the EPITOME of tasteless audiences.....

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:29pm

All Shook Up... balcony....

group of tourists.. from, oddly enough, Texas. Their group was scattered across the balcony and they kept yelling across to one another. One man in a cheap suit took off his shoes and propped his feet up on a seat in front of him... a little girl was using another seat as a foot rest. constant candy unwrapping..PICTURING TAKING.. WITH FLASH... debating for 20 minutes on whetehr it was the same theatre Phantom of the Opera played in... loud commenting every time another person donned blue suede shoes... idiotic rude comments about the gay aspect of the plot.... (damn ushers never did a thing up there)

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:31pm

How did you not throw something at them?

[jjdude2000]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:32pm

Oh wow.

[zippyjen]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:33pm

that is rude. i'm sorry you had to witness that.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:35pm

Dear Lord.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE, Marc 29

The two people sitting next to me had mentioned that it was their first Broadway show. You could tell. They laughed ferociously at some of the more dramatic parts of the show. You would've thought they were at SPAMALOT or DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, not THE GLASS MENAGERIE. There was talking, too. I finally had to shush them. Such rudeness!

[scooter38432]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:37pm

You seemed surprised that the tasteless, rude people were from Texas.

I could have predicted that.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:39pm

Israelis in back of me constantly explaining Gem of the Ocean to each other. Of course, they had to be speaking Hebrew. If it was Mandarin or something I might have been able to tune it out as incomprehensible background noise.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:40pm

People who don't know how to act in a theatre should be forcibly removed. talking, feet rests of seats candy wrappers, FLASH photography just reading it makes me want to slap someone. I'd like to see the house lights come up the show stop and someone say "You will leave now and get no money back." then restart the show without this horror. I might have actually hit one them. (and I'm a mighty tiny pacifist)

[Madame X]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:42pm

So sorry to hear about that. I've had similar, but not that bad and not all at once.

At WAoVW, in the front row nonetheless (center!) this guy took off his shoes and had his feet outstretched for practically the whole show. I mean, what do you say? "Excuse me, but can you please put your shoes on? You're exceedingly tacky." He was w/ a woman FWIW who had a box of Godivas she was eating during the show (she was quiet though).

That was bad, but this mortified me. During Doubt, again front row center (across the aisle from me), this guy had his feet outstreched ON THE FREAKIN STAGE FOR THE WHOLE SHOW. His feet were pushed up against the ledge of the stage, if that makes sense. I was DYING. I seriously wanted an intermission so I could do something about it.

Then there were the loud drunk girls behind me in Chicago who sang along. Yep that was fun. The whole audience shushed them but house manager did nothing. They were LOUD (and rude); someone (usher, someone) would have noticed but they were not removed.

There are more stories, but those are doozies.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:42pm

Oh, but the best one was the guy who's assisted hearing device started emitting static at the emotional climax of 'night, Mother. 90-year-old guy or not, if I'd been able to see him, he would have gotten a tap and what passes for my Glare of Death.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:47pm

That is ridiculous.

My experience wasn't that bad, but during HAIRSPRAY, there was a class of middle-schoolers in front of me. Most of them were fine, but a few of the boys were rude and had the nerve to ask if the show was over during intermission. Many exclaimed proudly, "I was sleeping!" How can you sleep during HAIRSPRAY?!?! Like it's not ridiculously loud or anything!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:49pm

I counted 30 sleepers at A PICASSO last week.

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:55pm

Last year when I was sitting in the balcony waiting for a show to start, a group of teens/20's? girls sitting a few rows in back of me started to cheer and yell "yay" out loud - apparently one of them was listening to a football game and her team won (luckily she had earplugs in, but really). I thought I was in a theater and not at a stadium. At least they didn't do "the wave". :)

[Plum]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:55pm

Seems like an awfully expensive nap to me.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 4:56pm

oh trust me, i said something at intermission and I glared at many of them throughout the show...


i was not surprised to hear the woman mention TX....

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:02pm

My worst was at a movie but I'll still count it,
right at the end of AMERICAN BEAUTY *I guess I wont spoil what happens in the 5 year old movie, but its intense*
The woman behind me has a screaming fit, shrieking about "why do all the good ones have to die" and does this throughout the next 15 minutes of movie, no one stopped her it was ridiculous.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:06pm

At "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", the guy sitting three seats down from me (front row of the mezz) started taking pictures---RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A SCENE. I couldn't believe it.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:07pm

*Jawdrop*

Wow.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:07pm

I was at a ballet about two weeks ago and there was a group of middle schoolers about three rows in front of us. Because we were in the mezzanine the rows were raked pretty steeply, so I could look down on them (in both senses) pretty easily. Two girls, about 6 seats apart, texted each other throughout the entire program. One would put her phone down and I'd see the other's light up and vibrate. A moment later their roles would alternate. And this wasn't at some play where they could hear dialogue and keep up with the plot either. I mean, what's the point of even being at a ballet with your eyes on your cell phone?

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:10pm

Hey I was in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and played the bad guy who killed Mr. Beaver. I got things thrown at me during the show twice. Middle School audiences arghhh

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:12pm

God, people can be SO rude!

[justme2]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:16pm

I was at the Orpheum in SF with some friends seeing Mamma Mia a couple of years back.

This woman sitting next to my friend took off her sandals and began to PICK AT HER FEET. She had the foot up in her face so she could see (it's dark in a theater, you idiot!!) and proceeded to check between the toes, pick at the cuticles, etc. We would have barfed if we had not been laughing so hard. We attempted to ignore her and hoped it was over when she finally replaced the sandal on her foot.

Oh no......she then took the other sandal off and that was when my friend finally snapped and said something like, "Umm, could you please not do that here". She didn't even answer us, just glared back and continued!!! It is time to take yourself home if that is what you really want to be doing at that moment in time!! And let's not even start about having some level of personal diginity about you!

We should have told the usher, but the overture began and she mercifully stopped. Ugggghhhh..the worst behavior I'd seen by far!!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:17pm

broadwayguy, that's worse than tasteless, that's just disgusting. I don't care if it's good for Broadway and the tourism helps the economy- people like that have no business being in a theater if they treat it like their family room.

And I don't know who's idea it was to put a bar in the back of the Warner Theater in DC, but I had to sit through Grease next to these 4 drunk women, who were singing along, and- after a few more drinks at intermission- got up and danced in the aisles. Ugh. What do you do about people like that? If the ushers had tried to take them out, it would have created any even bigger scene than they were already making.

I have to admit, I fell asleep during The Glass Menagerie once. The theater was very warm and cozy, and I was getting sick, and my friend's shoulder was so comfortable...but I wasn't BRAGGING about it, I was embarassed that it happened! Sometimes, there can be extenuating circumstances, and you don't have the option to leave. However, the majority of the time, the people are just rude and inconsiderate.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:23pm

During the national tour of JCS I sat next to a woman who insisted on singing along to the entire show, (she was accompanied by a scary-looking man, so I said nothing...)
Then at the end of Act 1 they got up and DANCED IN THE AISLE during Damned for all Time!!!
I left at the interval.

[Jwaa]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:24pm

hmmff the Americans behind me in the London's We Will Rock You.....

i over heard ask each other 'so is Freddy Mercury in this?'

AND
when Bohemian Rhapsody came on...
'oo i didnt know Queen did this!?'

i was fuming...sorry guys lol
Xx