Audience Behavior

So while I was at Mamma Mia, I witnessed some disturbing things that have happened to theatre lately.

That show had to be full of so many foreign people that didn't speak english. When the show started people just started talking in full voice. It was like nothing I've seen before! I was shushing people all over the place. Throughout the ENTIRE first act the people around me were translating for each other. They had no idea what was going on and people were singing as loud as they could during Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia and were clapping in the middle of the songs too!! Also, some lady was taking pictures with her cellphone during part of the show before an usher finally called her out on it.

I was LIVID by the end of the first act that I went to usher and demanded for different seats or my money back. The usher actually said that this happens often with this show and foreign people. They gave me 6th row center orchestra seats which were fantastic. Unfortuntely, when the show started. People around us were STILL talking, but a little more quiet. I didn't really care. The show was so bad. The male lead was the worst thing I've ever heard on the Broadway Stage and Lisa Brescia did a great job with this crap show. The whole rest of the cast gave highschool-level performances IMHO. It was the worst show I've seen to date on Broadway. I was so disapointed with this audience and thought it was such a shame to the broadway community that they act this way.

Has anyone else had any kind of experience like this?

I saw Mama Mia in London, a week after it opened. It was dreadful than, too. Mama Mia really is one of the worst "mega-successful" Broadway musicals.

People seem to be especially inept in small houses. Picture the Booth Theatre, where you're literally closer to the actors than they are to each other at times. And then picture the family who doesn't speak english, translating to each other loudly throughout the entire show. Or crinkling wrappers and water bottles. Or clinking ice in those darn cups that can be brought into the theatre...I'm all about taking the drink back in, but could we eliminate the ice for that purpose?! And teach people that slurping beverages (at any venue) is inappropriate?!

Seriously, didn't anyone else do Cotillion growing up?

The worst one I can remember myself, actually WAS at The Booth Theatre. It wasn't AWFUL. It during Butley starring Nathan Lane. I loved the show to death, it was towards the end of the run. This one person, who was sitting behind me was coughing. The whole show. Begining to end. Look, I know you can't help it if you cough, but if you're SICK, don't go out, staying in the ****in bed! Then in act two, when there was supposed to be a very dramatic silence, a cell phone went off. Loudly. So loudly, that I thought it might be part of the show, for some strange reason. It was pretty bad.

Then, when I saw Beauty and the Beast, there were some audience members who spoke a bit too loudly, but nothing dreadfully annoying.

I've been lucky so far. Besides Butley, I haven't had very many annoying audiences.

I recommend everyone here to see shows like Wicked or Mamma Mia! on tour around the United States, all the long runners are way more enjoyable outside of NYC.
When I saw Wicked in NY, it was like an N'Sync concert, in Fort Lauderdale the audience was alot more appropriate.

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Run that last one by Roscoe

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There is also the fact that at Disney shows, the parents feel this need to give their kids a running commentary of what is happening on stage. The parents don't realize that the kids do know that which is going on. And, for the most part, kids do know more than their parents realize they do.

Also, just last week, I went to see Time Stands Still. Towards the beginning of the first act, someone's phone went off three rows down from me. The patron sitting next to me, cursed under his breath, and rolled his eyes. Now, due keep in mind that I am not saying that the patron was wrong for doing that. He was right to get upset that someone had their phone go off in the middle of the show. However, around five min later, I saw him have his phone out and tucked to the side and he was texting. You can't get pissed off that someone is using their phone when they shouldn't be only to do the same thing yourself a little later.

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Being from the UK, and my viewing of shows being in the West-End, and not Broadway, I find in the most part that disruptive audience members are American. This isn't to say that all American's are disruptive in the theatre or all disruptive people in the theatre are American's but the constant need to comment to each other throughout the show with things like "Wow, he's got a good voice, don't he?" Of course he does, he's in the musical theatre...

I also find that disruption from British audiences seems more common in regional theatre than the West-End.

Also, what people tend to not realize is that the light coming off of a cellphone is much brighter than people realize. In a dark room, the light is VERY annoying and it is VERY noticeable as to who is doing it. That is why it is rude to do it during a show.

Also, during Time Stands Still the pre show announcement does mention refraining from texting during the duration of the performance.

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No, and I don't have any intention of ever attending Grease or Starlight Express xD

Last week, during Next to Normal, for the second half of act 1, it sounded like someone had the hiccups. Every minute or so, it happened again. The audience members were looking around, some were angry, and some just laughed.

I'm going to try to say the next part in the most PC way I can:
During intermission, I saw a couple with a young woman in a wheel chair who looked like she had either a developmental delay, mental retardation, or autism. She was making sounds that sounded like the hiccups. It seemed as if they were leaving during intermission, but it started up again at act 2.

While it's not something you can really control, if there's someone who, for any reason, cannot sit quietly for the duration of a show, you shouldn't bring them.

While it's not something you can really control, if there's someone who, for any reason, cannot sit quietly for the duration of a show, you shouldn't bring them.

That's a tough one because the handicapped have just as much right to enjoy theatre and other activities as much as anyone else. Is it distracting? Sure. But, is sitting at home night after night because something might happen a better alternative?

Thankfully, my sister is functional enough to not make random noises though she does have a bit of an issue with talking through things but not loudly. But I would never in a million years consider leaving her home because of it. I have instilled in her a love of the theatre and I will take her to as many shows as I can. If someone is upset because she's slow on the stairs or talks a bit then that is their problem.

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Eris- I think I should re-phrase. If people get pissed off for someone walking down stairs slowly, that's their problem. Like anyone, if you bring someone (with or without a disability) to a show, it should be something that they would appreciate and not cause them to ______. (I honestly don't know what word to use.)