Bad Audience Behavior- Page 8

[starcatchers]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 1:29am

A woman in the second row of On the Town tonight was caught repeatedly taking videos and pictures. Through the first and second act. It got to the point that the cast complained. I understand not wanting to cause a scene, but when it gets to a certain point, a person should be made to leave.

[lostboinmd2]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 8:27am

When Mary Poppins was open: kids behind us with their candy wrappers, woman beside me humming (and not even to the music).

[nightnic001]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 1:03pm

When I saw Jersey Boys a few days ago someone's phone rang during the part where Frankie is grieving at the hospital with the preacher. That part is silent and the phone ruined the whole mood.

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 2:31pm

It's sad but I almost EXPECT to hear a cell phone go off during a show these days.

There's lots of talk these days about "what we can do to improve theatre" or "what needs to be fixed" and certainly things like ticket prices, accessibility and diversity are critical. But for this theatergoer, I have to say that rude behavior by others in the audience is one of the things that impacts me the most.

I know it's not as pressing an issue and might be one of the hardest to fix but it kills me when I pay good money for the chance to escape from the world and into a piece of theater and I get pulled out of that by rude and selfish boors around me.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 2:41pm

I saw the national tour of Anything Goes recently at the Whiting in Flint (the star was a girl named Emma Stratton and it was her first professional production and she was fantastic), and I didn't know this was a thing, but multiple people around us hummed along to basically every single song. Including the woman next to me, who actually sang along to a couple lines of De-Lovely. I love the score as much as (or probably more than) anyone, and could have sang along to every single song. But obviously it's the theater and I'm paying to hear the people onstage, not the people in the audience. It was so rude, thank God we got to move up at intermission and were spared for the duration of the wonderful production.

Updated On: 3/5/15 at 02:41 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 2:44pm

There's lots of talk these days about "what we can do to improve theatre" or "what needs to be fixed" and certainly things like ticket prices, accessibility and diversity are critical. But for this theatergoer, I have to say that rude behavior by others in the audience is one of the things that impacts me the most.

This is true for me as well. "Do I really want to deal with all these assholes?" can be a make-or-break question for me some days.

[lotiloti]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 2:55pm

Sorry folks, but I'm afraid I have a real problem with American audiences. Applauding when a so called 'star' walks on, yuck. When an actor famous or otherwise walks on stage, they are in character (or they should be). Applause in my opinion, breaks the moment.

[Replacement Cast]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 2:58pm

I know the users are paid well. What, exactly, are they doing during the show? Shouldn't they be watching for this behavior and quietly asking the offenders to stop of leave?

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 3:09pm

With respect to the ushers I think it can be difficult if people are seated in the middle of a row, middle of the theater, etc. It might be worse to have an usher somehow navigate his/her way to the offender or shine a flashlight than it would to see a cell phone light.

If someone's behavior is consistently bad in the first act, there's definitely an opportunity to tell the usher at intermission.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 3:09pm

Entrance applause is among the least of our worries.

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 3:15pm

Yes LizzieCurry re:dealing with assholes. It definitely pops into my head too. It certainly impacts my decision on what days to see shows as well.

Entrance applause is what it is. It doesn't necessarily bother me but I can understand where you are coming from for sure.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 8:16pm

"A woman in the second row of On the Town tonight was caught repeatedly taking videos and pictures. Through the first and second act. It got to the point that the cast complained. I understand not wanting to cause a scene, but when it gets to a certain point, a person should be made to leave."

Was this at a performance with Tiler or Megan?

As for the humming, I think it's bad enough at pop concerts. Thankfully I've never experienced it at the theatre.

[starcatchers]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 10:13pm

This was last night,so Tiler Peck was on.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 11:52pm

Most pop concerts are very loud events, so I wouldn't be concerned with people singing along. But in the theater it is the height of impropriety.

[Emma MK]

Posted: 3/8/15 at 10:05am

My worst experience of this is when a girl who was sat next to me (well almost, there was an empty seat between us) phone went off during a very small, intimate one man play called Seawall. The poor man had literally one line left to deliver and it was a very emotional moment and her phone went off. He had to walk about for a moment and get back into the right frame of mind and then deliver his last line. She was in tears after, but seriously, they told us to turn our phones off at the beginning for a reason!! The 'theatre' was called The Shed (its a large red wooden box, an art installation outside Londons National Theatre) and had no stage, just floor surrounded by seats and only holds about 150 people, so everyone heard her phone ringing. I had to cringe away to make sure people didnt think it was me!

Also i saw Indian Ink in November and saw a Wednesday matinee. At least 3 phones went off and i even saw one person texting during the show! The audience was mostly elderly people and i would have thought that they would have had the sense to turn off their phones!

As someone above said, i dont understand the need to clap when the 'main' actor comes on stage. We dont do that in London and i was really shocked when people did it when i saw my first Broadway show. It annoys me a little, but i guess thats just because im not used to it :/

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 2:00pm

I went to three Broadway shows this weekend. At one of them (Les Miz), the audience was perfect. At the other two (Chicago and Phantom), there was pretty much always at least one person speaking around me at any given time. The ones at Chicago were the most annoying because they spoke English so I understood their comments which made them harder to ignore. At Phantom, all of the talking groups around me (both sides and behind me) spoke through the entire show, but not in English. Somehow, not being able to understand made it easier to ignore.

I guess I decided that I am giving up trying to be the Audience Enforcer Guy. I have always been the one to shush you the minute you talk, give you the evil eye the second you crinkle that M&M's wrapper, or confront you the second you take out your phone. But............I have been worn down. And I preferred to just tune out the talkers this weekend and focus my attention on the show.

So the talkers may very well be taking over Broadway. But that is why I am paying more these days and sitting as far up as possible so there are fewer of them around me.

[EthelMae]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 2:38pm

My partner had a thought about older or elderly audience members not turning their phones off- they don't know how!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 2:41pm

This has definitely been brought up before, and it's not an excuse.

[atuomala]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 4:58pm

It seems like the older audience members are the most likely culprits for having cell phones go off, yet they blame my generation for our 'irresponsible' cell phone use. Well, at least we know how to turn our cell phones off. More often than not, it's the older folks with smartphones who don't know how to use them who are usually behind obnoxiously ringing cell phones during a performance. During the opening night of The Audience, I sat up in the mezzanine next to an elderly woman who took out her smartphone every five minutes to text someone that she was meeting after the show. She didn't even do it discretely! The light from the screen was shining in my face and there was an usher sitting in the aisle right behind he and he said NOTHING. I once thought that the older audience members would have a sense of theatre etiquette and just overall respect, but, I guess not.

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:24am

The audiences at the Christmas Spectacular and at Lion King were less than satisfactory.

[atuomala]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 1:11am

^ Any show that draws the attention of young children is bound to be a nightmare. With how expensive The Lion King is per ticket, it's not worth the $100+ to listen to whining kids.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 9:15am

I don't know about that. I have been to Matilda (i.e. kid's show?) numerous times and have only been upset at adults. The kids have been really well behaved..even little ones. I am usually in awe of how well the kids behave. Some adults - not so much.

And I don't see any major difference between older vs teenage vs average age ticket holders. Rudeness does not discriminate...

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 9:32am

I saw the Annie revival twice, and while the kids would get a little squirmy, it was the bored and drunk adults that were the problem.

[aj88]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 9:34am

I've visited NYC for years from the time I was a young child up to now and I moved here this past summer. In the recent dozen shows I've seen, the audience behavior is a lot worse than I have ever remembered or could imagine.

It amazes me that out of most of the shows I have seen recently, I always end up next to someone or a small group who never applauds for anything. There is one thing to really not like what you are seeing, but I still at least politely applaud no matter what. At SIDE SHOW, MATILDA, HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, and BEAUTIFUL, I was sitting next to people who just didn't seem to feel the need to applaud. At SIDE SHOW, these two young girls seemed to sit baffled by what they were seeing and even started looking visibly and exaggeratingly annoyed by the show. At the end during the curtain call, they clapped sarcastically and then when Davie/Padgett came out for their bow, EVERYONE leapt to their feet in the orchestra but they sat there looking around like "What the hell are you all doing?!".

I know art is subjective but their attitude was a major distraction and many people commented on it leaving the theatre who were sitting near us.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 9:46am

Unless they were being assholes (cell phone, crunching on food, talking loudly) it baffles me that you would be bothered by other people's reactions to art. Maybe they didn't understand what was going on.