Bad Theater Behavior- Page 20

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/30/16 at 10:42pm

My father sat on his laptop through the ENTIRE She Loves Me livestream tonight...

Seriously.

The nerve.

[hes16]

Posted: 7/7/16 at 11:13am

Someone brought pizza into Hamilton 3 days ago. David Korins responded to the person on Instagram and said that it's funny that she brought it in, but I just think that's rude to be honest. 

Updated On: 7/7/16 at 11:13 AM

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/7/16 at 5:51pm

^ I'm wondering how she got in the door, let alone shown to her seat, with pizza.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 7/9/16 at 2:09am

I've seen some weird and crazy things in audiences, but tonight was a definite first. I won the lotto for Book of Mormon - a single ticket for myself, and was placed along side another single on the end of the front row. The lady in the seat next to me upon sitting down pulled out a few sketches and those artsy oil crayons and began to fill in a flower she had drawn. I began to wonder if she was going to be coloring the entire show, but little did I know what she was going to do. Just as the show was about to begin, the lady pulled out a blank sheet of paper keeping her oil crayons on her lap and as Hello was happening she began to sketch. At first, I thought she was sketching the performers, only to find she was sketching the conductor. As time went on, the lady kept leaning on the curtained off bar in front us to get a better look at him. To say the least, it was very distracting not only to the cast, myself and others around me, but the conductor who was conducting. At the end of Turn It Off, the house manager approached her and told her to stop as it was distracting. The lady in question "stopped" in the sense that she was paying more attention and not causing as much of a distraction but sketched every so often. 

As the lights came up on intermission, the lady bolted with her bulky backpack and I wasn't sure if she'd be coming back. The lovely and sweet house manager of the O'Neill was waiting for the lady to come back so she could offer her a seat further back so she could continue to sketch without distracting. The lady didn't return until just before the lights went down on Act Two, but the house manager (who left just before this) came back down and offered her the option - the lady opting to stay in her seat and not sketch, but she wasn't happy about it. While she seemed "upset" over all, she had moments where she still seemed to be enjoying herself, but it was perhaps one of the oddest things I've seen. 

According to the house manager, she's done this at other shows and a person in the cast recognized her from having sat next to her at another show where she did this. For what it's worth, she had some keen Jack Dawson a la Titanic skills with her sketching, but yeah - not the time nor the place. 

Updated On: 7/9/16 at 02:09 AM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 7/9/16 at 8:33am

^ That is odd.

Last Sunday I went to see a community theater production of Into the Woods.  Was an odd experience because there ended up only being 25 of us in the audience. The theater can seat about 300. There was also no usher as we could sit wherever we wanted. Of course an announcement was made of no phones or recordings. And some guy not sitting close to me did it anyway.  Actually,  he only recorded the parts with Cinderella because he must have been there for that actress. I noticed his phone was away when she wasn't on stage.  But, had I ended up behind him, I,don't know what I would have done. The people who founded the group were on stage.  And the audience was so small it would have been a huge disturbance if it escalated.

[Sadlad]

Posted: 7/9/16 at 5:28pm

I'm not sure whether this qualifies as "bad behavior" just unusual, but at a showing of Something Rotten a few weeks ago a women walks in with a large service dog, who proceeds to have the dog sit on her lap. I understand the necessity of why some people need a service dog and the women was seated on the aisle, but what made it somewhat bizarre was the dog didn't hang its neck on side of the aisle, but on the inside between the lady and a bemused older lady next to her.........I should add I never heard a peep out of the dog 

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/19/16 at 8:07pm

A couple of times come to mind...

* A friend and I went to see 110 when it was at Studio 54. I'd rushed it, so we were in the center mezz, which was fine. BUT... About 5 minutes into Act 1, there were some people on the side who I swear decided to make the picnic scene all-inclusive as they whipped out PLATES and SILVERWARE and started dishing up food!

*The same friend and I once, after losing a couple of lotteries (back when they were all live and you could skip from one to another), went to see if BY CHANCE there were and SRO tickets left for Spamalot. There were, and we were totally happy to stand and see it. Well, there were 4 people who had the spots next to ours who were NOT so happy to stand, and the moment the lights began to dim they hopped around to the 4 empty seats right in front of us. About 30 seconds later, the people with the tickets (admittedly for coat check they should have planned ahead a little more, but they WERE in the theatre) showed up so the others had to slink back to their standing spots under the glare of the usher. About halfway through the first act, the same usher came over during applause and escorted my friend and me to AMAZING side orchestra seats in the second or third row - but made it abundantly clear that the 4 early movers were NOT invited.

* One night in one of the extra quiet moments at The Vertical Hour, a cell phone went off. You could hear the woman whose phone it was go "Oh f#^%!" but she proceeded to ANSWER the phone in a half-whisper going "I can't talk. I'm in the theatre." Julianne and Bill just glared in her direction from stage.

[cynthiastarlight]

Posted: 7/20/16 at 8:55am

At Intermission I was attempting to go to the Ladies Room and had to move past a woman who refused to let me pass by her in the row of seats. She wouldn't move her legs or stand up. Our conversation: "You aren't going to let me pass by you?" Her: No." Me: "Well I need to go by you." Her:"I don't know why. I don't know where you think you are going!" Me: Laughing. "That makes a lot of sense" as I push by her legs.

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/20/16 at 9:08am

I saw The Rose Tattoo in Williamstown last weekend. The performance I attended was sold out and the only seat I could get was in the last row of the second balcony. In the front row of the balcony, there were a ton of very young kids (like, 5 or 6 years old). I am pretty sure they were connected to the children who were acting in the production. Basically, more than half the row was composed on these kids and their family (parents and grandparents, I would assume).

Putting aside the fact that this play, which is almost entirely about sex, is beyond inappropriate for children on that age, both the kids and the adults were horribly behaved. Understandably, the kids didn't have much idea of what was going on -- but the adults were loudly explaining the plot to them during the performance. They inappropriately made noise when someone they knew came out on stage. And they passed noisy snacks throughout the performance. 

Basically, they treated the performance like it was community theater, not a professional production starring an Oscar winner that people paid a lot of money to see. I would have said something if I wasn't seated too far away to get their attention, but I couldn't believe that no one seated closer did anything. I was able to move to a better seat at intermission, but I can only imagine that this nonsense continued through the second act as well.

 

Updated On: 7/20/16 at 09:08 AM

[Broadwayhunk]

Posted: 7/20/16 at 11:56pm

Next, we'll have a full report by Paul Blart, the security guard.

[flyinghighwithwicked]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:15pm

I've been in the city this summer and have been able to see a great deal of shows.  I have been abhorred by the way people have acted.  I don't think there has been a single performance that I have seen where someone hasn't done something that took my attention from the performance.  I think the most irritating thing is latecomers, but honorable mentions go to talkers, those who sing along (always conveniently seated directly behind me), those who seem to think the cell phone rule doesn't apply to them, and even the woman four rows behind me at Aladdin taking FLASH photography during 'A Whole New World'.  I have seen Wicked a large number of times, and I permanently associate Thank Goodness with the smell of alcohol, the sound of crinkling candy wrappers, dozens of people walking in late, and the coughing/rustling of audience members around me.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 7/31/16 at 11:29pm

Manspreading. I am so over it.

[sydney16]

Posted: 7/31/16 at 11:45pm

I've luckily never experienced really terrible theatre behavior, but when I saw Something Rotten it was pretty annoying when the guy sitting next to me decided to say (at full volume) the name of every musical that was being referenced during "A Musical" (or at least the musicals that he knew).

[jon34534]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 12:59am

I was at a performance of Act of G-d tonight and a woman sitting towards the front and center couldn't stop waving her hands and randomly laughing loudly and inappropriately during the show.

After being warned once by the ushers/manager Sean Hays stopped the show at which point, I suspect, he insisted that she be ejected (rightfully so in my opinion, she was very distracted and clearly high on something or just very drunk).


When he came back on, he said now that's the power of G-d (that ad-lib'ed bit of his being one of the funnier moments of the show, lol)

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 4:17am

^Hahaha! Oh my goodness, what a funny line... Wonderful way to play off a problem...

[pg1287]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 8:33am

Saw the Newsies tour in Chicago last weekend and of course was seated near an obnoxious group of three women, probably late 20's-early 30's who clearly had five too many glasses of Moscato before the show. Highlights included video recording during Carrying the Banner, loudly reciting every "yeah" and "no" during The World Will Know, talking constantly, and slurred singing-along during Santa Fe. Luckily during intermission another audience member informed the house manager about them. The house manager was ON IT and gave them a very stern warning about their behavior. Not a peep out of them after that but the house manager watched them during all of Act 2 and was ready to pounce if they started again.  

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 11:30am

From my theater experiences this summer, it seems that taking out a phone to check messages, notifications, or the time, for just a few second, is now acceptable. I still find it disruptive, especially if it's someone in front of me and I can see their phone and know that any minute now it will come out again. 

The worst offender was at Finding Neverland.  I was about 10th row center and two girls 3rd row center had their phones out for most of the show, sharing each other's instagrams. They even slouched down in their seats and held their phones up over their heads.  I don't know why the people directly behind them didn't ask them to stop. But I was able to see all of their pictures clearly and easily. 

At Waitress, on the other hand, people took out their phones to take pictures of the bows, and you would have thought they took a gun out or something. Ushers screaming and swarming and running,even jumping over people to get to the middle of a row. It was great to see. I found the house manager on the way out and complimented his ushers. 

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 2:41pm

And I wonder if future actors are even being taught theatre manners is college!

A few years ago, I saw a performing arts college production of "Reefer Madness: the musical".  It was the last performance, a Sunday matinee, so all the kids who couldn't see it earlier came to see it.   They were making so much noise during the opening number, cheering their friends and hooting and hollering, that I almost left the theatre!

I mean, it's a Sunday matinee.  You can see your friends after the show.  You don't have to hurry off to a class or anything like that.  Show some manners!

[Mike Bevel]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 3:33pm

My favorite Bad Theater Behavior experience was at "Therese Raquin" earlier this year. It was a Saturday matinee, every senior citizen in Manhattan was there, and when a character says he's moving everyone to Paris, a woman in the audience said, loudly, as if she were in conversation with the actors, "Paris? They'll LOVE Paris."

And that's when I adopted her as my grandmother and want only good things and soft foods to happen to her.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 8/13/16 at 5:00pm

Phantom4ever said: "From my theater experiences this summer, it seems that taking out a phone to check messages, notifications, or the time, for just a few second, is now acceptable. I still find it disruptive, especially if it's someone in front of me and I can see their phone and know that any minute now it will come out again. 

The worst offender was at Finding Neverland.  I was about 10th row center and two girls 3rd row center had their phones out for most of the show, sharing each other's instagrams. They even slouched down in their seats and held their phones up over their heads.  I don't know why the people directly behind them didn't ask them to stop. But I was able to see all of their pictures clearly and easily. 

At Waitress, on the other hand, people took out their phones to take pictures of the bows, and you would have thought they took a gun out or something. Ushers screaming and swarming and running,even jumping over people to get to the middle of a row. It was great to see. I found the house manager on the way out and complimented his ushers. 

 

"

Just for the record, the Lunt where Neverland plays is a much larger theater than the Brooks, where Waitress is. I know ushers who work in both theaters (because they work for the same Nederlander organization so you may see some of the same ushers at both)  - and its just going to be more of a challenge to see things in a larger house than in a smaller one. You are talking about a house with approx 1500 seats vs 1000.

Nice to hear you found an excellent experience at the Brooks for sure.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 8/14/16 at 4:56am

I don't know if there's any solution to this, but what I find very distracting in both live theaters and movie theaters is that if you sit alongside senior citizens, you're very likely to hear them asking their partners "What did he / she just say?" This is understandable considering, but nevertheless distracting.

 

EDIT: Grammar

Updated On: 8/14/16 at 04:56 AM

[morosco]

Posted: 8/14/16 at 7:49pm

I usually say: " I don't think you realize how disruptive ( or distracting) you are. Could you please be quiet?  Thank you.
 

I've often thought about having cards made or slips of paper with a note like above printed on them to give to an annoying audience member in a discreet manor.  Sometimes when people are told discreetly they respond better.

You probably don't realize that what you are doing is distracting to other audience members.  Please consider refraining and instead join us in enjoying the show.  With all due respect, thank you.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 8/14/16 at 8:02pm

I never seem to see bad theatre behavior in Los Angeles, but I think I know why. Theatre doesn't bring tourists to Los Angeles, but it's definitely a draw in New York. I think the Los Angeles theatre audiences are locals for the most part. Broadway's far more subjected to tourists at a certain point. I don't think all tourists to Broadway are bad...but it only takes one to get posted here!!

[Mediamaven2]

Posted: 8/14/16 at 9:05pm

Related pet peeve:  Why do people sit with their glasses on top of their heads during an entire theater performance?  Honestly, if you need your glasses, by all means wear them.  But as a decorative accoutrement on your head in a Broadway theater house, it is quite obnoxious and inconsiderate to those behind you.

I spent a few minutes of my third visit to The Color Purple the other day deciding whether or not to say something to the person in front of me (with the glasses on their head). I decided not to. Very unlike myself to be quiet. I didn't bother because, by itself , the glasses didn't 'block' any action as much as say their entire head did when actors moved to one particular spot. But the glasses did take up a little bit of space blocking  my viewing of the stage for no reason. Kind of like wearing a hat. I mean, why does anyone even have to think about how to tell these people to take it off?

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 8/14/16 at 11:37pm

MichelleCraig said: "I never seem to see bad theatre behavior in Los Angeles, but I think I know why. Theatre doesn't bring tourists to Los Angeles, but it's definitely a draw in New York. I think the Los Angeles theatre audiences are locals for the most part. Broadway's far more subjected to tourists at a certain point. I don't think all tourists to Broadway are bad...but it only takes one to get posted here!!"

 

I've been to a theatre in Los Angeles once and it was one of the worst audiences I've ever been in. Talking, eating, taking pics, on the phone...etc. Los Angeles theatres definitely have tourists in them.