Do you ever leave a show during intermission?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:34pm

If you don't like it do you leave?

I don't think anyone should leave during intermission. I mean, you paid for it and the second act is usually shorter or better than the first! I saw a lot of people leave during a perfomance of Reefer Madness I was in. I don't know why. It was a funny show with a good message!

So....why leave at intermission?

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:36pm

Well, on some shows, you can leave after Act I and still get the story. For example, I wouldn't mind leaving after the first act in Wicked or Sunday in the Park with George. Not that I'd ever want to leave when I see Sunday. :)

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:37pm

Nope, never. If I can make it through a "community theater" production of "No, No, Nanette" in a small bible-belt town in Alabama, then I think I can make it through anything. The last note in the show - if you could classify it as a note - was horrible. I had to bite my program to keep from audibly laughing. Also, why did everyone in NYC in the 1920s have a really thick southern accent? Hm. The things we do to support our friends.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:39pm

Never have. Probably never will. The worse the show is, the more I want to stay and see what happens. If In My Life had an intermission, I would have been one of the few people left for Act 2.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:39pm

I agree with RentBoy. I made it through a dinner theater version of Carousel in a suburb of Orlando. It was just about the longest night of my life, but I feel like I could make it through anything!

[blueroses]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:41pm

No, but I can't even tell you how many times I glanced at my watch during Brooklyn. I couldn't wait for it to end. What a letdown.

Loved Cleavant Derricks, though.

[AvenueQPat]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:41pm

If you are supporting a friend, and they know you are there, you should stay.

I have seen many shows, like everybody here has, and my opinion is that if you paid for the show and you do not enjoy yourself, you have every right to leave at intermission. I think its rude to get up durring the act, but intermission is fair game.

[pab]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:44pm

I've never left a Broadway or Off-Broadway show at intermission but I did recently leave a local production because it was just too unbearable. I saw no reason to sit there and continue to be subjected to what was happening on stage because I purchased a ticket. Broadway or Off-Broadway shows at least have to go through a process before someone will put up some money to back those shows so there should at least be some quality involved, even though, I have also seen a lot of crap in both places.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:47pm

I have never left during the intermission but I was honestly very tempted to leave after the first act of Lestat. This was also before all the negative buzz about the show so I was definitely not influenced by other people's opinions. I stayed for the second act with the hope that the show would redeem itself.

Anyway, my brother left after the first act of "Into the Woods" not bec. he didn't like it. He thought the show was over.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:47pm

But everyone has to start somewhere. Without commmunity theater I don't think half the people in musical theater would be invovled. I like to support them and hope they continue to put on shows, I just wish we had the talent to supply them.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:57pm

I can't begin to tell you how many shows I've left during intermission:

AIDA

BRING BACK BIRDIE

THE KING AND I (Lou Diamond Phllips)

STARLIGHT EXPRESS

...just to name a few

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 1:59pm

In 35+ years of theatregoing which includes 1000+ shows on Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, US regional houses, European companies and all manner of experimental and avant garde theatre, you bet I've left at intermission a few times. Mind you, more often than not I've stayed, even though the dreck on stage obviously wasn't going to get any better in the second act -- and you know what? Every time I've had the urge to leave and didn't, I've regreted it. In each case, the show wasn't any better in the second act.

Sometimes things are so badly put together and/or amateurishly performed and/or poorly executed and/or painfully miscast or misdirected and/or simply so awful that they are an insult to the senses that they're excruciating to sit through and so I leave. Some shows should have never been presented to the public in the guise of entertainment to begin with and the producers and all involved should be ashamed of themselves for having the audacity to charge money for the experience.

A ticket is a contract which implies that in exchange for some sum of money, you the artist will somehow entertain me or make me feel something or expand my mind or challenge my way of thinking or -- rarely -- enrich my soul or at the very least, divert my attention for a given period of time. If you fail to do ANY of those things and instead simply bore me or annoy me or offend me with your self-indulgence and/or incompetence, then in my book, the contract is broken and I am free to leave. My time is valuable and rather than have it wasted by something that is not worth seeing, I'd rather leave and use that time for something more worthwhile -- even strolling aimlessly down the street is far more fulfilling than sitting through a really bad play.

I don't pay money to suffer or have my intelligence insulted, so yes, when it is clear that a piece of theatre has nothing of value to offer and is beneath my contempt, I leave at intermission or at the soonest possible opportunity.

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 01:59 PM

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:00pm

I am strong believer in staying for the whole show. That is just my opinion and I don't look down at others who do leave but to me if you are going to rip the show...or praise it for that matter you need to see the whole thing. That's just me. The ONLY time that I have ever even come close to leaving a show was a local high schools production of Into the Woods here in WI. It was soo ungodly horrible (and in my area of WI pretty much all HS theater is horrible but this really took the cake. Some of hs theater is just so bad it's good and that's what I thought this was going to be at first but then it just surpassed into just beyond words horrible) They added in Shrek and the Ginger Bread man as sort of "extras" in the back and had them change the scenery and give little one liners a la "come back here donkey!!" It was soo painful to watch. Also it just was so slow moving. I remember it started at seven and it was just after 9 at intermission. The pacing was soo off and all the songs were just at a god awful slow tempo. I was so close to walking and didn't think I could make through Act Two but somehow I did and I'm glad because I want to make sure I can say I've never walked out of a show no matter how bad

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 02:00 PM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:02pm

Dollypop: You left Bring Back Birdie at intermission??? It couldn't possibly have been that bad. It was Chita Rivera!

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:06pm

Never have and never will. I also want to keep my record of never being late to a show.

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:08pm

oh me neither bwaylvsong I'm really anal about getting there fifteen minutes ahead and sitting reading the program examining the stage...getting in the mood. I can't stand being late to the theater and the only time I wasn't 15 minutes early was Sweet Charity last year in Chicago and that was because of traffic and it sucked because we got in took our seats and a minute later the show started.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:08pm

I try never to leave during intermission. I want to see the entire thing in order to judge it. Just a few shows really made me want to walk out, only if it was painful to watch. If a show now playing on Broadway had an intermission, I'd have left thought. Hint*

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:12pm

I have left 2 shows at intermission in 21 years of life.

Freshamn year of college there was a production of some restoration play (i cant stand restoration).

Last year at fringe, i left the musical that was about cloning at intermission

and last year at NYMF I almost walked out on Banger's Floppera, but the last song of the first act was actually really good, so I stayed, regreted it.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:13pm

I never leave. I need to see the whole piece in order to evaluate it. I have also seen productions that pull it together in the second act and leave me breathless. I could never leave early. I would feel incomplete, like I left something behind. It will never happen for me.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:14pm

Zoneace, didn't you leave Bombay Dreams during intermission?

[coolphantom919]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:16pm

THAT WOULDN'T BE A SMART IDEA IF YOU PAYED A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY FOR YOUR TICKET!!!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:18pm

I know people are going to hate me(even more), but i have left shows while they were playing. Bridge & Tunnel and Slava's Snow show comes to mind. Only shows that don't have a story to follow, but i try never to leave shows during intermission. Musicals in particular.

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 02:18 PM

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:18pm

coolphantom919 caps attack hello!

Betty I know exactly what you mean...I feel very wrong about leaving and that I need to see it all to feel complete. I have the same thing with books, even if it's horrible I have to finish them just to say I did. I just feel very incomplete and missing if I leave early.

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 02:18 PM

[brdwybound2]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:22pm

I left Will Rogers Follies at intermission at our local regional theatre. It was so boring. Oh and my parents dragged me out of Chicago at intermission once because they hated the show, but other than that, I've never left.

[keatonbynumbers]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:22pm

COOOOLkid, if you left during the intermission of SITPWG, you most certainly would NOT "get" the story. :)

And the only time I've left a show during intermission were for external reasons -- death/illness in the family, etc. It's just one of those things I can't do. Even the worst performances of the worst shows have to be seen through to the end for me. I suppose I don't fault the people who DO do it, though. Especially since I usually take their seat if it was better than mine.