Booing at the theatre- Page 2

Posted: 9/5/06 at 8:51pm

For most posters on this board, an adequate way to express displeasure with any facet of a ahow would be to see it only 10 times versus 40

[SamIAm]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 8:58pm

This thread was also posted on the other broadway board with a link to the article in the Guardian. It is interesting to note that on the other board there were a number of people who felt it was perfectly appropriate to boo to express their displeasure. I feel that booing merely shows how poorly bred and educated you are. If you want to show your displeasure you can a) get up and walk out of the theater before the show is over or b) withhold applause at the curtain. I don't care how you justify it, booing is rude, disrespectful and low class.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 9:03pm

If I hate a show (which I often do), I don't allow myself to remain in the theatre long enough to have the opportunity to boo. If it's awful and I hate it, I walk out, and I have done so atleast a dozen times.

[The Stars R Aligned]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 9:06pm

i wouldnt
i would think about it but never do it
my grandmother did
we saw Jersey Boys
ya know how they curse a lot..well she dosnt appreciate curse words, so she booed everytime they said one.
i was embarassed.

i would only boo somthing after the show was over and i was at my house telling my family what it was about.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:07pm

At the first preview of BRING BACK BIRDIE in January 1981, Act 1 ended with a song called "Filth," in which a rock band made up of young kids were sitting on toilets singing about filth. At the end of the song, the curtain came down and there was virtually no applause and many audience members started booing.

Needless to say, that song was cut after the first preview. Unfortunately, it didn't save the show.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:15pm

I work in Children's Theatre and we actually used to encourage the kids to boo at the villian. I know it helped many of us get into the moment, and find that connection with the audience that we needed.

However, I think booing during a show which is not children's theatre or which does not have audience interaction of some kind is wrong. There are other ways of showing displeasure.

[west end artist1]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:17pm

I also agree that booing is wrong to do to a show that you havent enjoyed but if every aspect of the show from start to finish was a mess then i would change my opinion,hence

Jekyll and Hyde in Manchester UK on it's last uk tour was met with lot's of booing as this had to be the biggest mess i had ever seen on stage.

From it been a cheap production to Paul Nicholls not been able to sing a note in tune and then actually pretending to sing along to a pre recorded track all through act 2 it was a bloody mess.

This was a 2000 capacity Theatre and only 600/700 people were at that nights show ,but by the time the show was over only about 100 were left and they let the company know how angry they were.

I had to agree with them 100 percent

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:20pm

Back in the late 70s, Liza Minelli was in SF for out of town tryouts for something that was *then* known as "The Act". I dont remember what the title was when it finally made it to NY, but it was about a cabaret performer looking back on her life. It was interminable. Three hours after the thing had started, we were *finally* at the end of "the act", and Liza, in character, is taking a bow. We knew it wasnt the end, because there's one more song listed in the program. She then comes down to the edge of the stage and sits, very Garland, and says "You've been such a lovely audience. You know what I feel like doing?"

Someone in the upper balcony yelled out, 'I dont know, but I'd like to get home sometime tonight!" The theatre fell apart laughing. Liza laughed with them, then enjoined, "Wait ten minutes. We can share a cab."

Now thats class.

But as Margo points out, booing is much stronger a tradition in Europe than here. Audiences there are less forgiving, but they also boo at the appropriate target. There was a horrendous FLEDERMAUS in Germany three or four years ago, wherein the director publicly stated that he didnt think it was a very funny opera and proceeded to stage the third act in a concentration camp -- and while the audience politely applauded the singers, they were merciless with the director/designer team, so much so that the two had to leave under police protection by a side door. (And yes, it was that bad, folks -- its out on DVD, if anyone's interested).

Bottom line? If something's bad, let them know. But make sure you're letting the *right* people know.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:21pm

Oh I booed very loudly during the curtain call of one of the last performances of the last Equity RENT tour in San Francisco. I mean, I know they were ending, but that show had no business being on stage in that condition and it was mostly the fault of the woman who was leading the band at that point. She played the entire show out of time and the whole thing was an embarassment. An understudy Maureen was the only cast member who had ANY energy at all.

By the time the cast members turned and held their hands up in the direction of the band there was no way that just not applauding could signify how DREADFUL I thought that band was. So I booed. It was the only catharsis I had that night.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/5/06 at 11:36pm

SeanMartin,

That show was still called THE ACT when it got to New York. Martin Scorcese, in his only attempt at a Broadway musical was the director, but was in way over his head. While he wasn't fired (due mostly to Liza's loyalty -- the two were having an affair at the time), but Gower Champion was brought in to fix the show. He did the best he could, but reviews were still mixed by the time it opened in NYC. The show nevertheless had a decent run (Kander & Ebb wrote the score) and won Liza her second Tony Award for Best Actress.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 12:47am

Thank you, Margo. I heard that it was a vasty different show when it finally made it to NY. Based on what we saw that night, it *had* to have been...

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 2:39am

I remember people Booing for Ismay in Titanic.

Frankly now a days the biggest form of protest is not standing at a curtain call to me. Everything gets an ovation nowadays... Hell getting pulled up to the celling while shouting gets a sanding ovation.

[BroadwayRandy0711]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 3:43am

I have never booed, I agree with everyone else, it seems rude and obnoxious. There have been shows that I have been to where no one in the audience gave the perfomers a standing ovation, and there have been other shows that I have been to where I stood just to be nice.
I agree with Margo that booing the actors is probably not the appropriate thing to do, it could have been a poor script, or poor casting on the directors part. I would never boo just out of courtesy to the actors, they get up on stage and they have the opportunity to perform on whether it's broadway or off-broadway they are still doing their job.

Posted: 9/6/06 at 7:11am

MargoChanning said:

"That show was still called THE ACT when it got to New York."

But it was called Shine It On during the out-of-town tryout.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 7:14am

I've only booed once at the theatre. It was in the late 70's - Robert Goulet was doing a tour of Carousel. He was obviously quite drunk from the start. He constantly forgot his lines, slurred his words,made snyde comments about the show not in the script, and constantly La la la'd his way through songs due to forgetting lyrics, especially the soliloquy. Halfway through the show the booing started - by the end,the entire audience, at least those that were left, booed him off the stage at his cutain call.

I found this fully justified due to his complete unprofessional behavior and I joined in.
Updated On: 9/6/06 at 07:14 AM

[kenmarksnj]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 7:22am

do what you feel.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 7:51am

>> But it was called Shine It On during the out-of-town tryout

That's right! I'd completely forgotten till now. I knew there was a title change somewhere along the way, and that was it. Thanks for reminding me.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 9:07am

Mere booing? Some of my favorite stories in theater history concern audiences who RIOTED during performances. The first performance of Victor Hugo's HERNANI violated the conventions of Romanticism, causing a riot. Remember, the French Academy had determined that all French plays would be neoclassical in form.

HERNANI contained elevated language, noble characters, and the five-act form, and was thus Neoclassical;

However, it also had common people as some important characters, struggles with a ruler, violence and death, and humor -- and was thus NOT neoclassical.

The audience rioted.

Booing? I'm so touched that you care.

Updated On: 9/6/06 at 09:07 AM

[elmore3003]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 9:27am

In the last 20 years of theatregoing, it's the morons in the audience who deserved to be booed and thrown out of the auditorium:

1. MY ONE AND ONLY: A drunk birthday group sitting behind me that refused to shut up and ignored my requests to close their mouths and enjoy the show.

2. NINE: Another "dinner" group who had too much, and who, after my request to lower the noise after the first fifteen minutes, kept loudly whispering into my ear "Are we quiet enough now?"

3. CATS: The boob and his date who spent the entire first act having erotic foreplay.

4. RENT: the three loud princesses with too many shopping bags who kept text messaging and talking amongst themselves whenever there was a blackout or a quiet moment.

5. THE MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF 1940: the entire row of seats in front of me who arrived 10 minutes late and spent the entire first act catching up on what had happened since the murder was the first thing to occur.

Why do these assholes bother to see a live performance?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 11:53am

Booing rocks.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 11:59am

People routinely boo at the opera. I've seen several things at the Met that were met with booing audiences.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 12:01pm

Didn't people boo or at least vocalize their negative reaction to the necrophilia scene in Thou Shalt Not before it was cut?

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 12:03pm

If it's for Ashlee Simpson, then why not!

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 3:03pm

I think it's rude to boo someone after they've worked so hard. Polite applause and perhaps a letter is what I would do.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/6/06 at 3:18pm

I think one aromatic rotten tomato right between the eyes usually gets the point across.

And I'm a BIG advocate for bringing back the "hook" from Vaudeville days. It's simple, gets the point across, and puts everyone out of misery quickly.

But booing?

Never.

Updated On: 9/6/06 at 03:18 PM