert, ballet performance etc mentions no pictures/filming and silence your cell phone. I remember at my daughters graduations from HS and college that the audience was told to turn off phones because nothing should be more important than this ceremony. Really, what planet are these people living on if they don't understand the rules.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 5:04pm

"Performers who stop the show when they see an audience member(s) recording the show or using their phones for conversation are within their rights to bring the curtain down until that(those) members of the audience is(are) escorted out.  Let that happen several times and these incidents of dis-courteousness and theivery would become less and less frequent. "

Love to see it happen !!

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 5:07pm

yankeefan7 said: ""The issue here is drumming into people what is and isn't acceptable use of said phones in certain venues."

 

 

 

It is drummed into their head but certain people IMO just don't care and unless punished will not stop. Every Broadway show, concert, ballet performance etc mentions no pictures/filming and silence your cell phone. I remember at my daughters graduations from HS and college that the audience was told to turn off phones because nothing should be more important than this ceremony. Really, what planet are these people living on if they don't understand the rules.

 

"

But punishing everyone by making them check their phones is unrealistic. Who wants to wait on a line for 30 mins after the show? Especially on a weeknight.

If people are acting up that badly in the crowd the ushers should throw them out and that's that. 

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 5:13pm

"But punishing everyone by making them check their phones is unrealistic. Who wants to wait on a line for 30 mins after the show? Especially on a weeknight.

 

I agree it is unrealistic but I can't think of a better way to totally resolve the problem. I have said it will never happen, can't see theater managers wanting to go thru the cost or aggravation of having people employed to check phones.Performers stopping the show will work once in awhile but what happens if you have several people doing it during the show, can't imagine stopping the show every time.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 5:21pm

I know you can't think of a better way, but there is one. It is about social change and reiterating what's acceptable and what isn't.

[whatever2]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 8:40pm

i think the problem here is multi-faceted, and different abuses require different approaches.

in my experience, the vast majority of times i've been annoyed by someone else's mobile it's because it's gone off accidentally during a performance. the owner simply forgets to turn it off, or erroneously assumes upon hearing the announcement that s/he's already attended to the matter. the solution here is dippy but straight-forward: someone from front-of-house needs to come onstage before every performance and require every audience member to look at his/her phone and raise it in the air to "demonstrate" it's been turned off. the show doesn't start til everyone's phone is raised. i think it's naive to assume that a mere announcement can solve the accidental deployment problem -- humans are, well, human ... we forget what we're supposed to do, we misremember what we think we've done, we don't go to the theater with sufficient frequency to have the protocol ingrained. only a positive extra step is going to eliminate this source of the problem.

now, before the claws are extended, let me hasten to note this of course does not address the rarer but more insidious problem of intentional mobile usage during a performance -- texting, talking, taking pictures. in this case, the only solution is a clear warning after the hand-raising and IMMEDIATE ejection when there's a violation. a ticket is a LICENSE, and the theatre issuing it actually has a great deal of latitude in setting the terms of that license.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 8:48pm

Seriously? We are going to have anywhere from 500 to over 1k each raise their phone in the air to demonstrate that it's off? That could take 20 to 30 mins to check every single persons phone. 

This isn't that much of an epidemic that the majority needed to be treated like children because of a handful of morons. 

[IlanaKeller]

Posted: 12/30/15 at 10:32pm

Yeah, that seems a bit much.

You're always going to have a balance of dealing with the people who break rules, versus making people who do what they are supposed to go through unnecessary treatment.