Bad Theater Behavior- Page 21
Bad Theater Behavior
#500Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/15/16 at 7:20pm
Atrocious behavior at the final show of Privacy last night. Some guy sitting next to me in row A center, bellowing/roaring loudly with laughter (even during quieter/more serious moments). Some lady right behind me constantly: talking with her male companion (asking questions etc), cackling loudly like a hyena, amongst other super annoying and distracting things. They tried taking a picture when Daniel came onstage but got caught by an eagle-eyed usher. Throughout the first half, I was giving her dagger looks but that just caused her to complain about me to her friend.
At intermission, I finally gathered the courage to ask her to stop the chatter and to tone it down a notch because it was disturbing MY enjoyment of the show. I hinted at the fact that it would probably be best if she stopped drinking (her 2nd or 3rd alcholic bev); she said that I needed to loosen up and take a drink and started putting her drink on my armrest. Her friend tried to calm her down and even agreed that she was being a bit too loud.
When the show was over, she actually tried yelling to get my attention to "tell me something." I just gave her my worst b*itch look and stated that I was not going to waste my time to talk to her. Thank goodness it was my 4th time seeing the show but I would've been really devastated if it was my first.
#501Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/15/16 at 7:54pm
I caught Curious Incident this past weekend (my second time) and someone in one of the boxes was using their phone for most of the last half of Act 1. I could tell the brightness was down, but I could still see it! I told an usher at intermission and he went over and talked to both people in the box (I couldn't tell with the lights up who the actual offender was), and it didn't happen again for all of Act 2. Thank you, Barrymore usher!
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
LetTheSunshineIn2
Understudy Joined: 3/10/12
#502Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/15/16 at 8:45pm
I was in the city this weekend and saw five shows. For the most part, it was just typical overly casual attire, people asking "what did she say", etc, and I have to say that the kids around me at School of Rock were extremely well-behaved. But at The Color Purple, the woman seated next to me in the third row center orchestra was talking on her phone when Act II began. Rather than hang up as the actors took the stage, she kept going with her convo. If looks could kill, the look Cynthia Erivo shot her sure would have.
#503Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/17/16 at 3:53pm
MX888 said: "
When the show was over, she actually tried yelling to get my attention to "tell me something." I just gave her my worst b*itch look and stated that I was not going to waste my time to talk to her. Thank goodness it was my 4th time seeing the show but I would've been really devastated if it was my first.
"
It was my first time seeing Privacy on Sun night, row D, and ugh that crowd was the worst! This woman was the one screaming out "it's ok to date your cousin if he's cute!" and stuff, right? I know exactly who you're talking about.
If Privacy wants to continue on they REALLY need to do something/add something to their instructions about when you can and cannot use your phone. I had both two seats down to my left AND two seats down to my right those people had their phones out the entire show, just lit up and texting/typing/whatevering away. Lights on both sides of my peripheral vision, all night. And then all of the picture takers (which to their credit the Public staff were quick to shut down every time - but I'm sure there could have been a space in the fun pre-show instructions for a direction and cartoon of 'no picture taking.' ) Then I had a talker behind me all show "oh that's very funny." "that's a good point." "I didn't know that." etc., who was attending some sort of interactive theatre apparently.
I usually LOVE seeing shows at The Public, I find The Public's audience to be among the best, in my top 5 show experiences ever is seeing Hamilton at The Public with not a single cell phone light, etc. a truly magic crowd. I don't know if Sunday night was because drunks, Harry Potter fans who don't know how to theatre (yeah I'm being judgmental), people allowed to keep their phones on and out, some combo of the above, but it was easily one of the worst audiences ever. Which was disappointing because I actually really loved the concept of the show.
#504Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/17/16 at 4:48pm
Anakela said: " It was my first time seeing Privacy on Sun night, row D, and ugh that crowd was the worst! This woman was the one screaming out "it's ok to date your cousin if he's cute!" and stuff, right? I know exactly who you're talking about.
If Privacy wants to continue on they REALLY need to do something/add something to their instructions about when you can and cannot use your phone. I had both two seats down to my left AND two seats down to my right those people had their phones out the entire show, just lit up and texting/typing/whatevering away. Lights on both sides of my peripheral vision, all night. And then all of the picture takers (which to their credit the Public staff were quick to shut down every time - but I'm sure there could have been a space in the fun pre-show instructions for a direction and cartoon of 'no picture taking.' ) Then I had a talker behind me all show "oh that's very funny." "that's a good point." "I didn't know that." etc., who was attending some sort of interactive theatre apparently.
I usually LOVE seeing shows at The Public, I find The Public's audience to be among the best, in my top 5 show experiences ever is seeing Hamilton at The Public with not a single cell phone light, etc. a truly magic crowd. I don't know if Sunday night was because drunks, Harry Potter fans who don't know how to theatre (yeah I'm being judgmental), people allowed to keep their phones on and out, some combo of the above, but it was easily one of the worst audiences ever. Which was disappointing because I actually really loved the concept of the show."
YES Anakela! When they asked if Keran (date #3) if she would want to go on a second date, she was the one who also screamed, "Of course she would!!"
But thank you for validating what I was experiencing! She even had the nerve to ask the people around her if she was really making that much noise… only 1 gentleman (who sat 1 seat over from her) spoke up and agreed with me. I also concur that this was one of the worse audiences at the Public I've encountered to date; it's definitely a combo of all the things you pointed out. While it's exciting to have many parts of the play breaking the 4th wall, that audience took it way too far!
I feel so bad that it was your first and only time seeing it - what a shame to have the experience ruined by a bunch of a**holes!! 
#505Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/17/16 at 5:41pm
I saw the Sunday matinee of Privacy. Daniel Radcliffe makes a curtain speech that starts with "please don't film this," and then he had to specifically interrupt his speech 3 times to call out people filming. The audience wasn't bad during the matinee, but I agree that, if they present the show again, they need to crack down more on cell phone use when it's not part of the show. People had a hard time putting those phones down. The ushers seemed to be watching the audience hard and gesticulating to people some, but maybe they were just looking for picture-takers, not other inappropriate cell use.
nolanativeny
Stand-by Joined: 3/29/16
#506Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 8/17/16 at 5:51pm
LizzieCurry said: "I caught Curious Incident this past weekend (my second time) and someone in one of the boxes was using their phone for most of the last half of Act 1. I could tell the brightness was down, but I could still see it! I told an usher at intermission and he went over and talked to both people in the box (I couldn't tell with the lights up who the actual offender was), and it didn't happen again for all of Act 2. Thank you, Barrymore usher!
"
I guess that person didn't get what the cell phone sounds they play at the beginning of that show are for. The last time I saw it a few weeks ago one of the ushers called out during the cell phone sounds "I know, it's weird, it means don't use your phone" which I thought was amusing.
dev101
Featured Actor Joined: 8/31/14
#507Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/4/17 at 8:23pm
I went to see Cats on 1/04 and thought it was the worst audience I have ever experienced. People would not find their seats before the show, but instead debating where mom and Grandmom were going to sit and who should sit on the end etc. The show was to begin at 2, but at 2:02 a woman holding paper cups of water walks to her seat and stands there pouring the water into a water bottle, completely oblivious to the fact that everyone was seated and the lights were dimming. Throughout the show people had their phones out. The ushers did their best to deal with the terrible audience, but there was so much poor behavior. It must be due to the large number of tourists and non-theatergoers getting tickets to their first show for the holidays or something. People just could not behave.
#508Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/4/17 at 11:02pm
The Cinderella story -- holy crap!
And yeah, you should get hazard pay.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#509Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/4/17 at 11:21pm
@PThespian, props to you and everyone else who work in the front of house. Y'all are the real MVP's
bwaylyric
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/22/03
#510Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/4/17 at 11:57pm
Not necessarily bad behavior, but bad scents. At Hamilton last night, my friend and I discovered a foul order coming from someone within close proximity to us. They had the worst case of smelly feet - sour and strong. It was raining yesterday, and I bet the wet shoes made matters worse. The guy to my right pulled his shirt over his nose during the show. I sure hope he didn't think it was originating from me.
What do you do if you knew who the culprit was?
#511Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/5/17 at 12:31am
Tonight, there was a woman behind me at Falsettos who clearly though that, it being the Lincoln Center taping, that hooting, hollering, and laughing at every moment, no matter how inappropriate, would somehow get her on TV like some sort of sporting event.
I grinned and beared it, but I almost had to read a bitch when she started clapping when Whizzer died.
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
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LxGstv
Broadway Star Joined: 11/22/16
#512Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/5/17 at 1:17am
bwaylyric said: "Not necessarily bad behavior, but bad scents. At Hamilton last night, my friend and I discovered a foul order coming from someone within close proximity to us. They had the worst case of smelly feet - sour and strong. It was raining yesterday, and I bet the wet shoes made matters worse. The guy to my right pulled his shirt over his nose during the show. I sure hope he didn't think it was originating from me.
What do you do if you knew who the culprit was?
"
When I heard that when you are in the cancellation line you have to go right in the theater because they don't want the tickets being re-sold, my inmediate thought was gross, some people wait in line starting at 7am or even earlier, I can't imagine being in line all day and just going to watch the show without showering. I would assume it's worse during the summer but this story is from last night.
Funny enough I had a similar experience at The King and I, there was this family of tourists and the father had his shoes off during the show, and it was bad. So inappropriate, you are at the theater not at home.
@z5
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/30/15
#513Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/5/17 at 1:29am
Last week (Fri night I think) i was at the Front Page and there was a screaming match between a few people on the left side of the orchestra during the first intermission...ushers went RUNNING over there. I think it was because a few different people thought they were all supposed to be int he same seat.
At the same time a crazy old wench was screaming at the bartender for not serving her after the second bell whens eh show was about to begin again.
hes16
Stand-by Joined: 2/6/16
#514Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 1/22/17 at 12:50am
Tonight at the Great Comet, when the actors started giving out and throwing dumplings, one of the actors threw one at my younger (child) relative seated next to me. He ended up not catching the dumpling and it landed on my seat behind my back. The lady behind me was just so keen on getting a dumpling that she reached her hand down onto my chair to grab the dumpling that was touching my behind... She then proceeded to proclaim to the world, "I got a dumpling!" like it was something so spectacular.
It amazes me that she had the nerve to basically touch my rear end just to get that stupid dumpling that would have gone to a child...
VintageSnarker
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/30/15
#515Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/12/17 at 2:31pm
A post in The Play Goes Wrong thread reminded me of my experience at On Your Feet. Throughout the performance there was a lot of whispering and people drinking beverages full of ice. I could let that go because it wasn't hard to follow the story and it was annoying but I wasn't that invested in what was happening on stage. But the woman next to me was unbelievable. She was a thin woman and didn't have any noticeable reason that she needed to take up more space. She had her legs crossed when I sat so that one foot was all the way in front of me. She moved it when I passive aggressively put my purse down. She then proceeded to talk throughout the show and yet she was the one who kept stabbing me with her elbow. The seats at the Marquis are not tight. I had pushed myself all the way to the opposite armrest so she had to reach over to keep hitting me in the side.
#516Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/12/17 at 2:45pm
Movie theater culture has so completely taken over, and it's sad. Last weekend at Picnic Off-Broadway, a middle-aged couple sat down before the show, pulled out a giant box of milk duds, and proceeded to chomp down the whole thing before the show started. Then at the first intermission, they pull out a similarly large box of skittles. It's like they had an entire candy store in their pockets. I'm glad they confined their eating to intermission only and didn't noisily munch during the show, but seriously--you can't go two hours without snacks?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#517Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/12/17 at 2:55pm
Didn't Hairspray used to sell popcorn back in the day?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
nasty_khakis
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/15/07
#518Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/12/17 at 3:42pm
Yes, Hairspray did. When I tended bar at other theatres people got downright mean sometimes when I said we didn't. "But Hairspray DOES!!"
Wicked's merch also made people think all shows had snow globes, golf balls, beach towels, etc.
djoko84
Broadway Star Joined: 3/14/13
#519Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/13/17 at 7:05am
Thankfully theatres don't sell popcorn. I hate the smell and the noise people make when eating it in movie theatres.
#520Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/13/17 at 8:07am
Someone's cell phone went off at If I Forget on Saturday. It's unbelievable how people ignore it and let it keep ringing. I have no idea where it was coming from either. It didn't sound close.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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rebeccmam31
Featured Actor Joined: 10/21/15
#521Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/13/17 at 8:10am
Marianne2 said: "Someone's cell phone went off at If I Forget on Saturday. It's unbelievable how people ignore it and let it keep ringing. I have no idea where it was coming from either. It didn't sound close. "
Last weekend at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh (during a performance of the Book of Mormon tour), I had my SECOND experience of someone TAKING A PHONE CALL during a show. She answered it and had a brief conversation. Just unbelievably rude.
#522Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/13/17 at 8:11am
djoko84 said: "Thankfully theatres don't sell popcorn. I hate the smell and the noise people make when eating it in movie theatres.
"
The Kimmel Center in Philly (where I live) sells popcorn and small boxed meals--sandwiches, salads, etc--but they're very good about not allowing people to bring anything inside. In the several years I've been attending Philadelphia Orchestra concerts there, I've never seen anyone get a snack inside the auditorium.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#523Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/13/17 at 10:59am
At last Thursday's Phantom matinee, a woman seated in the front row of orchestra center (who, I feel compelled to note, was wearing gold lame high-heeled sneakers bedazzled with faux diamonds), pulled out her iPhone 6 Plus at the start of the second act and began, not surreptitiously, to record video of the "Masquerade" scene.
I was so awestruck by her gall that I could at first only stare at that large, garish screen, visible to virtually everyone else in the house. As my outrage overcame my awe, I leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned to me, I glared at her and said "TURN THAT OFF. NOW." She complied immediately.
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
LxGstv
Broadway Star Joined: 11/22/16
#524Bad Theater Behavior
Posted: 3/18/17 at 12:05pm
Last night at The Price this woman in the box seats had her phone turned on and facing up, every time she got a notification that stupid screen would light up... it wasn't nearly as bad as people in the end that weren't applauding not because they didn't enjoy the performances, but because they were too busy taking pictures of the cast on stage... while I understand that it didn't affect the performance itself it just felt rude towards the actors, they deserve the applause at the end, they came out twice and people were still taking pictures instead of applauding... argh!
I also think it's funny that AC126748 posted that movie culture has taken over, its funny because I was talking to my partner about this yesterday, I have ran into worst behavior and ruder people so much more at the theater than in the movies to be honest... I can count on one hand the times I've had annoying people either talking or using their phones at the movies... can't say the same for the theater however, people pulling our phones or just talking happens way more often...
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