Awful experience with the ushers & house manager at the Wintergarden

[danceallnight]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:19pm

I bring a party of 40 people to the Winter Garden and NEVER have I been treated so rudely and arrogantly by the ticket scanner, the ushers seating us, and the House Manager. Who can you complain to when the House Manager is the main offender?
Updated On: 3/2/09 at 09:19 PM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:19pm

Only him.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:20pm

What went wrong, other than their poor attitude?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:20pm

PGUY WINS! THREAD OVER!

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:22pm

I went Saturday, and the ushers were so rude! They were screaming at everyone.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:23pm

Ushers tend to get annoyed with tourists...and Mamma Mia basically IS the tourist show.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:23pm

Well to speak to a crowd of 40 in a noisy environment, I would imagine they would have to scream, no?

[boyfromoz2]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:23pm

Details?

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:26pm

I wasn't in a crowd of 40- they just were very manic and screaming at each person with very detailed directions about which way to walk, and threatening that it would be "utter chaos" if they walked another way... it was making everyone laugh.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:26pm

First... you need to get the theatre's name correct -- its the Winter Garden Theatre (not Wintergarden).

You need to speak to LaQuisha, who occasionally works at the box office.

[bundy5000]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:26pm

tell the king of Usher's

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:28pm

From everything you have said, it seems like they were doing their job and nothing more. Perhaps they weren't "nice" but it doesn't seem like they were rude. They gave you specific instructions on which pathway to take because it's their job. They know how to help avoid traffic jams. They know where your seat location is. You are the visitor, they are the host.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:30pm

If Patti read this she'd sock it to you about theatre etiquette.

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:32pm

CapnHook- I'm not the one with the main complaint- but they were rude and hostile when I went as well.

[snowskittle]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:42pm

Please tell us what exactly these people did?

[danceallnight]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 9:58pm

Sorry guys, I wrote out a very long response giving details and it didn't post after I clicked "post message." I'm sending this as a trial and then will edit it & try again.

OK, here I go again.

Upon entering, the scanner was quite rude but that's not even relevant to the story.

I bring in a group of 40 people, most of them 13 year olds. By the way, they were at all times extremely well behaved and appropriate - there is no issue with the fact they are kids. However, because they are kids, I am responsible for them. So, the scanner takes the 40 tickets and they start to enter. I am counting each one to make sure I haven't lost anybody and I ask the kids to go to the far right of that inner foyer and wait until we are all together as a group. The scanner hands me back the tickets that are all arranged in order by row and seat number. All of a sudden, there is a commotion while I am still counting and kids are still entering. I hear someone ask "Where are the tickets?" and I show them in my hand but my attention is still on making sure all the kids are in. A man from the theater grabs the tickets out of my hand without talking to me or saying anything and (apparently) tells the kids to follow him but I am not aware of that as I had to turn back to see the last few enter. I thought he was just looking at the tickets. When I turn back around again, the kids are gone. I go into the theater and there is a bit of chaos going on. The tickets had been given to two ushers. The ushers were extremely rude and nasty to me and the group. I tried to tell them that we had most of the seats in three successive rows. If they could just point out which rows were our three, I would get the kids into the rows. Neither one would give me an answer. It was so frustrating. I asked repeatedly and they just answered back rudely without answering that basic question. Then one usher told the kids to go in this row and another told the kids to go in that row and I knew that one had to be wrong but they wouldn't listen to me so in the end everyone had to get up and move and be reseated anyway.

So, when the kids had to move into the correct rows, I asked the ushers just to tell me which seats should we fill up. Again, they refused to tell me. They just needed to say "105-113" or something like that. I was getting so frustrated. So I went to the other aisle and finally found two really nice ushers who managed to get the tickets back from the really nasty ushers. In two seconds, they looked at the tickets and told me the seat numbers and I was able to help the kids get to the right places. I don't know why it was so difficult with the first two ushers.

So, I say to the nice usher lady, "This all started when this really rude man from the theater grabbed my tickets and led the kids away from me. If I had entered the theater with the group, I don't think this confusion would have happened. I would have said to the ushers, we have three rows, here are the tickets, etc. I'd like to speak with the House Manager to tell him about this." So she tells me where to find him and you guessed it. The rude man WAS the house manager. I did try to talk to him (Mr. Levine) but he would not let me talk.

He did tell me each person should have been holding their own ticket. Having no experience leading groups of kids into the theater before, I thought it made more sense to hold them and just go find our three rows and let the kids sit anywhere in the three rows. If I ever did it again, I would organize it differently, for sure. But there was still no excuse for the arrogance and rudeness that we experienced and also the potential safety issues it created when the house manager separated me from the group and the kids in the group from each other. In this economy, I think they should treat people alittle nicer that bring in thousands of dollars of business.

Anyway, I want to let some powers that be know how the theater patrons are being treated. We were a polite, well-behaved group that wasn't doing anything wrong. Maybe I could have organized things better but I do not think I should have experienced that type of rudeness. Updated On: 3/2/09 at 09:58 PM

[danceallnight]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:28pm

Does anyone know who I should contact?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:36pm

The press, of course! What with the economy the way it is and the two wars we're fighting, I'm sure they'd love to hear about how your school group was mistreated by nosy ushers at a performance of "Mamma Mia!"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:36pm

I think you just have to let it go and chalk it up to experience.

[TimeSquare3]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:43pm

What do you expect to happen? I would be frustrated too if some just handed me a mound of tickets. It's over, do you want store credit or something? You surely aren't going to rally the 40 kids back up & give another crack at it.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:43pm

Contact the producers. Because you are a Group, they will be very interested to hear you.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:44pm

"Does anyone know who I should contact?"

Um, MRS. Levine?

Please tell you arrived in PLENTY of time with your 40 adult-behaving teens to find their seats and not not right at curtain time.

[TimeSquare3]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:46pm

Why didn't you just give each kid a ticket upon entering the door? Surely they won't lose between there and the scanner. Then you could have avoided this. Could you have NOT mapped this out before hand? You knew what tickets you had, get a seating chart and mark out where you were supposed to go. It is pretty difficult to seat 40 people at once.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:51pm

I think a lot of you are giving unneeded grief. If the poster is new to taking groups to shows, I can see how one would think it was faster and more efficient to give the ticket scanner the entire block of tickets rather than one-by-one.

It seems like it is the theatre's fault for not communicating to the Group leader a proper procedure to enter the theatre with their group. Should not the box office and/or group sales rep have given instructions? A very simple "make sure each individual in your group enters with a single ticket" statement would have solved this.

[TimeSquare3]

Posted: 3/2/09 at 10:59pm

Surely this is not the chaperones first Broadway show, she should know how hectic it gets when scanning tickets.