Bad Audience Behavior — Page 3

When people behave poorly at shows, I really want to get up and hit them. Plus, because I go to the theatre so often, I experience A LOT of bad behavior. When I went to see phantom, there was a school group in the back orchestra, and when the phantom came in during masquerade, these girls started giggling and pointing and making remarks about his "privates" because of the way his costume is. Then another time, at Phantom, this is probably one of the weirdest things ever to happen, a woman next to my mother, took her foot out of her shoe and popped a blister!! It was so gross!!!! She looked like a farmer from the mid-west.

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Thats disturbing.

I love Little Shop. I adore Little Shop. For a few months, my LIFE was Little Shop. I spent months working on Suddenly Seymour for a competition and a performance. Suddenly Seymour was my life. Then I get the chance to actually see Little Shop at the Ahmanson. And I go see Little Shop. And I wait for Suddenly Seymour. And I wait. And I wait. And then it comes...

...and the bitch next to me is on her cell phone.

It was then that I hated life.

A guy a section in front of me left Lestat 10 minutes before the show ended. He had a ton of bags and a big coat and was in the middle of the row.

I mean, yeah, the show isn't so great, and it's really long, but if you've made it THAT far...!

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But there IS no parking lot, so I dunno. (There are two garages, though...)

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Here's what I would like to say to audiences behaving badly:

1. Talk all you want, about whatever you want, before the show starts, during intermission, after the show, but the moment those house lights dim and the overture (or entre acte) begins, shut your trap.

2. If you have a bad cough, kindly take a cough drop. The rustling, actually doesn't bother me in the least. I'd rather hear the wrapper rustling than the cough! (although, I know sometimes it's hard to control a cough, so I can't hold this against people too much).

3. Wearing a jogging outfit to the theatre (on a Saturday night, no less) seems a bit casual to me, but hey...no dress code? Who am I to say how absolutely fetching you look in your ensemble of turquoise velour and your white tennis shoes.

4. Cell phones off, please. Not on vibrate, off.

All in all, it's quite funny - I seem to run into worse audience behavior in NYC than I do when I see a show in my city. My guess is that you get many more tourists in NYC, where the thing to do is "see a show." In other cities, most of the people seeing the shows are theatre folks to begin with. Don't get me wrong though - nothing beats NYC for shows (nothing) but man - you guys get some difficult audiences!

Updated On: 3/1/06 at 01:07 PM

Not as bad as most of what's posted here, but it really annoyed me nonetheless.

A friend and I saw Grease in Edinburgh last night. Unfortunately for us, there were a couple of large school groups in. They weren't so bad during the first act, just very noisy (and screamed over the understudy announcements, and the board wasn't up in the foyer, so I was very annoyed). Second act, however, they started singing along to both Hopelessly Devoted to You and Sandy. Not just one or two of them, either, the entire bloody group. It seriously sounded like the whole right side of the stalls was singing. We were sat right over the other side of the theatre and could still hear them.

I was so tempted to go over and find out who was in charge, and point out that I pay to hear the singers on stage, NOT a group of ignorant schoolkids. Grease or not.

"Nope, they couldn't even wait that long. It started up during 'Angel of Music' and lasted for much of Act One."


Wow. Stamina.

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A few years ago I saw a play at the Public called 36 Views. At one point in the first act, the guy sitting behind me starting rattling plastic bags. It eventually got so bad that I had to tell him to please keep the bags quiet. He didn't. It just kept going and getting louder and louder. He was shushed and shushed and nothing anyone did made any difference. When the lights came up for intermission, there was very nearly a lynching. The house manager came and escorted the elderly gentleman, who it turned out was virtually deaf and couldn't hear the noise he was making or the shushing he was getting or even the play, to another seat.

The play, of course, was pretty well ruined.

And last night, at the Ziegfeld (I know this is a movie audience, but bear with me) at a screening of RETURN OF THE KING, I was sitting in the middle of the center section of the theatre. A pair of idiots were sitting behind me, on the aisle, talking and eating and rattling a never-ending procession of potato chip bags. I asked them once to keep the bag quiet, but they were soon back to rattling and gabbing. I moved to the other side of the middle section, up an entire row. I could still hear them talking and rattling.

Think about that. They were making enough noise to be heard throughout RETURN OF THE KING at the Ziegfeld, from the opposite side of the theatre. Unbelievable. Eventually, someone yelled at them to please shut the hell up so we could watch the final fifteen minutes of the movie in peace. When the lights came up, no one confronted the idiots, but there was a lot of loud talk as people bonded about how some bold new standard of sheer rudeness had been set.

I think there need to be blunt announcements at the beginning of each play and movie. They need to say, in so many words, "Sit Down and Shut Up."

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That link doesn't work.

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http://www.wishingfish.com/cellcitpad.html

we should all start carrying these around. Or they could be little playbill inserts.

Diva: Click it on and scroll down and look to the right for the title "Next thing I know there was blood everywhere".

When I went to see Rent for the first time there was this couple sitting next to us and during intermission they went and sat in a couple empty seats on the other side of us so they could talk to their friends. Then when the second act started, in the middle of Season's of Love they decided to go back to their seats and had to go passed me and my mom. It annoyed me sooo much. I mean, they had more than enough time to go back to their seats during intermission.