Eating in the theatre... NEW YORK OBSERVER

[EltonJ]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 8:57am

http://www.newyorkobserver.com/20070115/20070115_John_Heilpern_culture_heilperntheatre.asp

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 8:59am

A Trough at the Theater — To Chow or Not to Chow?

By John Heilpern

I can scarcely begin to describe my dismay at the calamitous news that Broadway theaters are now allowing everyone to eat and drink during a show. As I see and hear it, chowing down in the theater will kill the theater.

Like a lot of people I know, I used to love going to movies, until I simply couldn’t take people pigging out around me any longer. The constant crunch, munch and slurp—the junk, the smell, the noise, the talk, the charming ****-you mentality that goes with it all—ruined movie-going for me.

The writing is now on the wall for our theaters, where, until only recently, eating and drinking at your seat were forbidden. Now even those ritual warnings about unwrapping candy and cough drops before the curtain goes up are out-of-date. “This let-them-eat-snacks philosophy,” The New York Times reported on Jan. 5, “has been embraced at the Helen Hayes, Hilton, New Amsterdam, Eugene O’Neill and Walter Kerr Theaters, as well as all nine houses owned by the Nederlander Organization.”

The Nederlander, Disney, Jujamcyn and Clear Channel theater owners are the ones involved in this latest unacceptable example of greed. “This is part of a broader attempt to enhance the audience experience,” rationalized Jim Boese, Nederlander’s vice president.

Mr. Boese, a word in your ear: Imagine you’ve paid $200 for you and your guest to see a revival of Death of a Salesman at one of your lovely Broadway houses. You’re sitting there wishing there were more legroom at these prices—but let’s not go into that now. The excellent new production is about to begin when the couple nearest you start to dig into a giant bucket of buttered popcorn, to be washed down with Coke and ice rattling through Act I in Arthur Miller commemorative plastic cups. In front of you, another couple is enjoying hot dogs with onions and beer, while someone behind you is saying, “Pass the soy sauce, sweetheart.”

Tell us, Mr. Boese—how come none of this distracts you in any way from what’s happening onstage, but somehow “enhances” your theater-going “experience”? Am I exaggerating? With all grudging respect, Mr. Boese, please resist responding that you don’t sell hot dogs in your theaters.

You will. Popcorn today; wraps, salads and dogs tomorrow. Why not? It happened at the movies.

Why can’t America stop eating for two hours? The Times theater story was ignited by a stunned Patti LuPone telling us that when she was playing Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd last season she found herself distracted by a couple in the front row wrestling over the remains of a bag of popcorn. The Times went on to report, however: “All the theater owners whose houses serve food said they were investigating packaging that would reduce wrapper noise.”

Thank God for that. It’s certainly comforting to think that Rocco Landesman, president of Jujamcyn, and his fellow Broadway producers have hired a crack team of Nobel Laureate research scientists to solve the mystery of wrapper noise. Coming soon to a theater near you: the world’s first silent bag of potato chips! But how will the world’s finest minds solve the problem of eating the chips silently … ?

“Broadway is about a theatrical experience. It’s not about pulling out Marie Callender’s chicken pot pie and a Sterno,” Patti LuPone argued. “Would you go to church and pull out a ham sandwich? I don’t think so. Then why would you do it at the theater?”

Read on...
A Trough at the Theater — To Chow or Not to Chow?

Updated On: 1/10/07 at 08:59 AM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 9:01am

He practically cut and pasted the NYTimes article.

[D2]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 9:07am

But it is interesting that "Death of a Salesman" is used as an example. That hilarious dinner theater scene in the old movie "Soapdish" is not so funny anymore, as it is now actually on its way to becoming the reality of a Broadway theater-going experience.

[blueroses]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 9:21am

I agree with every word! I find it to be incredibly rude and distracting.

Was he kidding about the hot dogs and onions? Are theatres (or do they currently) actually serve HOT food? So now we'll not only have to listen to it being consumed, we'll have to smell it?

[MamawhoBoreme]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 10:28am

i think its ridiculous. it reminds me of going to see a movie. the floors being sticky, popcorn everywhere, theatre is professional and elegant. not some place to chow down. there are plenty of restaurants in the city to chow down at after the show.

[avab802]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:41am

I have tickets to 3 shows so far this year - Grey Gardens, The Apple Tree, and Company. Looks like I'm 1 for 3 with the eating. I'll just have to pray that the Tuesday night crowd at Grey Gardens will have more respect than to chow down during Christine Ebersole's wonderful (or so I've heard) performance.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:48am

Come on, ava! It's even more wonderful with popcorn!

[avab802]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:53am

Rath, I personally prefer curly fries. You think they'll have those? In a big cone just like at the movies?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:54am

From your mouth!

[avab802]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:55am

To Mr. Boese's ears! Damn, I'd better shut up.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 11:57am

Curly fries are way quieter than popcorn. I think we should campaign for them.

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 2:00pm

Yep. Greed and gluttony. Two of our country's favorite deadly sins.

No wonder we are such a morbidly obese nation. Heaven forbid that we should go two hours without a knosh.

lc

[EltonJ]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 4:16pm

TOTALLY AGREE LC! What a nation of fat pigs that can't control their eating habits... I grabbed a pretzel on the street when arriving just in the nick of curtain time and ate it OUTSIDE!!!

FOOD SHOULD BE SERVED IN A RESTAURANT NOT A THEATRE!!!!!!!!

I do enjoy the BAR though but NOT AT THE SEAT, in the lobby only.

KL

[CJR]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 4:18pm

Rath, I was just gonna say, wasn't this in the Times last week?

[livelife]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 4:22pm

I never have time to eat in the theatre! I just tend to eat in the interval really, not because im against eating in theatres its just its kinda annoying when someone keeps scrunching their sweet wrappers!

[AtLeastIveBeenThere]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 4:40pm

My favorite part about the NYTimes article was the interview of some guy who went to see a Broadway show, and he reasoned something along the lines of "I pay a hundred dollars for a ticket so I can do whatever I want." That is ridiculous. Everyone else in that theatre, including the people sitting next to you smelling your food and listening to you unwrap your candy bar, also paid a hundred dollars. The thing he forgets to provide reason for is what exactly justifies him doing what HE wants to do in a theatre when what I want to do in a theatre is in direct conflict with his need to enjoy a snack. I definitely do not want to listen to--say--"Another Winter in a Summer Town" accompanied by the sound of his consumption of chips or the smell of popcorn. The "I should be able to do whatever I want because I paid to be here" justification is self-centered and totally insufficient. If he's going to eat next to me, he'd better have a better argument.

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 7:43pm

Livelife-
I tried to PM you, but you have that option turned off. I just wanted to say I absolutely love your avatar