Actor Gets Standing Ovation For Ejecting Cell Phone Offender

[Craig]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 8:35am

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article328724.ece

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:04am

It's good, but I still like Patti LuPone's the best.

When the cell phone rang, she stopped her concert and said, "Go ahead, answer it. We'll wait." Embarrassment works every time.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:15am

so this woman's phone had rung twice already and she hadn't put it on SILENCE?
OFF WITH HER HEAD, I SAY!

[Plum]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:15am

Has anyone actually been fined under the NYC no-ringing law? When are theatres going to simply say, "No cell phones in theatres", the same way they make you check large bags at the door?

[Craig]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:18am

Too hard to control with so many places to put a cell phone. The issue isn't having the phone - it's turning it off or on vibrate.

Also, not that theaters would install this (or cell phone manufacturers would make it standard) the technology exists to automatically configure phones to set their ringers off (or to shut down) within a confined space.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:21am

Didn't Nathan Lane do something similiar during his run of Forum?
I seem to remember hearing a story that he actually jumped off the stage and grabbed the cellphone and said into it
"He can't talk now, he's seeing a show"

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:24am

Good for him. People should turn their phones off, or put it on vibrate if you absolutely must have it on. I hope that gives everyone else a clue.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:25am

Craig, if people are forever too careless, forgetful, or just plain disrespectful to turn off their phones, the issue becomes possession of phones. Just make people check them in the lobby. You can even file them under "security risks" since phones can be used to set off bombs remotely.

[nydirector2]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:30am

Craig, you're right that the technology exists to make phones not work in certain confined spaces, and in Englad this has become a standard in their larger theatres. However, it is against the law in the USA to do so. The League looked into it a few years ago, but their lawyers had to inform them of the bad news. Oh well.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:36am

Back in the 1980's, wasn't there a rule at Broadway theaters that a person had to check their beeper with the house manager and if it went off the house manager would come and get the person? Was that an actual on the books law or just a suggestion?

[Plum]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 9:38am

I think someone mentioned something along those lines on ATC once, Goth, and that's where I got the idea.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:16am

The problem with New York's law is that it is unenforceable, and has potential First Amendment issues. If I recall in an article about a year ago, the police will not enforce it. Also, I looked up the actual law, it defines use as "listening and speaking. It doesn't mention anything about the ringing.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:21am

Bravo! This is what should always be done!

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:30am

what gets me is when people STILL don't turn off their phones (or at least check to see that they're turned off) AFTER the pre-curtain announcement is made. Sad to say, post-intermission announcements should be mandatory now as well...

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:33am

I cheer him for doing it, but I hope he'll be able to survive rude New York audiences when he comes to do History Boys.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:44am

What's with the "silence" your cell phones, or put them "vibrate?" I'm sorry, but that implies that you still want to know when your phone rings and are still going to answer it. WHY?? You're at a show. If there's something SO important that you can't live without that phone call, then you shouldn't be at the theatre in the first place.

Remember people, we all got along fine without them.

Dammit.

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:47am

I forget where they do this (Russia or Berlin maybe?) But I read a while ago that somewhere over there, they have a device in their theatres (Including movies) that deactivates cell phones when you enter the building so they can't ring. I really think that should be done in the states but I hear it can't.

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:52am

Enforcing a policy of "no mobile phones in the theatre" is doable. That's the rule in the NY State Courthouse. I was on a Grand Jury a year ago and all phones had to be checked as one entered the building. Anyone caught with a cell phone in a courtroom (via noise) was ejected.

My intuition tells me that theatre owners would be unwilling to implement this because it would mean increased costs for them. Although they would pass these costs along to the renters (producers), who in turn would then raise ticket prices to cover the additional charges.

The bottom line version: every theatre-goers would be paying more to compensate for the selfish, the inconsiderate, and the absent-minded theatre-goer(s) who sit in the audience with a mobile phone ready and posed to audibly announce incoming calls.

[Steeler Jim]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 10:53am

Sometimes it is important for people to have cells with them - doctors, parents with babysitters watching children, etc.

BUT - there's no excuse for leaving them on anything but silent or vibrate during the show. I always joke in curtain speeches in the theatre I'm involved with that "if you have a cell phone and it goes off during the performance, expect to hear a gunshot shortly after from the snipers we have hidden in the fly space."

[mikewood]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:34am

Even on vibrate, it's awful. I've been that guy. I THOUGHT I was being a good doobie putting it on vibrate. I wound up being the responsible adult for my 16 year niece so I had to be accessible, but it was the night of the New Hampshire Theater Awards at the Palace Theater...the hum went off and three rows of heads turned. Never again.... silence or off is the only way to go. Thank goodness it wasn't a real Broadway show...just a bunch of self-aggrandizing community theater actors in New Hampshire, but still, I was humbled and mortified.

Updated On: 11/23/05 at 11:34 AM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:42am

Doctors and parents have been going to the theater for many many years without cell phones. They don't need them now either.

[lildogs]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:44am

I just leave the phone at home--nobody needs to talk to ME so desperately that they can't wait till 10:30. I always remind the bf and I would KILL him if it ever went off. I gave him a go-to-hell look when he started singing along at Joe's Pub with Donna...she was 10' away and NOBODY wants to hear him sing outside of a seder.

[sadiem100]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:46am

Good for Griffiths! That's awesome. I was I had been there, lol. Cell phone offenders piss me off so much.

"Doctors and parents have been going to the theater for many many years without cell phones. They don't need them now either."

Exactly! Doctors would only be called on their cell if they were on-call that night. They're only on-call about 4 times a week. Both my best friend's parents are doctors, and they go see shows all the time with me without their cell.

Updated On: 11/23/05 at 11:46 AM

[Bdwy24]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:54am

When I went and saw a screening of Rent we were not allowed to bring in cell phones into the theatre. They made us take them back to the car. I was thinking if theatres should start doing this but then I thought, If Im in NYC and I come in with a cell phone, Im going to have no where to take it too......because most people take public transportation to the theatre.

[mominator]

Posted: 11/23/05 at 11:57am

Way to go Uncle Vernon!