Bad Theater Behavior — Page 16

**Curious incident spoiler alert**



Last weekend at Curious Incident, my friend and I were in the front mezz. As soon as the show started, the man and woman behind us started with the whispering/talking. The dead dog appeared onstage, the boy was accused of killing it and then "See, but he didn't kill it. That's what this play is going to be about."

Then, when the father has his first scene, "I think the father did it. Don't you think the father did it?"

When the boy had a seizure and the lighting reflected it: "I think the lights symbolize that he's having a seizure". "A what?" "A seizure. Do you see what the lighting is doing?"

When the boy is holding his pet rat "Is that a rat? Why is he holding a rat" "That's his pet". "He has a pet rat?" "Yes he talked about earlier in the show."

At first my friend and I turned around twice and glared. Then we gave up and just knew the comments were coming and we would kind of turn and smile at each other at how dumb some of the comments were. These people were acting like they were at home on their couch. Never did they think how noisy it would be in the theater if even a quarter of the audience talked like they did.

I would have done a heck of a lot more than glare. How do they come to realize they distracted people if they aren't told??

The Sunday befor last at DISASTER we had about 4 drunk woman sitting next to us. They we're singing before curtain went up but after it did, they continued to sing along and talk out loud. We shushed them, told them to be quiet and they shouted back at us. This went on for maybe 10 minutes. The usher on our side noticed and shushed them, then flashed her flashlight at them. They continued as we continued to shush them. The usher disappeared for about a minute after the 3rd time trying to quiet them and then all of a sudden she was back on m side of the row and an usher and house manager we're on the other end and made the ladies leave their seats. They were amazingly swift about it. Kudos to the Nederlander staff.

VintageSnarker said: "I am resurrecting this thread because things were a little ridiculous at Bright Star. I'm non-confrontational because I think it can make things awkward for the person doing the reprimanding and the person being reprimanded for the rest of the show depending on what the response is. Still, I have been calling people out more. But I think it helps when they do it really frequently and they must know it or if you can stop them when they're doing it. Tonight there was so much whispering but they were short comments so to call them out would have probably been more disruptive. What do you do in that situation? I didn't want to say something at intermission but then it resumed in act 2 and it was too late."



I usually try to hold it in until intermission if it's consistent but brief, so as to not be more disruptive. You should definitely say something at intermission. My strategy if it is people next to me is to chat them up first. Are you enjoying the show so far, what do you think, etc. Act interested in their responses and respond accordingly even though you couldn't care less. THEN you sneak in politely that it would be great if they could hold their comments till the end because it can get a little noisy and distracting and people around can hear them.

A small minority might get put off and ignore the suggestion but most normal people are embarrassed and will behave as a result.

IMO it's much more difficult to shush someone if you've already started establishing a rapport with them. So I never talk to anyone beforehand if I go to a show alone!

I've asked this before, but do threads like these ever come up in house manager or PR meetings? I wonder how much of it is us ranting into the void, but I guess given recent events we can assume a decent number of people in the business are reading this. Whether it's making a difference seems to be up in the air.

I hit the jackpot at Fiddler's Wednesday matinee last week.

There were 2 rows of elderly women sitting behind us, must have been a bus trip of some kind. Also to note, as this will be mentioned later, that there were was a huge group of schoolkids seated in the last few rows of the orchestra.

Anyway, they seemed like sweet little old ladies going to see a show - and most of them were, of course. Just as the curtain goes up and Danny walks out, everyone in the theater starts clapping, rightfully so (he was AMAZING). There's this woman sitting directly behind me, we'll call her Dottie because that was her name, who exclaimed, "Why is everyone clapping? He hasn't done anything yet!"

Then, as "Tradition" starts, a cell phone starts going off. It's coming from behind me. I kid you not, that cell phone rang from the start of the song up until the end. Dottie and one of her pals squabbled for a bit, each denying that it was their phone. It ended up being Dottie's phone.

Weirdly enough, there were multiple cell phones that went off at that performance, which was the most I had ever encountered, and I've seen dozens of shows. I don't know if it was the amount of older people in the audience or what.

At intermission, Dottie went off about how much she hated the show. She realllllly did not like it. I was just astounded that she had never seen the movie (she was confused by the plot and characters). The best was when her friends were coming back from the bathroom and had to squeeze by Dottie (the aisles were extremely tight). Dottie was audibly upset, and when her friend told her she was sorry, Dottie said, "You're sorry but you're still doing it!" That was actually hilarious to me.

If big D disliked the first act, then she downright abhorred the second. She huffed throughout every scene, kept commenting how "slow" everything was, and fumbled with her tic tacs for about ten minutes towards the end. The entire theater was on their feet at curtain, but I didn't need to turn around to know that Dottie was not.

As for the schoolkids, they were the best. They were loving the show - laughing, being respectable, and just enjoying it. It was truly refreshing.

I feel like it just gets worse and worse, and without fail, the biggest offenders (in my personal experience) are the octogenarians. At Color Purple, the guy next to me was loudly tapping his cane along with the music until I asked him to stop, at which point he glared at me but at least obliged. At Noises Off I was sitting in the second row and the couple next to me was bitching out loud the whole time about how terrible the seats were and that they had to look UP. (For what it's worth, the view from those seats was spectacular.)



But my worst experience was at the 2009 Ragtime revival...



***Major Ragtime plot spoilers ahead:

The man next to me was wearing a theatre-provided hearing device turned all the way up, so I heard the entire show on echo. (Not really his fault, but it significantly added to the annoyance.) The whole show, he kept confirming what they were saying out loud to his wife, until at the end, at arguably the most tense moment in the show, when the theatre is silent and everyone is waiting for Coalhouse to walk out of the library, he says, at full volume, "THEY'RE GONNA SHOOT THE BLACK GUY." Then, a few minutes later, "SHE'S GONNA MARRY THE JEW."

I mean... I'm thankful at least that I already knew the plot, but man was that obnoxious.

I was at a matinee of Beautiful back in December. I got to the theatre as soon as doors opened and stayed in my seat (in the very last row of the side mezz) until the show started. 15 minutes into the show, a group of about 4 older women took their seats right next to mine. I just tried to not let it distract me and focus on the show, but one of the women was trying to get my attention. She told me that her group had seats 6,8,10,and 12 and that I was in her seat (which was seat 6) I was super confused and didn't really know what to say, since I definitely was in the right seat and had been for almost an hour. She kept telling me to get out of her seat and now I was just as angry as she was, so I dug into my bag to find my ticket and show it to her. I wasn't going to give in and move just because she was causing a scene because it would push me all the way to the far side. She threw the ticket back at me and then her group took their seats in the four empty seats right next to me that were clearly theirs all along. If this had happened before the show started, it would probably just seem like a normal misunderstanding and wouldn't have left me with a bad taste in my mouth for the entire first act. But she just had to come in late and bother me (and the people around us) just to get a slightly better seat.

To make things worse, she sang along under her breath almost the whole show. I thought about moving at intermission but it looked like a full house.

Ok, so first I want to say that in a production of Les Miserables, there was a kid talking during the barricade scene. That was kind of understandable, since it was a little kid, but if your kid can't be quiet, don't bring them to the theatre. Additionally, I really don't like it when audiences decide to use flash photgoraphy. I just saw a production of Sweeney Todd, and there were a lot of audience members using their flash photography. Now, if you know anything about Sweeney, you probably know that most productions incorporate high platforms into the story. So, they had to make an announcement before the show and at intermission to not use flash photography, and even then as the announcement was being made I saw people around me taking pictures. Another thing I take issue with is when people give a standing ovation for one person but then choose to sit down for the next. I just am kind of annoyed by it as an actor myself, and I would be hurt if someone decided to sit down as soon as I came out and then immediately got back up. Also, I've sat next to people who've fallen asleep during the show (in the third row no less). I know sometimes shows can happen late at night, and sometimes it's bad so you're not that invested, but seriously? If you can't stay awake, don't see the show.

I really don't care if people fall asleep during a show as long as they don't snore, drool, or lean on me. I feel asleep at The Total Bent, but I didn't mean to and had had a long day...and was in a comfortable seat! In the back row.

It's not that its "fine", it's not....but it's not something people plan to do. I use to nod off all the time when I took my kids to the movies....its dark, comfy and no one needed anything from me. I never went thinking, "naptime", but it happened.