Audience Coughing!?!? Am I crazy or justifiably frustrated.

strange... it is cold season though

As insensitive as I feel saying this I agree. I've had many a terrible cough while going to the theatre. I either cough quietly during a loud moment or suppress the cough until applause. I feel like people just cough whenever they feel the slightest tickle and sometimes when they dont necessarily have to. It's inconsiderate really.

I just got over something the doctors called "walking pneumonia" and it came with a horrible cough. One that had me continuously coughing for at least 5 minutes straight. But it was nothing a cough drop couldn't suppress. And it's not too hard to get up and walk out, i'd rather someone leave the room than sit there and continue coughing. I say if you notice yourself coughing before you go to the theatre bring a few cough drops.

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ugh walking pneumonia is the worst i've had it twice

Thank god I'm not the only one...I was really upfront and could hear a never ending chorus of coughs behind me. BTW they got a standing ovation, they worked so hard on Thanksgiving. Lol, and the cealing started to leak...on the stage!

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Updated On: 11/23/06 at 11:40 PM

I saw a show last night and coughed during it. Couldn't help it.

I am sick but I haven't really been coughing so you just don't know if you're going to. If you bought tickets ahead you wouldn't want to waste them. You could go all day without coughing and then cough during the show, who knows why.

I laid out unwrapped lozenges to suck all the way through the show but I still coughed.

It happens.

Updated On: 11/24/06 at 11:46 PM

I always ponder this exact thing.

I walk down the street, go see a movie, get on the subway. Not one cough.

I sit down in a Broadway theatre, and everyone hacks a lung. It is so bothersome.

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Sorry but I think this is a little over the top- granted sometimes people should try to be quieter and supress their coughing and if it is THAT bad they shouldn't been in a crowded theater infecting 100s of other people anyway- but I mean its winter, its cold season, and sometimes as hard as you try you can't help it and you have to cough. And if people bring cough drops, most likely they won't be as considerate as nomdeplume and unwrap them beforehand and that would mean even more noise.

If it were one person the entire time that would be a little irritating, but a lot of people are sick right now (I myself am just getting over something) and need to cough once in a while and they can't time it perfectly with the applause or a loud scene. If their tickets were bought in advance they probably didn't know they would be sick, and we all know there are no refunds or exchanges, so its unfair to say they should waste their money and stay home.

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Updated On: 11/24/06 at 12:29 AM

similar topic, but whenever i see a show (no matter how old it is) someone around me HAS to be a talker. Even if its a dumb highschool production: talky talky talky.

Poppins: father explaining the plot to his kids. WTF.
Wicked: people behind me NOT KNOWING WHAT THE SHOW WAS ABOUT, and discussing it. To these people I turned around and said *I paid 100 bux for these people to talk, not you. Thank you.*
Spelling Bee: Old ladies with constant commentary on how cute the boys were. WTF?
high school production of Guys and Dolls: "Isn't sarah great?" No, your daughter is not great. She can't sing that is why she is in the transition chorus, only put in the scene to move furniture while singing. Plus, she is wearing a poodle skirt, which you probably made, in GUYS AND DOLLS. Go home lady.

I have more, but those are the best.

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neo, I am the same way. I went to a "Friends and Family" invited reading a couple of years ago, and had a horrible cough. I had unwrapped lozenges in my hand - as sticky and uncomfortable as that was - and every time I did have to cough, I suppressed it so my shoulders shook every time. I just hate disturbing the other audience members or breaking the actors' concentration - this was in a rehearsal studio, so there was NO space between the actors and the front row.

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I usually go to a show every weekend, but as much as there are a few shows I want to see right now, I'm probably going to hold off this weekend because I have a cold with a really bad bronchial cough...I definitely don't want to make a scene in the theatre, and I don't want to get anyone around me sick either.

I tend to agree that people coughing and sniffling during performances are agitating. Because I've been annoyed by those people so often, I get really paranoid and upset when I start coughing during a show and can't stop...you know, that cough that just won't stop, no matter how hard you try to hold it back...and holding it back just makes the cough come out more explosively...riiight, so I'm not sure if that made any sense. I suppose my point is that it's annoying, but sometimes (as others have said) the coughers just can't help themselves!

(Excessive coughing around me also makes me wish I had taken Airborne.)