My worst theater experience

[Jess1483]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 4:19pm

As an audience member, that is. Which actually had very little to do with the show itself.
Okay, so my friend and I got tickets at TKTS for Little Women. We sit down and the single seat to the left of my friend, and the four seats in front of us are taken by a family from Israel. The mother asks me if I've ever read the book and if I would please explain what happens so she can explain it to her daughters--who don't speak English. Now, it's been a few years since I've read the book, but I gave it my best shot. She explains some to her daughters and the show starts. So throughout the entire first act, she and her husband are talking to their daughters in Hebrew, and definitely not even trying to whisper. The littlest daughter would say something, the mom would shush her, and then the mom would proceed to talk louder than her daughter was. The people the row in front of them repeatedly turned around to shush them and the little girl in front of them even turned around and glared. (They were talked to by the ushers at intermissions--I don't know if it worked, we moved for the second act.)
So, that was part of it. Also, there's a girl behind us whose cell phone goes off not once, but twice!! Apparently, she didn't turn it off the first time. The woman next to me is unwrapping candy, and the guy across the aisle is coughing the entire show. Now, I don't hold that against him, but it added to the frustration.
Also, there was a concert going on next door, so there was a nice base beat underneath the entire show.
So yeah, all in all, a great day at the theater. I can't handle bad audiences.
Done complaining now.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 4:30pm

Well, did you like the show? haha

[Jess1483]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 4:31pm

What show?

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 4:37pm

Little Women seems to attractive the worst theater audiences because my worst theater experience was at Little Women! This woman sitting across from my sister and I was eating a cup of ice cream during the first act. She also had a plastic bag with her filled with food, utensils ect. It was the most rude and distracting thing I've seen in my entire life! I was going to call over an usher at intermission but fortunate enough for us, she left!

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 5:10pm

This happened at RENT. My mom wasnt that familiar with the show, so OF COURSE she didnt want to know before the show what all happened. So we sit down, and the guy behind us begins to tell his date, that was old enough to be his daughter, which it wasnt his daughter, EVERYTHING that happens! OF COURSE my mother, who ALWAYS speaks her mind, rather loudly makes a comment to the effect of, "OH! I was DYING to know what all happens in the show, so the suprises will be totally ruined for me!" I'm SURE the guy heard her. I think he and his date left before the show started. Although, they might have left after Act1, or sat somewhere else. So far, I havent relly had any bad experiences. THANK GOD!

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 5:26pm

I still can't understand how people are willing to pay money just to sit there and not pay attention to a show.

Whenever I read these posts I feel so lucky I've never had a bad theatre experience yet. Not drastically bad anyway. At a high school performance, two people were making out in the row in front of me...that was awkward. But they were kicked out shortly after, at intermission. And another production a girl's cell phone went off and she had climb over everyone so she could take the call outside, and then climbed over everyone again ten minutes later when she was done with her call and came back inside the theatre. *rolls eyes* but all in all not half as bad as some people's experiences on here.

Hopefully I stay lucky! I feel for you people...I really do.

[Plum]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 5:55pm

*facepalm* Not all Israelis are that rude, I swear.

[Jess1483]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 5:58pm

Haha, no worries Plum. I didn't think they were. At least it's a good story--right?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 5:58pm

the SRO people in Brooklyn were fighting over a single during the entire show. I mean, going at it. screaming, shouting etc...

[Plum]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:00pm

A lot of Israelis are that rude (we have a tendency to think rules are for others to follow), but my parents would have shut me in my room for life if I ever behaved like that in a theater. :)
Updated On: 5/2/05 at 06:00 PM

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:07pm

Are there ANY parents out there that still disaplin? I know there are A FEW at least. Thats one problam that a lot of ppl run into at theatre. Most parents just let there kid(s) sit there and let them do what ever they want to do. How ever, I know that some times the childeren can not sit still for 2 and a half hours. But the parents should know if the child can do that or not.

Ok I'm done with my ranting that was a little random.

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:08pm

When I went to see Brklyn, this little girl kept moving around in her seat and telling her mom she was hungry.


Also during Wicked, this man continually kept kicking my seat, it irrated me so much I told him to stop it during intermission.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:10pm

Are there ANY parents out there that still disaplin?

Looked like your parents didn't disaplin you to spell discipline correctly.

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:10pm

ClumsyDude15- What did the guy do when you told him to stop?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:12pm

It does seem like audiences are getting worse with time. LITTLE WOMEN was bad - people coughing all over the place, old people talking loudly to their companions, and a man two seats down who was constantly reaching into his peanut m&m bag for single m&m's. My companion, who NEVER gets upset, actually shushed him at one point! I almost fell over.

At FIDDLER about a month later, this man next to me must have had some sinus issues because every 2 minutes or so he'd put his finger on one nostril and sniff loudly. OMG. I wanted to punch him!

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:12pm

ShuQ-Was that suppose to be funny? Cus it wasnt. Btw, I'm SO sorry to break the news to you, but no one is perfect like you! Everyone except you makes mistakes.

Updated On: 5/2/05 at 06:12 PM

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:16pm

ClumsyDude15- What did the guy do when you told him to stop?


He got very angry and saw all my Wicked stuff and called me a Wicked head and told me to shut up. I told him to stop or I would make a fuss and I almost got up to tell an usher and he told me would stop but he gave me this mean face. He didnt kick me again.

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:19pm

HAH!

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:29pm

I also had noise issues when I saw Little Women in December. The girls sitting in front of me were more interested in text messaging on their cell phones, people were coughing, and I heard many a candy wrapper.

[Jess1483]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:29pm

The really bad thing was the parents. I'm much more tolerant of loud children than loud parents (I don't like it, of course, but it rarely makes me angry.) This couple was horrible. After another adult (the guy in front of them) and his daughter both tell you to be quiet, you think you'd get it.

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:31pm

I've never had any terrible experiences as an audience member so I guess I'm lucky. The two bad experiences have been pretty recent. The first was when I saw A Streetcar Named Desire. This man kept blowing his nose during a performance, and this was not a quiet blow, this was like trumpets blowing. I understand that he might have had a cold and sneezing is fine, but this was just rude. The other experience was at my high school. This year they did The Laramie Project (I was not in it) and during one of the shows - which I was ushering for - 8 cell phones went off. I mean 8!!!! I know that its a high school production but still. I think that there should be little electric zappers in everyone's chair that way if its their cell phone that goes off, they get a little zap. They'll learn that way!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:34pm

When I saw Brooklyn on Friday there was someone behind me sniffing very loudly. USually at the more queit moments.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 6:34pm

The other day, they taped Virginia Woolf for the Lincoln Center archives. The man behind me was seated next to the camera and proceeded to complain loudly about it for 10 minutes, even though it was in no way obstructing his view or making noise. A woman brought an open cup of beer back to her seat (ushers not doing their jobs). Then the people in front of me took out sushi during one the intermissions and proceeded to devour it WITH soy sauce (which smelled). Lastly, the woman in front of me neglected to turn her cell phone off, and of course it rang about 2 minutes into the third act. I felt like leaning over and congratulating her on the fact that her cell phone will now be heard on the video of the production, and anyone who watches it will be sitting there thinking "What an as*hole to leave your cell phone on."

[mikem]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 7:02pm

My worst theater experience was at Oklahoma! at the Gershwin, where I was sitting next to extremely restless 5 and 6 year old kids who kept asking their mother what was going on through most of the show. The show was almost 3 hours long, and the kids were bored out of their minds. At one point, I suggested to the mother that she might want to take the kids outside (since everyone around them was shushing them and it was really out of hand) and their mother said something to the effect that they paid all this money for the tickets and they weren't going anywhere. I wasn't upset with the kids, who were forced into the whole thing, but their mother was something else.

My worst audience experiences have been in the movies. I sat behind a kid who translated Titanic for his father. The entire movie. The entire 3 hour and 15 minute movie. But my all time worst experience was when somebody brought their four-year-old to that well-known family film called Saving Private Ryan. The poor kid was shrieking and crying throughout all of the battle scenes (and the father of course did absolutely nothing) -- I just don't understand what people are thinking sometimes.

Updated On: 5/2/05 at 07:02 PM

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 7:10pm

bdwybelle, I like the zapper idea. Perfect solution. If people are stupid enough not to check their cellphones during pre-show announcement, they deserve to be zapped.

Another thing that annoys me, and I'm sad to say, it was some of my friends when we went to see Wicked, is very loud crying. I know that sounds mean...but really, it kinda ruins the moment when the people next to you are sniffling really loud, digging in their purses for kleenexes, and blowing their noses like foghorns, especially during really quiet parts. They were doing it all throughout "For Good" pretty much until the end of the show. Maybe I feel that way just because I've seemed to master the art of crying silently.