Drama at The King and I

I am curious on everyone's thoughts on this situation. I was there when this happened, and did not say anything but people were extremely vicious to this Mother and child. I believe that everyone was in the wrong, though. Thoughts?

"Broadway star Kelvin Moon Loh is currently in "The King and I" and during a recent show a young boy with autism shouted loudly from the audience during a quiet scene. According to Kelvin, many in the audience reacted very negatively to the interruption and to the mother."

https://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/broadway-star-pens-open-letter-after-boy-autism-interrupts-show

Updated On: 9/25/15 at 07:04 PM

I wonder that, too, DAME, because it's hard to imagine people so rude as to yell at a mother struggling to control her overwrought child. (Yes, I realize that some may not have been able to see that she was doing just that.)

I am in 100% agreement with everything Dame said. It's a sad situation and I hate hearing that people were vicious to the mother and child. It really does sound like the best plan would be for the company to pause the performance while the situation in the house is taken care of. I hope this story leads to a push for more and more "Autism Friendly" performances.

They should absolutely not have stopped the show. They don't even do this when people have had heart attacks and an entire EMT team has had to carry them out, which I have witnessed on several occasions. Stopping would have caused a greater grievance and even further unnecessary embarrassment to this poor child and his mother. The kid got upset because of the whipping scene. I wasn't there but I read the facebook post that brought this incident out in the open, and it mentioned that the audience members telling the kid to be quiet were more of a nuisance to the cast than the boy was, which is completely believable. I never get upset if a child is disruptive during a performance, so long as its not continuous, which it wasn't. I also have no problem telling grown adults how to behave in a theater when necessary. I really hope this doesn't deter this great mom from taking her son to see Broadway. We need more handicapped accessible performances. It's only Disney who has jumped on that bandwagon so far?

Updated On: 9/25/15 at 08:55 PM

The thing that struck me is him noting that other children, presumably without Autism, have screamed or reacted with fear to the whipping scene.

If you didn't read his whole post, which it seems like some people haven't had the chance to do, Kelvin notes that the mother was trying to get her distraught son to leave his seat but he was clinging to the railing, making it very difficult.

Also, this line had made me wonder initially if some members of his own company were chastising the woman: "Instead, I ask you- when did we as theater people, performers and audience members become so concerned with our own experience that we lose compassion for others?"

I've been at two shows that ha e indeed stopped the show due to emergencies in the house.

My next-door neighbor is autistic and it's sad to see what he goes through. I love Kelvin's post about the incident and how he stands up for people, who have little-to-no control of their actions. I feel terrible for the mom and the poor guy. I think they should have stopped the show to get the guy calm if it caused that much of a frenzy.

Dramamama, out of curiosity, were they broadway shows? Two or three incidents occurred at Schubert houses and one time was in the orchestra at an Encores performance. Also, at the first preview of Gypsy, which I was also at, an air vent fell on someones head and they were screeching in pain. Patti and Laura didn't stop looking up at the balcony with complete worry on their faces, but the show went on. While I agree that in actual emergencies, it would be best to stop the show and ask people to move out of the way to make sure everyone can get the help they need, but this wasn't an emergency but an inconvenient grievance which was out of anyones control.

It's been a few years, but when I worked at the Miami Beach Theatre for the Performing Arts, with its elderly audiences, emergencies in the house were not uncommon. (We used to call ambulance sirens the "Civic Anthem".) And we most certainly did not stop the show.

But it was a huge barn of a house and EMTs could easily remove ailing patrons from the balcony or rear orchestra without being noticed by the rest of the patrons. (I've written before about the argument that ensued when a woman refused to leave a matinee of MAME even though her husband had had a heart attack and the EMTs were trying to get her to accompany him to the hospital.)

Updated On: 9/25/15 at 11:36 PM

"The kid got upset because of the whipping scene. I wasn't there but I read the facebook post that brought this incident out in the open, and it mentioned that the audience members telling the kid to be quiet were more of a nuisance to the cast than the boy was, which is completely believable. I never get upset if a child is disruptive during a performance, so long as its not continuous, which it wasn't."

I was there, and actually, yes, it was nearly continuous. It started in very early in act one and the audience only reacted very late in act two when the child disrupted a very quiet and emotional scene very near the end of the show (NOT the whipping scene) and they only ssshed the child as far as I could tell. It just became too much and was not handled well all the way around.

Screaming, talking and yelping happened every few minutes throughout the show. I have great sympathy for the child (who sounded quite young), but the entire show was absolutely ruined by the disruptions. Just as we have nights for the hearing impaired, we need more autistic friendly nights. This was almost three hours of frequent yelling, screaming and talking.

Call it what you will, but that was not at all acceptable. They should have left at intermission at the very least and watched it from the lobby tvs or been refunded their money.

Updated On: 9/26/15 at 12:32 AM

If someone can't be quiet and sit still for the entirety of a show, they shouldn't be there. Period. It isn't fair to the rest of the audience.

Just_John said: "We need more handicapped accessible performances. It's only Disney who has jumped on that bandwagon so far?"

Wicked and Matilda both had them and I think Wicked does them every year.

It's not easy to deal with autistic children when they're in this condition. Maybe he was panicked or something and "strong" actions like taking his arm to carry him outside would have just complicated the situation... it's not easy to talk about autism in general terms because every autist is basically different from the others.