Audience Having a Bad Time? — Page 2

Itonlytakesajourney said: "A recent one for me was Mean Girls. It could’ve largely been my distaste for the show, but the jokes landed tepidly and the audience’s laughter was hit or miss. The cast did their absolute best with the material given, but I felt the audience wasn’t really into it."

As a fan of the movie, I don’t care for Mean Girls as a musical at all. However, aside from Barret Wilbert Weed(I don’t think she’s necessarily that bad, but she doesn’t do much for me, and I think she’s sometimes a bit too overindulgent), I have a lot of respect for the cast. They work their butts off trying to make the absolute most of a very poorly written show. Fey’s new jokes don’t ever come anywhere close to being as good as the ones from the movie, and the score truly is awful. It’s horribly generic and at times feels so amateurish. Honestly, I fear that Tina Fey is losing her touch, because pretty much all of her most recent projects are very unimpressive.

I only remember two shows of late.

At MTC's Saint Joan the audience thinned a little during intermission and me and my friend were determined to stick it out. During Act II people started to get up to leave mid-performance and it started a ripple effect where every ten minutes or so you'd see someone else scuttle out without returning. Then, when you thought it was over and that awful final scene started multiple people around us let out sighs or groans which then resulted in some shared chuckling. It was quite a weird atmosphere, I felt bad for the actors.



Then at Gettin' the Band Back Together, I had more fun watching the audience. Either zoned out or people having the best reactions. The girl in front of us wound up shaking her head and putting it in her hands as if she was giving up.

I second all the reactions to ALICE BY HEART. I saw a Saturday evening performance and it was clear 30 minutes in that everyone just wanted to leave.

This also wasn't a Broadway production, but my all-time favorite audience reaction was to the Public's JOAN OF ARC: INTO THE FIRE. Prior to curtain, everyone in the theater was buzzing because it was David Byrne's follow-up to the fantastic HERE LIES LOVE. It was also days after the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and "Nevertheless, she persisted" was written on the scrim, a timely reference to Mitch McConnell's chastisement of Elizabeth Warren on the floor of the Senate (eye-rolling now, but at the time it was a bold and culturally relevant choice given the subject matter). It felt like the place to be.

I remember that the show opened with a long (15-20 minute?) production number that covered the whole first two-thirds of her life. Jo Lampert as Joan was very energetic and the ensemble was clearly working hard, but the song sounded like a bad first draft and it was impossible to tell what was going on; it was a mess in every sense of the word and it just wouldn't end. At long last the song abruptly ended and the company huddled together at the center of the stage, arms raised in what was supposed to be victory (I believe they had just won a major battle, but it was impossible to tell what the hell had just happened) and… silence. As the company held their poses, nobody in the theater clapped. Not one single person applauded. After a long 3 seconds (the company was still holding), the woman next to us who had a friend in the show stood up and started applauding wildly, calling for an encore. At this, a handful of audience members gave two or three pity claps, but the vast majority of us were still in shock. And it only went downhill there.

I’ve seen a lot of shows that the audience clearly did not care for, but this was maybe the only time I’ve ever experienced a unanimous rejection of what was on stage.

jbird5 said: "I saw an early preview of Into The Fire before they cut the (2?) virginity test scenes and Jo Lampert’s C*NT wifebeater. As if they were what was wrong with the show. They mercifully cut Mare Winningham completely."

I was (un?)fortunate enough to also catch the multiple (fairly graphic) virginity tests and the wifebeater. And Mare Winningham's song at the end of the show still makes me laugh. She's an incredibly talented actress, but that finale was bizarre. I think they were attempting something similar to the HAMILTON epilogue, but completely missed the mark.

When I saw Oklahoma! this year, almost half the audience left at intermission.

EllieRose2 said: "Were they older patrons? Perhaps expecting the same old Oklahoma!? Just curious."

The majority of the crowd were older. They had no issue expressing their feelings DURING the show, either.

While the show was going on, a lot of the older people around me were complaining out loud "this is horrible.." "what is this.." etc..

OOTI's audience was also quiet for me. I think there were a lot of TKTS folks there who ended up with the seat rather than coming in knowing anything about it. They did clap wildly for Alex Newell's vocal gymnastics, which while impressive, didn't make me feel the audience wanted to connect to the show otherwise.

OOTI is a show full of absolutely beautiful music and a sob-inducing ending. I was a mess, but a lot of the audience around me were checking their watches.

(Insert Clever Name) said: "At cats a majoraty of the audience was asleep or on their phones before the end of act one

I probably would be but that is why I don't pay actual money to see cats.