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

[Marlothom]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:25pm

I just got back from Les Mis and there was ridiculous amounts of audience coughing...it was such a distraction.

Fontaine: Shame, Shame Shaaaaame. COUGH, COUGH, COUGH.
Eponine: World of Full of Happiness, that I have never knoooown. COUGH! COUGH!
JVJ: Bring Him...COUGH COUGH COUGH...hoooome. COUGH.

Granted, it is a natural thing...but I have to wonder, I didn't cough the entire time...if I had counted, I seriously believe the # of coughs would have been in the 100s.

But maybe is a little too much to ask.

Updated On: 11/23/06 at 11:25 PM

[Isabella2]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:27pm

strange... it is cold season though

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:28pm

The current bug going around involves a cough. I've been coughing myself for a couple of weeks, and it seems half the people I know are coughing too. Sorry, but we really can't help it at times.

[neomystyk29]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:29pm

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.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:31pm

Don't worry. You're not the only one to find this fusterating. It seems like everyone has a cough. I've had a cough for the past three days.

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:32pm

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.

[Broadway Baby4]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:34pm

Your not crazy... it would have annoyed me too.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:34pm

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

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:37pm

It's even worse when you're going through an entire weekend of auditions and callbacks. I was packing a lot of cough drops.

[Marlothom]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:40pm

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!

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

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:41pm

I always bring cough drops to the theatre, I hate being THAT PERSON, lol. Nothing ruins the mood like someone coughing during a death scene- besides the actor, of course.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:46pm

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

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 11/23/06 at 11:54pm

For the record, I was refering to people who cough throughout the WHOLE show, because chances are you would notice beforehand that you needed to pick up some cough drops.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 12:09am

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.

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 12:29am

It's very frustrating. It seems like most people should be able to control it. If you can't, should you really be at the theatre instead of healing at home? I mean despite it being distracting, I can't standing sitting next to someone sick and worrying if I am going to inherit their germs.

I was really sick for weeks before traveling to see a touring show. I had everything booked, and I was hacking like crazy through the whole trip. I was worried that I would cough through the whole show. However, Ricola is a blessing. You should either control it to the best of your ability (cough quietly during intermission, scene changes, loud moments, have something warm to drink during intermission)or go home. Just my opinion.

[bwaylover86]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 12:29am

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.

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

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 2:37am

A friend of mine has a theory about this. It sounds a little wacky but also a bit plausible.

(FWIW, he was a music minor and has been in a couple opera choruses and sings in a classical choir.)

His theory is that some people cough in the theatre to get the attention, whether they intend to or not. When someone coughs and it's only them coughing, especially during a quiet scene, the rest of the audience's attention goes to them and away from what's going on on stage. For that moment, everything is about them.

[AnythingCanHappen]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 4:07am

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.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 5:23am

I loathe coughers. It's disruptive and rude to everyone there, onstage and in the audience. Not to mention the fact that you're spewing germs all over everyone around you. I've actually not gone to shows when I've been sick.

If the tickets were purchased in advance and missing it is not an option, then people should do their best to avoid it. Sip water the whole show, suck on cough drops, leave the theater if it gets too bad. People CAN do better at controlling it; they're just too selfish to think about how it's impacting anyone else.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 8:49am

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.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 8:56am

At Avenue Q over the summer, somebody sneezed right in the middle of the scene where they all give Kate the money to build her monster school. It was a big, loud helluva sneeze. Following the show, I ran into Rick Lyon who said that "it took a lot of strength not to say God Bless You." When I mentioned that I had spotted Jeff Marx in the audience, Rick said "Oh....must have been him. That's just like him."

[chealion313]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 10:32am

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.

[MandaGurl]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 10:44am

sometimes you cant help being sick, but I hate it when the coughs are forced out and done without any thought..I have encountered rude coughers who I know were not sick.
-Amanda*

[lovelyspotlight]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 11:01am

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.)

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 11/24/06 at 12:03pm

If you've had these tickets for weeks or even months in advance, you'd go anyway, even if you were hacking up a storm, right?

I've been sick for about a week now, with a lot of excessive coughing, but I'd still go to a show I'd had tickets for.