Best audience reactions to Phantom?

[ryanpoto]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 12:50pm

I'm seeing The Phantom of the Opera in NYC for the first time (I've caught the restaged tour a few times, but I've heard it pales in comparison) this July, and out of curiosity, what are the best audience reactions you've seen or heard of? When I saw the tour up close, I heard someone yell, "OH F---" when the chandelier fell, which was pretty funny lol

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 1:34pm

Expect a lot of chattering and shiny screens. It houses some of the worst audiences on Broadway every time I go. 

[lilac3]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 2:32pm

^Agreed

I saw the show in February and the audience was very fidgety, quite a few people playing on their phones and loud-whispering during the performance etc

[BalconyClub]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 3:47pm

Hearing the rousing applause for Michael Crawford one week before the show won its Best Musical Tony.

[robskynyc]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 3:49pm

Dancingthrulife2 said: "Expect a lot of chattering and shiny screens. It houses someof the worst audiences on Broadway every time I go."

agreed. hands down the worst audience on broadway. i would say maybe cause its so "touristy" but then again so is wicked and the audience there is amazing.

[singerunlimited]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 4:36pm

I've seen PHANTOM on Broadway many times recently, and I have to say that the audiences weren't nearly as bad as the audiences at SPONGEBOB and FROZEN. Those audiences were the worst I've experienced in my 20-plus years of theatergoing.

[Impossible2]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 4:59pm

The problem with these older shows that everyone feels they 'have' to see is that they just aren't very good and are extremely dated, therefore they bore modern audiences to tears.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 5:03pm

Impossible2 said: "The problem with these older shows that everyone feels they 'have' to see is that they just aren't very good and are extremely dated, therefore they bore modern audiences to tears."

Very that.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 8:04pm

I feel that the only other show on Broadway that has been around for an extremely long time, one that tourists feel is the show to see on Broadway is Chicago. Now, I've never worked a shift ushering at Phantom. But, I have at Chicago. And, I gotta tell you, seating for that show requires more patients than any other show I worked at. Mainly, that show gets a huge number of audience members ever show that don't speak English.   That makes seating  tad irksome at times.  So, I do feel for the ushers who are working at The Majestic. I'd be far from shocked to find that they have similar issues there. 

[TheatreRocks]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 9:48pm

robskynyc said:

 but then again so is wicked and the audience there is amazing."

What are you smoking and do you have any left

[asoftplacetoland]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 10:36pm

During Music of the Night, the guy next to me was singing along super loudly during the whole song. Never wanted to sock someone in the throat more than I have that day.

[Ben_Platt_Out]

Posted: 6/3/18 at 10:53pm

The Mean Girls audience hurt my enjoyment of the show. Teenage girls on their phones and middle aged women drunk before act 2

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 12:15am

Both times I saw Phantom on Broadway, and the time I saw the original production's national tour, the audiences were always very well-behaved. So, to give you a non-needlessly snarky answer, people tend to really love it when the chandelier falls at the end of act 1. Depending on how well it's sung, folks also love to give a healthy round of applause for Music of the Night. Phantom is one of my all-time favorites, so I hope you enjoy the show, too!

[Justin D]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 9:20am

Also after all this time there is still a 'gasp' close to the end of act one just before the "all i ask of you reprise'

jumps of course from the gunshot and flames, and sometimes the masquerade reveal still gets a clap.

[labellaragazza1]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 9:50am

I do very much enjoy the reactions at the AIAOY reprise. I tend to hear gasps or a kind of murmur int he audience, but the last time I was there, a young girl let out an audible "Oh my god!" in shock. The chandelier also gets a lot of love. 

Almost every time I've gone, the Masquerade staircase got gasps and applause. 

I took a friend recently who had never seen the show and at Wandering Child she muttered under her breath "of COURSE he shows up!" 

There's an occasional reaction to the Mirror scene, but I found the mirror appearance is more defined in London and had more of a reaction there. Even from a good seat, it's hard to see on Broadway. 

I've been quite a few times recently and haven't noticed the audiences being worse or better than other houses. It's nice to sit and hear the reactions to things like the reprise or gunshots because I've seen the show enough to know what's coming. It reminds me that there are still tons of people experiencing the magic of the show for the very first time.