#1

I've been catching up with some daytime talk shows I recorded last week, and one was from last Wednesday's "Wendy Williams Show" (Dec .  Guest hosts were Michelle Visage and Leah Remini. 

But it was the opening 'Hot Topics' segment about the musical which I had a question about...
 

Remini confessed that the night before she went to her very first Broadway production - she and Visage went to see the musical "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical".  Remini commented on how surprised she was the way the audience was behaving - they acted like the musical was 'interactive' with the audience, and people were jumping out of their seats and yelling to the characters on stage - such as 'Leave her alone, Ike!' or 'Get away from him, Tina!'   Remini said she didn't expect this at a Broadway show, and was pretty surprised by the behavior. 

Norman Baker - a co-producer on the show who engages with the hosts during Hot Topics - responded with "Those are MY people! My people do that !"  as Remini still expressed disbelief of what was happening in the audience. He kept reiterating that "his people" do that at all the time at B'way shows.  

Remini then said 'It was all people - white and black - jumping out of their seats'. Yet Baker kept reaffirming it's his people who do that at Broadway shows (Baker is a gay black man from Chicago in his late 40s, which he had discussed with Remini and Visage just days before on the show).  

I've seen my fair share of Broadway musicals and plays in the past 30+ years, and I never saw any 'interaction' between audience members and characters on stage. I've seen members get up and sing and dance along when the actors on stage encourage them to do so (like at the end of "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical" ) but never the interaction Remini described.  Is this exclusive to 'Tina' ? 

Also, I'm not sure if Baker was referring to black people, gay people, gay black people - when he kept saying  and laughing "MY PEOPLE do this all the time!"   Does anyone know which demographic he was referring to ?  Again, I've never experienced this at any time among any select group of people in the audience.

 

BTW - NKEKI OBI-MELEKWE was the guest, who performed later in the show as 'Tina Turner'.  She was outstanding !  I'm hoping to catch the show on my next trip to NYC (maybe in the Spring) after seeing her performance, but don't want to be part of an interactive audience if this is the norm.