Biggest pet peeves in the theater- Page 2

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 6:29pm

Ohhhh... yeah, that's a good one. In my experience, it doesn't happen in New York nearly as egregiously as at road houses for tours. And it never ceases to be amazing. It's like the overture signals everyone's last chance to check their texts, get out their last few really important thoughts on Charlie Sheen, and sodomize hundreds of tiny candy-bar wrappers.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 6:32pm

"A Play is defined as a piece of drama, performed through dialogue. A Musical is a piece of drama performed through a combination of dialogue/music/movement."

Nope. The definition of play is as follows (Oxford Dictionary):
"a dramatic work for the stage or to be broadcast"

The definition of musical is a s follows:
"a play or movie in which singing and dancing play an essential part."

A musical IS a play.

"The two things ARE different!!"
They CAN be. But as far as definitions go, a musical IS a play.

Updated On: 3/23/11 at 06:32 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 6:34pm

Yup. A musical is a type of play. Just like a comedy or a drama is.

[CONAries]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 7:06pm

"In American English, the spelling is "theater," which refers to the form, the building, and anything else that "theatre" might refer to. The "-re" spelling is a perfectly acceptable variant, but that's what it is -- a variant."

I did wonder, as a Brit, if this was one of the spelling differences, such as when American English uses "z" where we use "s" (this being the most common difference) HOWEVER, I checked all my Broadway tickets, and Playbills (which ARE programmes... or programs if you are American) and they all use the -re spelling, NOT -er, which means, in my personal opinion, -re is the more used spelling.

And I still argue that a musical is NOT a play, otherwise, surely the Tony award nomination categories would surely read different, for one example. Also, at college, when studying Historical Context, we are taught that a play is communicated to the audience through spoken dialogue... but maybe this is another example of Americans and Brits using different terms, I don't know!

Oh, and finally, my BIGGEST pet peeve, is when people get far to involved and bothered by a topic on a web forum, which I have just realised (or realized for all you Americans) I am massively guilty of, so I will take this as my que to go to bed for the night, before I rip my hair out!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 7:17pm

**like**

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 7:32pm

A musical is always a play but a rectangle isn't always a square.

People who smoke cigars at intermission.

Rude house staff. I shouldn't be shocked when I encounter friendly ushers and box office staff; it should be the norm.

People who show up to rush half an hour before tickets are released and think they can dictate the rules of the line. I'm looking at you, cranky old lady at Book of Mormon who rolled up to the SRO line post-lotto and picked a fight with someone who had already been waiting 2 hours when he came back from a trip to the bathroom.

[denali.fire]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 7:38pm

The gum-cracker and/or the bubble gum poppers.


I have learned to turn around or next to me and stated in a very gentle voice;
"I dont think you realize how loud you are when you Chew/pop/crack your gum. Could you please stop chewing it until I would appreciate it an I am sure others would as well.
Thank you.

Quite often someone else has chimed in validated my statement.

It has always worked.

Be kind but assertive.

I have done the same with the text-ers duting a performance as well.

[raker]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 8:45pm

Actors wearing visible headset microphones. The worst.

[Joey.]

Posted: 3/23/11 at 11:52pm

Eating.

The first time I saw the recent Night Music revival with CZJ, a lady to my right started unwrapping her Kit Kat bar right as the intro music for "Send in the Clowns" began. I turned to her and quite audibly said "REALLY?! Right now?!" I couldn't help myself.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 12:19am

The gum chewers. God in heaven, the gum chewers.

Chewing gum should be banned from theatres.

I was at HOW TO SUCCEED the other day and during the second act this guy behind me decided to start chewing and chomping his gum like some kind of ruminant. It was one of the most disgusting sounds I've ever heard, I think only vomiting could sound worse (and even that would be preferable as no one would be constantly retching for an hour.) He wasn't directly behind me, but about 3 seats over, so I couldn't simply turn around and ask him to stop, and when I did turn around to look at him I could tell right away from his demeanor that he would not have taken kindly to anything I might have said.


(I can't tell you how many times I've been on the subway and seen someone get on, dressed impeccably in a business suit/dress, and then proceed to chomp their gum, mouths flailing open. It's like, "Damn, what a way to quickly go from smart-looking to trashy in seconds.")


As re: the theatre/er thing, I tend to use theatre to refer to the stage, and theater when speaking about the cinema. That's just the way I do it, either is perfectly acceptable.

[jennafan]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 3:10am

The soundtrack/cast recording debate is annoying as #ELL!!

People freak out when a cast recording is done in a singing booth just as a soundtrack is.
Grease the move is a soundtrack while the musical is a cast recording. Uh.. Ok :/ Makes LITTLE sense to me really.

I think it would be a different type of recording if it was recorded LIVE.

[CONAries]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 4:43am

The basic difference, (this is coming from a former media student) back when movies were made on film, and not digital, the narrow strip at the edge of the film would carry the sound and was known as the "soundtrack," so when the music from a movie was released on records etc. it would be the contents of the soundtrack, lifted off, edited and released,

Where a cast recording, is when the cast of a show, record the songs from a show, with the home listener in mind, I would still call live recordings, Cast Recordings, over Soundtracks, as when they are recorded in the theatre, they are recording it with the mind set of a home listener, where a Soundtrack is just an element of a film, taken direct to be released.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 6:20am

THAT'S not why people freak out Jenna. They don't like referring to a cast recording as a soundtrack because a soundtrack USUALLY refers to the incidental/back music ground music USED in the film. For example, the score of The Godfather, the music in Goodfellas. It's not peformed during the film but FOR the film and edited in. The actors are not performing.

To be honest: I don't know the right way to "categorize" what to call the recording of a movie musical. I'm still going to go with soundtrack as the actors don't ever perform live in front of an audience.

Updated On: 3/24/11 at 06:20 AM

[lizliz]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 10:34am

Twizzlers. They should not be sold in theatres (or theaters, even!), they have the loudest packaging of every candy out there. It's always terrible seeing people come back from intermission clutching their Twizzlers, and knowing you'll be hearing "crinkle crackle crinkle" for the rest of the show.

[Elke]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 10:41am

I get irritated quite easily when people are noisy: talking, chewing gum, eating M&Ms,... Terrible.

But what I find even more annoying (and I know they can't help it) are the tics some people have: sniffing loudly every few minutes, the 'shaky leg syndrome', twiddling their thumbs (if you have dry skin, you can actually hear that and it's annoying),... And you can't even ask them to stop, because they don't realise they're doing it.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 10:46am

When an adult sitting next to me pulls out his cell phone, pushes a few buttons, and puts it away as a few heads give me angry looks, assuming the noise was coming from the teenager whose cell phone was turned off immediately after entering the theatre.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 10:48am

Aye-e... I was dating a guy whose leg and foot almost never stopped tapping, especially during long stretches of sitting. It made me crazy, but even more than that, I knew it made other people crazy because the seats in our whole half of the row shake. I remember having to keep my hand on his knee almost during the entirety of ALNM so that he'd remember not to do it.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 11:03am

People who use "once and a while" when they mean "once in a while."