Are you a non-applauder?- Page 4

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 7:39pm

Playbilly, as early as the 1930s, Busby Berkeley said words to the effect that "One girl doing a time step is no big deal, but 100 girls doing a time step is magic!" Audiences like kick-lines and did so long before TV.

EatTheBrownie, if you honestly believe "there are a lot of untalented people in this business", you should definitely stay home. Watch TV. You can turn off a program or even throw things at the screen without bothering anybody.

(For the record, I realize it's a bloody miracle when all elements come together to make a truly great musical! But "a lot of untalented people" is preposterous when producers have hundreds of applicants for every part.)

[EatTheBrownie]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:02pm

Questionable Talent on Broadway: The 2012 Edition

- The entire principal cast of A Streetcar Named Desire
- Everyone in Don't Dress For Dinner other than Spencer Kayden
- Ricky Martin
- Elena Roger
- Corbin Blue
- Nick Jonas
- Michael Urie
- Beau Bridges
- Josh Young
- Matthew Broderick
- Marla Mindel
- Reeve Carney
- Andrew Keenan-Bolger
- Jessica Phillips
- Ben Fankhouser
- Matthew Schechter
- Talon Ackerman
- Michael Ceveris
- The entire cast of Mamma Mia!

That's just casually naming a few. It should also be of note that while the cast of Newsies can dance their butts off, none of them can sing or act... the childlike book does nothing to help them either. It's clear these kids LUCKED out on a Broadway gig when none of them would probably have ever made it past the world of regional theater... which is questionable most of the time anyway.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:22pm

Such the provacetuer, that Brownie....

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:30pm

There are some on your list that I don't care for, and others I think are miscast -- but neither of those things make those people without talent.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:32pm

EatTheBrownie should hook up with After Eight and attend nothing but Sondheim musicals.

I know, I know: "Don't feed the plant!"

[EatTheBrownie]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:38pm

But that's the magic of it all. None of you people are paying me to see a show. None of you bought my ticket. Theater is subjective. Art is subjective.

"I" don't find these people to be talented. If I see less-than-amazing performances on Broadway, where I've paid a lot of money, I don't owe them a thing. They're working for me. They're working for everyone in the theater. If there was no audience, there would be no show. No money to pay them.

Obligatory applause promotes mediocrity. It allows mediocre shows and mediocre performers to continue to have careers and prevents new and more talented blood from entering the Broadway gene pool in large doses.

If a producer is in the house and sees a show or a performer getting wild applause, or God, a STANDING OVATION, then they believe they've played their cards right and that's it. Back when audiences treated trash like trash and applauded what was great, careers got made and got destroyed... shows became beloved hits or faded into obscurity. There was a large turnaround of shows and performers once upon a time. A flop or a series of flops could ruin a performers career.

Updated On: 5/12/12 at 08:38 PM

[Playbilly]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:45pm

Today, on Broadway, applause and ovations are so common and often so unwarranted that any performer, producer of regular theatergoers should know they are meaningless in determining anything but a collective Pavlovian response. Delusional, if they think anything else.

Now, going to a regional/local production seems to be a different animal. I believe those audiences may act and react more in in accordance of their true feelings, appreciation or displeasure.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:54pm

"EatTheBrownie should hook up with After Eight and attend nothing but Sondheim musicals.

I know, I know: "Don't feed the plant!"

^ Ha best post in a while.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 8:58pm

Leap of Faith would prove you wrong here, Brownie. SO many folks here have said the theater audience was enthusiastic -- and yet they couldn't get people in the theater unless they gave away tickets - they knew it wasn't good.

[EatTheBrownie]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 9:13pm

I got comp tickets to the show twice. Once the week before opening where 1/3 of the audience was gone after intermission and there wasn't a standing ovation at all and once the day they announced the show was closing...

The biggest laugh of the night was when Raul, in one of his speeches to the audience in "present day", made a joke about how no one in the audience payed to see the show and called us sinners. From that point on the audience (which was less than half-full) realized that no one on stage gave a **** and the whole thing was much more enjoyable. Another big laugh came when Raul broke character at one point and giggled a little. The standing "o" that night was from an audience who metaphorically watched the band play as the Titanic sunk.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 10:33pm

I am an applauder. I don't really care what people around me do. If I want to give entrance applause when Elphaba makes her appearance in Wicked I will do so. Sometimes I have been the only one applauding for them also. If I wasn't enjoying a show I would leave after the first few minutes(I have never done that since I have enjoyed every show I have seen).

Why does it bother people so much what other people in the audience do? Do what you want and let them do the same.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 5/12/12 at 11:21pm

People are actually wondering why a kick line stirs applause?

Ask yourself, at what point do these mysteriously effective kick lines occur?

Not always, but usually at moments filled with high emotion after a long journey and they give us the sense the characters, dancers, or what have you have finally "arrived" in some better place, situation, time. They punctuate climactic moments so that they are firmly established, that's when the audience intuitively knows that appreciation is warranted.

I guarantee you an audience would sit on their hands if you randomly interrupted a play with a kick line of cheerful looking dancers.

Also, most audiences are looking to have a good time and it's typical to see people become much more attuned to and receptive to emotional, physical, and auditory cues. This is often expressed in an eagerness to "be entertained" and so everything from a bad joke to a mild nuance might incite a much more outwardly response than usual. It can get annoying but it rarely gets to the point of ridiculousness. Like the only performance of Wicked I attended--the girls sitting next to me screeched and howled in rapturous laughter and giggles at every eye wink, lifted eyebrow, gesture that Glinda did. After a while, I dreaded all further comedy since it was met with disruptively eager JOY.

It warms my heart that they had a good time. Really. But come now. Theatre is a communal experience. You're not at home. Be cognizant of that and the rest will flow.

[Laurelei]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 5:11am

I usually don't applaud during the show, as it takes me out of the performance, and I often wish that people wouldn't "stop" the show by applauding after every number... I do applaud a lot at curtain calls, if I liked the show or performances.

Also, a note to those saying that if performers are good you should let them know during the show: believe me, as a performer, you don't need the audience to applaud after every number to feel whether they are with you or not. There is nothing more powerful than the feeling of a captive audience when you are onstage. I personally like it much better than applause.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:15am

You are one of the few performers that will tell you that. How can you tell the difference between silent awe and silent boredom?

(Just asking a question, not attacking your non applause.)

[Laurelei]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 5:28pm

Oh, you can tell (or at least I can... any other performers out there willing to give their view? I'd be curious to know if I'm just a freak or if you guys feel it too). If you're truly present to what you're doing, you can feel it if the audience is "with" you... I can't really explain it, it's a kind of energy, an intensity, it lifts you right up. You can feel if you're holding them. I guess the same way as when you're in the audience and you can feel the energy sagging when a not too good performer comes onstage (as a member of the audience, I remember feeling it distinctly at a very well known musical that shall not be named and that I saw last year with a non-singer non-dancer non-actress as the lead role...)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 5:46pm

Just to put the train back on the track, nobody here has argued that standing ovations should be given to every show, nobody has argued that anyone has an obligation to join a standing ovation once it begins. Nobody has argued that mediocre numbers should be rewarded with wild applause and loud cheering.

But to believe you are promoting excellence in the theater by sitting on your hands after musical numbers is just about the most deluded--and pretentious--notion I have yet encountered at this site.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 6:21pm

"I often wish that people wouldn't "stop" the show by applauding after every number."

Yes, especially when there are times when the emotional, physical and auditory cues, as My Oh My said, are telling people NOT to applaud. I've seen beautifully written and directed scenes ruined because some people are so intent on clapping at the end of each song that they ignore the actual show.

Another Hundred People and Poor Thing come to mind- the song ends and immediately transitions into the next scene- sometimes in the same breath- and there are always people who start clapping after the song like Pavlovian dogs over the dialogue and muddle it for everyone.

If your applause is about showing respect to the performers, then actually respect them and pay attention to the nuances of the performance, instead of just waiting to applaud at the end of every song.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 6:34pm

Despite the original intentions of the writers, it's probably a mistake at this late date to think you can continue after "Another Hundred People" without the audience applauding. It's a rather famous show stopper nowadays.

Oh, there's probably some way to do it, but it might be smarter to just surrender to the inevitable on that one.

(ETA to orangeskittles: this isn't to argue your basic point, with which I agree. But I'm afraid theatergoing isn't sufficiently habitual for most people and they simply don't recognize the staging/acting conventions that tell us to hold our applause.

My point about "Another Hundred People" is just that some songs take on a life of their own over time. They eventually transcend their function in the plot.)

Updated On: 5/13/12 at 06:34 PM

[Hank]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:25pm

I think a little polite, or appreiative applause is appropriate in most cases, and wild applase should be reserved for special occasions. For instance, last June, on the Tuesday after the Tonys, I saw Anything Goes and there was a very long and wild applause after "Blow Gabriel Blow", and after it started to die down it picked up steam again. I like to think that second round of applause was ment for Sutton Foster herself.

I never got to see GPB at City Center, but heard a lot of good things, and if you think it's special, go right ahead and applaud wildly. After all, it's only a one week run.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 9:42pm

I'm also a performer. You can totally feel if the audience is with you or not. Often that has very little to do with clapping. It depends on what kind of show it is.

That being said, there is never, ever an excuse for leaving before or during a curtain call. People do this all the time and it's a slap in the face to see people hurriedly leaving to catch a train back to Long Island 30 seconds earlier than they otherwise would.

Whenever I'm an audience member I never let these rude people go by me. Whether or not you actually clap, the curtain call is the time where the performers acknowledge the audience and thank them for the shared experience.

[Pippin]

Posted: 5/13/12 at 10:10pm

I had a similar experience two months ago, here's a little thread about it.



an audience-ism that annoys me

[Laurelei]

Posted: 5/14/12 at 5:23am

"That being said, there is never, ever an excuse for leaving before or during a curtain call."

Yep, totally agree.
Also, on the "Poor thing" note above, I recently saw the last West End version of Sweeney Todd (with Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball), and although most of the audience obviously didn't know the show, I found they were quite sensitive about where to clap and where not to, to avoid hindering the rythm...They certainly didn't clap after "Poor Thing". I wonder if it's a "British thing", as I find in general they tend to be less enthusiastic but more attentive as a whole (in my suggestive experience!)