Bad Audience Behavior — Page 7

this was not a personal experience of mine, but a funny story i heard ben stiller tell on either letterman or conan... last season when he, amanda peet, and jeffery wright were doing "this is how it goes," one night they all couldn't help but notice a woman in the second row, slowly but surely, starting to fall asleep. they continue to do the play as usual, until it gets so bad, that the woman is now not only asleep, but her head is cocked back, mouth wide open, and she is snoring. the cast then proceeded to make as much noise onstage as they possibly could, to see which one of them could successfully wake the woman up (ie: stomping when entering, coughing, yelling, etc). nothing did the trick. ben stiller just shrugged it off saying, 'if you want to take a $75.00 nap, that's your problem.

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I sat next to a man at a performance of Les Miz who farted repeatedly during the entire show. The smell was horrible and it made it very difficult to enjoy the show. It went on the entire time -- through both acts. I felt sorry for the man but it made the show a very unpleasant experience for me and I'm sure the other people around us.

OK, OK, I have another one. When I was at SOUVENIR, there were not one, but TWO cell phones going off. They had to make an announcement when the second act started reminding people to turn the phones off. Some people.

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well when i saw lestat on Dec.29th there was no standing ovation when it was clearly enjoyed by the audience...my mom and i were the only ones standing up....oh and when i went to see peter pan in sac. all the little kids kept asking their parents very loudly about why there was no "never smile at a crocodile" song in it (which i was actually disappoointed with as well)

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When i saw DRS, not too long ago, the usher was going up the aisle before the show telling people that "phones must be turned off and the taking of pictures is not allowed" This idiot in front of me stands up and asks "What about movies?" I couldnt contain myself, so i just blurted out before i could think... "WHAT DO YOU THINK, GENIUS?!" then he sat down

i guess i was the rude audience member there, but he was stupid

I saw a high school production of ITW and three girls behind me would nto stop talking. I really wanted to turn around and tell them to be quiet.

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When I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie, two weeks before it closed, this little girl who was around 7 or 8 years old was sitting behind me. Not only was she constantly kicking my seat, but she talked throughout the whole thing. For example, when they're at the speakeasy and are drinking, she yelled to her dad "WHAT ARE THEY DRINKING DADDY? IS IT GRAPE JUICE?" So I'd turn around and polietly ask her to be quieter, and to stop kicking my seat. I guess she didn't understand english? So after another try, I asked her dad, who seemed to get that his daughter was being a pain, and would whisper "Shh, SHH" to her. Naturally, it really didn't have any affect.

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Not sure if anyone knows this, but you have all the right to tell an usher about any annoying audience behavior. When I first saw Contact with my acting class, we had this really old couple in back of us constantly saying "what did they say?", "who's that?", etc. My theatre teacher got up and told an usher. The usher asked the people to remain quiet as it was disturbing to other people. They then said very loudly, "but we can't hear anything". Everyone turned around and they got up and left.

Maybe it'll work for someone else.

Another case was when I saw Little Shop, a 8 or 9 year old boy came in with a pillow & blanket and took his shoes off. A lady sitting next to him told his parents they shouldn't of wasted $100 just so their son could take a nap. They didn't seem happy about that and had their son put his shoes back on.

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Updated On: 2/27/06 at 11:56 PM

--During the pre-Broadway run of "The Lion King" in Minneapolis, a family with young children (probably ages 2 and 4) sat behind my mother and I. Only a few minutes into the show, they busted out the cheerios and milk for the kids. The kids were bored with the show and didn't seem to understand it, they got antsy and we kicking the back of the chairs, whining, just generally being a pain. Then at the beginning of the second act they started THROWING the cheerios and milk. I ended up with milk spilled in my hair and all down my clothes. I dress pretty nice when I go to the theater and I had to take my pant suit to the dry cleaners after the show as there was milk ALL OVER IT.

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"Seriously? Did the parents take any responsibility for that? Or notice?"

They didn't seem to give a crap, though we gave them the "dirty looks", they just ignored us and let the kids have their little food fight.

The parents didn't seem to be interested in the show either, so I am not sure why exactly they decided to stick around after intermission.

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Here are two from the past week:

* At The Water's Edge, a woman two seats away brought a HUGE plastic shopping bag of snacks and proceeded to take them out, fetch a bottle of water, etc. She moved during intermission. Two middle aged women put their feet on the edge of the empty seat next to me. But the strangest that day was the smelly waves of spiced deli meat that would waft by. I have no idea where it came from (and it wasn't the snack bag lady, as she left). Mystery.

*The worst was last night at Burleigh Grime$ at New World Stages. It was raining last night pretty hard and people were trying to dry off in the restrooms as many people had been caught in the downpour. I was sitting next to a woman who was by herself (early 20s maybe). We were in row G, so there weren't seats in front of us, but an aisle for people to walk by. My seat mate took off her shoes, spread out her bags on the floor around her and proceeded to rub her bare feet and legs (she was wearing a long skirt that she kept rolling up and putting down, over and over) and jump around in her seat the entire first act. I swear, I though she was being attacked by bed bugs! She would not sit still. She left at intermission and unfortunately came back. She did the same manic stuff during Act 2, but also engaged in picking between her toes and smelling her hands repeatedly. I thought I was seeing things, but she wouldn't stop. You can't make this stuff up!

I unfortunately was at Mamma Mia since I got a free ticket last weekend and the audience was literally talking loudly through the overture and a little bit during the prologue, then on their phones throughout the show and eating very loudly, and the ushers did nothing.

Here's one for the "bad behavior happens in every price range of seats" category - I was at Wicked tonight in very good seats and I had a set of talking teenagers on either side of me! The talkers were doing it just enough to annoy me but not enough for me to backhand them ... I mean ask them to be quiet.

There were also several adults texting in the two rows in front of me and someone behind me who was either snoring during the second act or had a serious breathing problem. Yikes.

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