Candy and soda in the theater

Just got back from Mary Poppins which we loved but they have got to stop selling candy and soda in the theater. We sat in the mezzanine and listened to ice cubes and candy wrappers all day. It's like going to the circus. Obviously you can't count on the public to control itself so you have to stop selling it.

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I thought if you bought that stuff, you had to eat/drink it during intermission and couldn't bring it back into the theatre.

When I was at a show (I forget which) I was talking to an usher and people kept walking in with drinks and the usher would tell them they couldn't come in with them.

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I think candy is fine as long as people unwrap it before the show. Taking soda, etc back to seats I think is rude because it is so easy to spill over all over the floor and on other people's belongings.

This is why Shubert houses rock--no food.

You can read a lot more thoughts about this here:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=921874

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Today at Mamma Mia, there was 1 person in the center that didn't stop eating the entire 1st act & kept making SO much noise. There was also somebody in the right orchestra unwrapping things every 5 minutes. It really shouldn't allowed.

that's disgusting that they allow it...

Face it: we've become too much of an "It's all about me and my needs!" society. We dont care if the guy next to us is annoyed with our unwrapping candy during the show because it's all about our need to eat that damn candy.

Lord.

Time was, people went to the movies to just sit there and enjoy it. Now it's a freaking circus. I recently went to a rep house to see WITCHES OF EASTWICK. Sitting about halfway down was this girl and her boyfriend, who clearly did NOT want to be there. And he chose to express his displeasure by taking his keys and whipping them in the air, back and forth -- until the guy behind them grabed them and sent them flying across the auditorium. As you might expect, chaos ensued.

Well, we're only about three or four steps behind that in the theatre: folks who sit there and provide nonstop commentary to their dates (or worse, spend the entire performance on their cell phone, telling whoever they've called all about the play). And now we're inviting people to make even more noise and display even worse manners when congregating in public. Somehow, I thought we got over that in Shakespeare's time, but I guess not.

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I think SeanMartin is talking about the musical, no?

What people also forget is the smell. My biggest problem with concession staples is food like Peanut M&Ms, which reek of peanut when being chewed. It's such a strong smell, and knowing it's from being eaten makes it worse. And it never fails, I have to try to ignore the smell of them the first five minutes of any Act Two.

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no no no no noooooo food/drinks/candy! ever!

if you're thirsy, wait 2 hours. and if you're hungry, you should've eaten before the show!

i think the only exception to this is possibly cough drops, [unwrapped before the show!] due to a personal experience.. during doubt i had a terrible cold, and was coughing all the time. i did have cough drops, but that didn't stifle my cough nearly enough. i felt bad and did apoloize to every around me post-performance and luckily they were all sympathetic, but in cases like that it's better to have one crunching wrapper than 2 hours of hacking away.

and i'm considering changing my mind about drinks, the exception being bars, open BEFORE showtime. otherwise it just gets messy. and in more kid-friendly show it's just the worst. oy vey!

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That's insane. If ANY food is allowed in a theatre, it should be specially-packaged to be noiseless. But seriously, I think people can f-ing do without candy for an hour and half.

But honestly, for me, the worst offender is GUM. It's the newest trend in noisy audiences. Everyone goes out to dinner before the show, then munches/crunches/cracks/slurps on their gum with open mouths afterwords...for the entire show. I can't stand to hear people chew anything, and most people are too stupid to close their saliva-filled pie-holes.

Face it: we've become too much of an "It's all about me and my needs!" society. We dont care if the guy next to us is annoyed with our unwrapping candy during the show because it's all about our need to eat that damn candy.


That's exactly what my mom and I were saying today. We went to a concert yesterday, and the people behind us were unwrapping candy as the conducter was speaking. It's not so much that they care about what he's telling the audience or the folks around them, it's more about their needs. That's pretty much the downfall of society today. Not just in the sense of consuming food and drink at theatres, but also on the road, in the workplace or at school. I'm not implying that all of us are inconsiderate a**holes, but the sad truth is that a good majority of people out there are just that. It breaks my heart to see that sort of behavior, it truly does.

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I wish they wouldn’t sell alcoholic drinks at the theater. People, do you REALLY need to drink alcohol in order to see a show? I am of drinking age, but I don’t see why alcohol is necessary at a show. I’m tired of sitting by people whose breath SMELLS because they’ve just gulped down glass of wine during intermission.

Updated On: 1/23/07 at 08:04 AM

I agree with the alcohol thing. Much like food/candy, can you not go a few hours without it? I've see WAY too many shows lately with the smell of wine-and-garlic breath swirling around me.