Have you ever left a show at intermission?

[AudreyTwoTwo]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:09am

I haven't, but I feel weird leaving only because I feel it's rude for me to do (I know it probably isn't, but I'm just saying for me it does). What shows were they if any?

I did see a couple leave Avenue Q, though. They kept saying how vulgar it was.

[Here I Am]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:12am

I've never done it. I always give Act Two a chance. Although I contemplated it during High Fidelity.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:14am

This old couple left the Avenue Q tour during the puppet sex scene. All while about 8 of my teachers from school(Including my 60 year old English teacher (she loved it), & a prude English teacher (who didn't)) watched it all.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:19am

Only did it once - and I hadn't paid to see the show. Since I used to take groups to Broadway as a teacher (we're no longer allowed such things as arts education) I got to go see some shows for free, paid for through the company I bought the tickets. I went to see Pirate Queen and my (now) wife and I couldn't bare to stand it any more after the first act. Not so oddly, we noticed several people sitting in the seats around us also not going back into the theater when we left....

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:21am

I should have left during intermission when I saw Pirates of Penzances at City Center. Besides that, no.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:33am

I left at intermission of a regional production of Pride and Prejudice. They were comp tickets and the show was awful, so.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:47am

I've only left once when I found out at intermission that a family member had died. Otherwise, never.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:50am

No.

TheatreFan, interestingly enough, I had a similar predicament during Avenue Q. It was National Tour, I had seen it the day before through my college giving out cheap tickets so I knew what to expect in a **ahem** visual sense. My sister and I sat together toward the middle while my dad took up the aisle for leg space. Turns out we were sitting next to my former Spanish teacher and her current Spanish teacher along with other teachers that my sister knew. So when the Kate-Princeton sex scene happened my sister turned into a really self-conscious prude, shielding her eyes because she did not want to think her teachers would want to see her laughing at such things, despite her teachers laughing their asses off the entire show. She was pretty miserable the entire show because of it.

I know people who left Grease because of the terrible sound quality and the fact it was a terrible National Tour production that rivaled high schools. I was tempted on that one, as well as my mother who still tells stories about how bad it was, but there was a blizzard outside and we were surrounded by an older crowd who wanted to see Frankie Avalon as Johnny Angel. BTW, he delayed our exit from the show by at least 20 minutes serenading the crowd. There was such a great dichotomy of people who were eating this up versus those of us who wanted to shoot themselves during that.




Updated On: 7/3/10 at 12:50 AM

[BlackCabbiTabbi]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:08am

I personally never leave at intermission, but on a similar note... the usher at Next to Normal was telling someone around me that someone usually always leaves the theatre near the end of Act I.

[Here I Am]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:13am

I find that very odd BlackCabbiTabbi. Maybe the material is too hard to sit through for some people and maybe rock musicals aren't for everyone, but you know what you are getting yourself into before you go and wouldn't ANYONE want to know what happens next?
Updated On: 7/3/10 at 01:13 AM

[BroadwayBound17]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:20am

Left halfway into Act 2 during CHICAGO.

[Q]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 2:11am

"Have you ever left a show at intermission?"

Too many times to count - even Broadway shows.

If I'm not enjoying myself, you can't pay me enough to stay.

[heo1128]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 2:37am

When I was at Everyday Rapture, a couple left about half an hour into the show. To add insult to injury, they were sitting in the middle of one of the first few rows.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 3:48am

i have never left a show at intermission... but i have fallen asleep during a play once!!! i was a season subscriber to San Diego State University's theatre season when i was a student and i wasn't in the mood to see one of their shows... it was a matinee and i went anyways... the play was so damn boring (it was about time travel) and that coupled with me not really in the mood i just ended up falling asleep during act 2!!!

[B3TA07]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 4:56am

Yes. The play "Kindertransport."

[wickedfan11]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 6:01am

I saw an elderly couple leave Rent during Out Tonight.

I've never left a professional show, but I have left several school and community theatre shows because lack of projection and microphones.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 6:05am

In 60 years of theatergoing I have never left at intermission, not that I wasn't occasionally tempted to. I always hope that things will get better in Act two. The two shows that tempted me to leave halfway through were STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF in the 1960's and NICK & NORA in the early 1990's. I loathed both shows.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 8:25am

Copenhagen - beyond boring
Stones In My Pocket - left 1/2 hour into it

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:08am

Yes. It's always been during a comedy/farce. If I've spent the whole first act surrounded by people laughing at something that just isn't funny to me, I don't think the second act is going to be any more enjoyable. The playwright's humor just isn't mine. I wouldn't leave in the middle of an act, but just not returning from intermission doesn't disrupt anything for anyone.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:16am

I gave up on the Coast of Utopia marathon halfway through the second play. Just wasn't my cup of tea and - frankly - it felt like watching paint dry.

Left The Homecoming revival at intermission. Yea, yea, I know, how could I? Especially a big Raul and Eve fan like myself? The play itself weirded me out, I was uncomfortable (not in that delightful "theater changes you" way) and wanted out.

I left The Perfect Crime. Obviously.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:19am

I should add--

I left The 39 Steps when it was the American Airlines. I couldn't hear a damn thing, missed half the jokes, ugh. Anyway, a friend in town was dying to see it, so we went at the Helen Hayes, front row seats. I loved every second of it.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:21am

Wow. It's sad people would leave or feel embarrassed at Ave. Q! The show was such a pleasant surprise. I loved it.

Some people. Such prudes!

But, no, I've never left a show at intermission. Although I regret staying at By Jeeves.

Updated On: 7/3/10 at 09:21 AM

[mamaleh]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:25am

I left a Town Hall showcase of so-called "new talent" a summer or two ago. Just execrable.

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:56am

More than I can name. And there are many more times when I didn't and should have.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 9:56am

I've nearly walked out a few times...the only Broadway show I've been tempted to leave was Memphis. I also wanted to leave A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick at Playwrights Horizons and a production of a Sam Shepard play at my school, but I had to write papers on both for theater classes. At A Cool Dip there were two older women sitting next to me in the front row and at intermission they turned to me and asked me what was going on because they thought they were missing things because of their hearing aids and I told them I had no idea. I think that's honestly the worst professional production I've seen, it was honestly painful to sit through and I wanted nothing more than to leave at intermission but I couldn't. I saw Anyone Can Whistle at Encores that evening though which I adored so that was a welcome change.