Brawl at Gypsy. — Page 2

I wish there were little discreet buttons at each seat like on an airplane. Where you could click something like "phone use" or "filming" or "disruptive behavior." (Tacky, I know, but would solve some problems.) It's impossible to get an usher's attention mid-show if you aren't on an aisle.

Updated On: 4/26/25 at 09:23 PM

I don't know if the ushers at the Majestic are the same as during Phantom's run, but more than once I asked them to confront disruptive audience members at intermission and I was met with resistance and reluctance on the usher's part to get involved.

If this happened when Patti was playing Rose she would have beat up the bad parents in between verses of a song.

the audience at Smash today(matinee) was well behaved except for them needing an almost 30-minute intermission.

Phantom4ever said: "I don't know if the ushers at the Majestic are the same as during Phantom's run, but more than once I asked them to confront disruptive audience members at intermission and I was met with resistance and reluctance on the usher's part to get involved."

I used to usher. Until I was assaulted by an audience member who didn’t like that I “disrupted the show” to tell him to stop filming. Despite a coworker backing me up, I was never given another shift by Nederlander because the customer said I was rude for “interrupting his show”.

usher still get paid a lot. They don’t get taken care of by the viewers. This is why so many don’t want to get involved anymore

At the very least the Brawl should be over something worth it, such as a complaint that the lights were on for the overture in the early previews or a passionate Nicole vs Audra fan showdown!

iluvtheatertrash said: "Phantom4ever said: "I don't know if the ushers at the Majestic are the same as during Phantom's run, but more than once I asked them to confront disruptive audience members at intermission and I was met with resistance and reluctance on the usher's part to get involved."

I used to usher. Until I was assaulted by an audience member who didn’t like that I “disrupted the show” to tell him to stop filming. Despite a coworker backing me up, I was never given another shift by Nederlander because the customer said I was rude for “interrupting his show”.

usher still get paid a lot. They don’t get taken care of by the viewers. This is why so many don’t want to get involved anymore"

That should have said “ushers don’t get paid a lot and don’t get taken care of by producers”. Apologies. I have been dictating due to some vision issues lately and Siri is terrible!

My friend was ushering at MJ and a drunk patron pushed her, hard, against a wall. Her manager told her to not escalate the situation and she was pretty traumatized by the entire experience. The "hands off" approach clearly is not working for audiences Post Covid.

I get how cheap the people involved can be about this but until they hire actual security guards who make their presence known (like any concert), these violent assaults will keep happening. And for the poster who said "it's such a rare thing, and we should be focused more on cell phones and protecting the actors"? You're delusional and misinformed. This sh*t happens all the time. And it's not like Times Square doesn't have cops that could have been there in 30 seconds but I guess they didn't want to "bother" them. I hope the man assaulted for doing nothing wrong sues.

Updated On: 4/27/25 at 11:37 AM

It seems very strange to me that the show wouldn't be stopped for something like this. If I were a witness to (or victim of) a violent assault like this, I'd call 911 right then and there, theatre etiquette be damned.

Many employees are told not to intervene if their personal safety is at risk. My son in a manager for a nationwide pharmacy, and corporate policy is to NOT interfere with a shoplifter - to not even contact the police. It's covered under their insurance policy. And, now, more stores are locking up more merchandise in many markets.

It's not worth the $ to bring them to court, or to have to pay for an employees possible medical bills. (It guts my son when he sees it happen, they even know a number of people by face that rob them semi regularly. But corporate's stance is: ignore.)



I don't know that this is happening with ushers (policies keeping them from intervening) but I'm sure they don't get paid enough to deal with it.



Didn't the UK have a rash of escalted poor behavior about 1 year or 2 ago?

dramamama611 said: "Many employees are told not to intervene if their personal safety is at risk. My son in a manager for a nationwide pharmacy, and corporate policy is to NOT interfere with a shoplifter - to not even contact the police. It's covered under their insurance policy. And, now, more stores are locking up more merchandise in many markets."

That’s shoplifting, though. I assume any employee would assist a customer who had been physically assaulted to contact the police and, if necessary, receive medical attention.

Witnessed a mother acting very similarly at The Outsiders towards someone who appeared to be a young trans man who had asked her tween kids to be quiet. Mom whirled around and started shouting threats, climbing up on her seat. It really is scary in a Broadway theater because there's nothing you can really do crammed into those narrow rows.

Sutton Ross said: "I get how cheap the people involved can be about this but until they hire actual security guards who make their presence known (like any concert), these violent assaults will keep happening. And for the poster who said "it's such a rare thing, and we should be focused more on cell phones and protecting the actors"? You're delusional and misinformed. This sh*t happens all the time. And it's not like Times Square doesn't have cops that could have been there in 30 seconds but I guess they didn't want to "bother" them. I hope the man assaulted for doing nothing wrong sues."

If you want to call me delusional, that's fine. But at least have the decently to reread what you're actually responding to before calling someone delusional. I was saying was things like cell phone usage during shows are what people most frequently complain about, not that it was the most serious problem. If you don't care about actor safety, fine. At least I actually did express that as a priority concern.

But the larger point I was getting at that I didn't articulate is this: There have been studies showing there's a problem in America where since 2000 violent crime has been going down but people polled have constantly said violent crime is worse than the year before. This is especially a perception in major cities.

I suspect audience on audience violence isn't a a larger trend and you seemingly think I'm wrong for focusing on threats to performers, but the truth is neither of us actually know. We're relying on personal anecdotes or individual news stories, and I'm not trying to diminish the importance of addressing those, but without an actual study of the data, we have no idea what the actual trend is.

We're all at risk for being that person claiming violent crime is for sure worse this year based on how it feels as opposed to empirical evidence.

Updated On: 4/27/25 at 05:10 PM