Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show- Page 3
Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
#50Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 12:29pm
Phones come with user's manuals. Take the time to read it, take time to know your phone especially how to turn it on and off.
Why are people so damn lazy. It isn't brain surgery.
Humans....SMDH
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#51Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 12:33pm
It's 2016. We're well past the point of this kind of portable technology being challenging to turn on and off—regardless of age. I mean, really.
Major props to Ms. Benanti for calling this theatergoer out. Makes me love her even more.
Stage Door Sally
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/4/09
#52Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 12:41pm
Why thank you for that charming remark.
magwln
Swing Joined: 8/3/14
#53Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 1:00pm
I don't post here often, but I was also at yesterday's matinee - wayyy in the back in the rear mezz - and even from there I heard the phone ring twice before Laura stopped. My first thought was "this is a really weird time for the phone to ring on stage," but by the second ring I realized it was someone's phone in the audience, so I was definitely already "out of the moment" by the time she acknowledged it. Perhaps in a "louder" moment the show could have moved on without stopping, but in this circumstance I thought she handled it very well. Very calm, very straightforward, and then she moved on.
asmith0307
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/14
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#55Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 1:15pm
asmith0307 said: "https://twitter.com/LauraBenanti/status/726821087191961600"
LOVE. HER.
#58Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 1:37pm
People are boors. We see it in the way they dress. We see it in their behavior in legit and movie theaters. It's obvious in restaurants. It's proven by their vulgar, grammatically abysmal speech. We see it in their totally self absorbed world of technology. And let us not forget today's sad political candidates and their crass supporters. To quote a Michael Stewart lyric: "Thank God I'm old."
asmith0307
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/14
#59Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 1:46pm
asmith0307 said: "https://twitter.com/LauraBenanti/status/726821087191961600"
And then she tweeted this out again:
https://twitter.com/LauraBenanti/status/726826084411539457
Margo319
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/15
#60Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:20pm
"Sorry, folks. I understand the frustration (both as a performer and an audience member), but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was handled professionally. Stopping the show because you're annoyed is just as distracting, if not more so."
The beautiful moment was already ruined by the incredibly inconsiderate, dumb moron who allowed their phone to ring...what 5 times? Oh my God. The person should have been thrown out of the show, just like if anyone's cell phone goes off. It's posted in the lobby, it's in your Playbill AND it's announced before the show. There is zero excuse, ever, for having your cell phone on in the theater. They need people to check their cell phones at the door before entering (some movie theaters do this now) but I guess it's not feasible considering there is no desk to check in your phones at most Broadway houses.
If you are an inconsiderate person with no respect for other patrons, the cast, crew and every one else involved in theater, do not attend the theater.
#61Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:26pm
The dreaded Millennials always get blamed for this behavior, but in my experience, the blue-haired matinee ladies are the worst offenders.
Go Laura!
Margo319
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/15
#62Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:29pm
In my experience, it's been people my age in their 20's that have behaved the worst 
Older people tend to talk though, which can be just as disruptive.
theatreguy12
Broadway Star Joined: 4/20/15
#63Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:37pm
I'm with you JayG. And it isn't going to get any better. I think writing, social and communication skills are diminishing because of technology. Even despite its amazing potential when used responsibly. I'm an older person as well but still think I should have been born a couple of decades earlier.
#64Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:38pm
In my experience, the millennials are the bigger offenders by far re cell phones. They are the ones who are addicted to their phones and literally can't last a minute without using them. I remember having to tell a young person to shut their phone off three times, as she turned it back on after each time.
brian1973
Leading Actor Joined: 2/1/14
#65Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:40pm
There is no excuse for a phone going off. There are announcements before hand . It's rude and disrespectful to audiences and actors.
you pay a LOT to see a show on Broadway and it can be ruined by these phones going off. If it's okay for audiences to leave phones on- maybe actors should keep theirs in their pockets to beep and ring during the show?
i think Ms Benanti dealt with it in a classy way. Why should she have to continue when someone has no respect for what she's doing? These people should be shamed for their dreadful selfish manners.
#66Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:43pm
". Why should she have to continue when someone has no respect for what she's doing?"
Because the other 1499 people do have respect.
Margo319
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/15
#67Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:46pm
"There is no excuse for a phone going off. There are announcements before hand . It's rude and disrespectful to audiences and actors."
Exactly. Plus everyone else who has worked SO hard in creating a show. It's unbelievable that this keeps happening. Luckily, ushers are becoming more aggressive with it.
#68Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 2:54pm
"Plus everyone else who has worked SO hard in creating a show."
It's wrong for them all to stop the show because of one person. It's almost impossible to get 100% audience cooperation with phones and the like in a theater audience.
#69Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:12pm
I have seen people of all generations refusing to put away their phones. I think assigning this nasty trait to any particular age group is unnecessary and inaccurate.
#70Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:21pm
Well, after holding every foh position, including lots of ushering, and ten years of it observing audiences in five different stages at a time, I'm going with what I've seen.
oh, and by the way, what do you base your statement that it is "inaccurate" on?
Margo319
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/15
#71Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:30pm
"It's almost impossible to get 100% audience cooperation with phones and the like in a theater audience."
Ok, but do you agree that it's a problem? And if so, shouldn't someone be called out or disciplined in some way?
aaaaaa15
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/31/15
#72Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:32pm
Saying millenials 'literally can't last a minute without using' their phones is as stupid as saying all old people don't know how to use their phones.
#73Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:33pm
As I said in my post, I'm basing it on what I have seen just as you are. I, too, have worked many years in FOH and in other positions in the theatre.
Randomlink1
Understudy Joined: 3/13/16
#74Cell Phone Nightmare: Laura Benanti Stops the Show
Posted: 5/1/16 at 3:37pm
Jane2 said: "In my experience, the millennials are the bigger offenders by far re cell phones. They are the ones who are addicted to their phones and literally can't last a minute without using them. I remember having to tell a young person to shut their phone off three times, as she turned it back on after each time.
"
I'd blame non-theatre people to be the worst at it. We theatre fans know how painful it is to have a show go off and disrupt a performance, but the suburbanites on their big trip to NYC think it's okay.
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