Beauty and The Beast=Worst Audience in History!

[mattnyc2]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:09pm

My boy and I were wandering around the theater district yesterday looking for something to see. It has been years since either of us had seen BATB, and noticing that Johnny T. is in it now, we decided to give it another chance. The show wasn't that bad, most of the performers were great, but the audience was absolutely terrible!
Here's a few examples of some of the rudest behavior I've ever seen in a broadway theater:

-Most of the audience did not take their seats until five minutes before curtain. People kept walking in 30-40 minutes into the show.

-5 minutes into the show some ghetto guy shouts "SHUT THE F**K UP NIG**" to someone in the mezz.

-Constant flash photography throughout the entire show.

-Children who were extremely loud, some crying loudly and their parents never took them out.

-There were a row of Spanish people sitting behind me who didn't speak any English and kept loudly repeating lines from the show to eachother.

-Cellphones going off, and not being answered.

-Children bouncing up and down in their seats, causing loud squeaking noises.

-One woman had the nerve to ask an usher "Do we have assigned seats or can we just sit wherever we want?" She was not very happy when she found out her seat was in the last seat of the mezz.

-Endless chatting throughout the show.

Ugh, I'm sure people are going to say that I shouldn't have expected any more from this show, but it was still dissapointing to be surrounded by such ignorance. Oh well, guess I won't be heading back to the Lunt anytime soon.

[Lizzya9]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:14pm

Ughh I had the same problem w/ B&tB! It's a problem because it's become such a tourist show. I mean I myself am a tourist and that's fine, but a lot of the people that see it haven't the slightest clue about theatre ettiqutte. My aunt took me and she had never seen a show, and she wore denim shorts and a big t shirt. I just think there should be some set of rules outside a theatre. I HATE people that take pics, and I don't understand why it's not better enforced. If I was an usher I would be running up and down the aisles to kick out whoever was snapping photos.

[antiandrewx]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:14pm

What did the ushers do? That sounds like you were desribing a trip to the zoo.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:14pm

Ugh! That sucks. Sorry you had to experience that, Matt. Those damn Disney shows let the audience do whatever the hell they want. As long as they keep paying, no rules apply. A complete free-for-all.

[D2]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:16pm

It wasn't much better at GREY GARDENS this afternoon. See my post in the "Hilarious Comments..." thread.

In addition to those, the same thing with people milling around until just before it started, people coming in late and talking throughout. At one point in the first act one of the ushers had to come down and tell two ladies in the front row dead center to "Please be quiet."

"Whatever happened to class? Now no one even says OOPS..."

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:19pm

I'm very sorry. Its become a show filled with tourists who don't know how to behave whatsoever.

[mattnyc2]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:21pm

I was in the mezz. and I kept seeing flashes going off from the orch., so I have no idea what the ushers did. It was really dissapointing because I really wanted to sit back and enjoy the show, but the audience made it almost impossible! I don't understand the thrill of taking pictures during a performance when you can just go online and look at pictures with much higher quality. Sheesh, tourists.

[Piercemn]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:35pm

I was in the mood for a Fairy Tale, so I went to see B & the B about 3 years ago. I was shocked at how much it's turned into a theme-park attraction. There are so many inaccuracies that have been thrown in, and it's evident that the director hasn't been back to police the production with new cast members. I almost walked out, I was so disgusted.

What gets me about this is that I could have seen Avenue Q in previews, Enchanted April or something else, and I opted for a Disney World New York experience. Thank goodness I only paid half price, getting it at TKTS.

I loved both The Lion King (here in Minneapolis) and Mary Poppins (twice in London) when I saw them, but I'll think twice before I see another Disney musical on Broadway.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:47pm

The taking of photographs during a performance needs to be made ILLEGAL and we need to have cops in every theatre at every performance prepared WITH handcuffs to take appropriate measures when and if a flash goes off. The same rule should apply to cell phones ringing OR vibrating.

Updated On: 1/7/07 at 09:47 PM

[Piercemn]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:52pm

I agree, but even worse, when I saw An Ideal Husband, there was a man, obviously a tourist, who was videotaping the show, and the ushers did NOTHING!

[Jellylorum]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 9:52pm

Sorry to hear about that.

I hate how people don't turn off their phones despite being told beforehand to do so. During Company last week, some idiot's phone started ringing and he just let it keep on ringing. It stopped, but then it started ringing again. I saw one of the actors scowl while this was happening.

[BrunetteBombshell]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 10:34pm

Sorry to hear that the audience was horrible. Something like that happened to me when I saw The Wedding Singer.

A few people had come in during the opening number and were walking to their seats in the mezz. People had to stand up to let them in, so soon there were about five or six people standing up. It angered someone sitting farther up in the mezz and he yelled at them to sit down, and someone yelled back, really loudly and told them to calm down. That they were trying to find their seats.

It was really disturbing and, I thought, rather obnoxious on both of their parts.

[MovieGuy1031]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 10:39pm

I've always said that the Lunt-Fontanne is like a kindergarten at recess...

[ashbash1990]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 10:43pm

"What ever happened to class?"
-Fred Ebb never wrote a Truer word...

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 10:47pm

By using a flash camera just shows how stupid they are. The flash isn't even effective beyond 20 feet.

Updated On: 1/7/07 at 10:47 PM

[D2]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 10:51pm

One thing I will say: at last night's performance of SPRING AWAKENING, the audience was a well-behaved mix of New Yorkers of all ages, tourists of all stripes and of course the wildly enthusiastic but respectful teen-aged fans of the show. It was a little slice of heaven that made me feel that all might not yet be lost.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:20am

I went last week and experienced one of the rudest audiences I have ever seen:

- a couple of people came in late (around the Gaston number)...people were sitting in their seats...the mezz is tight so those people had to get up and move into their real seats...so a bunch of people kept standing up

- group of foreigners behind us...one kid was talking...he screamed when SPOILER Gaston stabbed the beast END SPOILER, but I guess that is sort of understandable

- one of the young kid's behind us...their cell phone rang

- a young boy behind was leaning on the edge of his seat that he was practically breathing on my boyfriend's neck...he was leaning so far that he kinda fell off his seat and bumped into the back of us

- and not to mention people kept getting up and down, probably to use the bathroom

[waddledee524]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:31am

"The taking of photographs during a performance needs to be made ILLEGAL and we need to have cops in every theatre at every performance prepared WITH handcuffs to take appropriate measures when and if a flash goes off. The same rule should apply to cell phones ringing OR vibrating."

Wow, sucks for the people who are getting shot next borough over.

But yes, I agree that audience behavior is atrocious nowadays. I really have no desire to see any Disney on Broadway right about now.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:39am

It's not restricted to Broadway, BTW. I was in NY during Christmas and saw MAGIC FLUTE at the Met. The ushers were running ragged before the curtain even went up, getting people to stop taking pictures. It got to the point where the usher in Dress Circle LOUDLY confiscated the camera of a woman sitting on the front row and then made a HUGE point that he would do the same to anyone else even THINKING about holding a camera in their hands before, during, or after the performance. You'd think an opera audience would know better, but apparently not.

[Amber2]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 2:05am

So, at the matinee of "Chicago" on Saturday, the audience was pretty good, except for the people behind me, who decided they just HAD to kick the seat in front of them (namely my own.) But I have a story of worse behavior at a Broadway show from when I saw "Chicago" for the first time over the summer. Throughout the entire show, this really loud and obnoxious guy kept screaming his approval at the actors when there was SUPPOSED to be quiet. He kept going, like "YEAH!" and "You show 'em, honey/baby/sweetheart/darling!" It was cute maybe the first two times he did anything like that, but really quickly, it was clear the actors got annoyed with him, you could tell by the looks on their faces.

In regards to the cell phones ringing during shows, that's totally rude. As a performer myself (local community theatre level, but still. that's SOMETHING) I know it's so distracting when a cell phone starts to ring, people start to talk, or flash photography starts going off- it can throw one off completely. I do wish audiences all over would take that into consideration, and I think Bucks County Playhouse says it best. "Turn off your cell phones, you're not that damn important!"

[StarStruckGB]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 2:15am

There's a reason my parents took me to see this shows original run around '96. I was only about 5 or 6, but I was mature enough to know that you're supossed to be quiet. They still tell me to this day that my younger brothers were never like that, thats why we took you to shows and museums much earlier then when we started bringing your brothers.
But I guess if only quiet little kids were brought to this show, well it wou;dn't make so much money.

I'm sorry to hear this show has been causing such bad experiences lately.
Eep, makes me worry about our local production of this coming up. We've already added an extra performance in anticipation of more people with kids coming. Oh boy...

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 2:27am

FWIW, when I saw Beauty and the Beast at Sacramento Music Circus, the kids weren't the problem -- it was the adults.

[Makanthony22]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 2:34am

I think this applies to all Disney shows.
I went to see Mary Poppins a few weeks and there was a young girl behind me who cried the entire first 20 minutes of the show because she said she was scared of being on the balcony and was going to fall off. Her mother did not tell her to close her mouth she just made the situation worse by chatting with her and making conversation about every line and song in the show. Non stop talking it was insane. During the first few parts of the shows I was also unable to hear because the mother was busy making a snack for her daughter with peanut butter and apples in a plastic bag.
This is almost as bad as the time I went to see CHICAGO which I have come to expect all tourist's at. We were on the first row in the balcony and the woman to our left took off her shoes during the performance to put them on her husbands lap for a rub during the show. They smelt really bad and it was just not the place to be doing that.
It is really a shame because I work in the industry and I know how much work goes into a show and it basically is very disrespectful to other audience members and people on stage.

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 3:10am

Y'know what's sad? A local theatre who always has The Rocky Horror Show over the summer has stricter rules about cell phones and cameras than Broadway.

What they do is check your bag, and if they see a camera or cell phone, they will remove it and place it on a table in the little room outside of the theatre itself, and at the end of the performance, you can go back and get it. Of course, it's guarded so no one can just come in and take away everyone's cameras and such. But I'll tell you something -- their method works.

I'm sorry you had to deal with a terrible audience. Reminds me of the matinee showing I went to of Sight Unseen. There was a questions and answers segment afterwards with Laura Linney and all these old ladies were complaining to her about how they "couldn't hear her in the second act because of the mics". Surprisingly, I heard Laura & company just fine.

[HamletWasBipolar]

Posted: 1/8/07 at 4:14am

Atrocious audience behavior is SO not limited to the Disney shows. But you really should be ready for it it any slightly family oriented production. I wouldnt touch a Disney show..oh wait, thats cause they suck artistically and are the death of Broadway as we know it.
I have two quick stories. I thought I had seen it all when the woman behind at the Streisand concert was on her cell phone and screaming in to it, " She's singing it right now, shes singing it right now" during, "People". Yes,I turned around and told her to shut the hell up. This was eclipsed not in magnitude, but in idiocy as I went to see an off-off Bway show last week called Callback in a 99 seat black box. Mind you, this is a 2 hour long adult show. Just as the lights are going down a woman comes in carrying packages and a 2 year old. Well, 97 people let out a collected, " You got to be f++ing kidding me." Needless to say the child was noisy, the audience told her so, and she was forced to leave, save the child be eaten by the row in front of him. Moral of the story...Bring back the porn to 42nd Street, the audiences were more well behaved!!!!!!!!!!!