I just finished a 4-day, 8-show theater binge, (Boys in the Band, Head over Heels, Wicked, Phantom, HP 1, 2, Skintight, and Straight White Men) and it seems that Broadway audiences have crossed a seemingly small but to me, still disturbing threshold. At these 8 shows, I did not see people ON their phones, I saw people CHECKING their phones. I would say every five to ten minutes at all of these shows, someone within my line of sight was checking their phone. No they weren't sending a text or scrolling social media. They were checking the time. Reading a text but not responding to it. Seeing why their phone is vibrating or lighting up. See what the social media notification is. Checking the score of the World Cup. These things were done every 5 to 10 minutes and it legitimately seemed as if I were the unreasonable one. It seems as if everybody knows not to TEXT during a show or keep your phone out, but it is now considered reasonable to take your phone out for a quick second just to see the time or just to see who liked my check-in. I felt like an old worrywart. Is anyone on this board willing to defend this practice of just taking out your phone for a quick second here and there throughout a show? Because there is 110% the MO of Broadway audiences these days.
The other trend I noticed was so many very young children---especially at Harry Potter of course, whose parents were just horrible. Constantly checking to see if their child heard lines. Repeating lines to a child. Asking the child what they think will happen in the next scene. Explaining who each character is onstage. Lifting their hand up and pointing at things onstage despite the fact that their arm is impeding on the view of the person behind them.
The final thing is APPLE WATCHES. Apple watches offer people who can't stay away from their phones a convenient and technically safe way to be on their phones during the show without being on their phones during the show. It seemed that everywhere I looked, someone's apple watch (iwatch?? IDK IDC) was lighting up. The kids in the audience of Harry Potter were so restless and they would constantly sit with their hands up over their heads, waving their glowing watch to everyone behind them, with their parents totally oblivious, but of course still narrating the events of the play. I did hear one usher at the Lyric Theater tell people to turn off their watches, but once they kept lighting up again and again and again, ushers never intervened. The cutesy warning about "disgusting muggle technology" only served to make everyone think the rules are a joke.
