Going to theatre alone? — Page 3

I live a very short distance from Philadelphia so when tours are in town nine times out of ten, I will end up going alone. Most of my friends live in or around the city, so unless it's a show they really want to see or features someone they really want to see in it to warrant a trek down to Philly, I attend most of those shows solo (or sometimes with my aunt and/or the rare local friend). I do agree with the poster from earlier who mentioned you tend to get better seating as a single - I had wonderful seats for both performances of The Sound of Music in Philly being a single.

When it comes to seeing shows in the city, as I mentioned in my previous post, I prefer to attend to shows with someone but I am more than fine also seeing things solo. I do miss the intermission chat and post show discussion, but as someone else mentioned you can easily discuss things with the folks around you and/or at stage door.

Going alone ??



Favk-----I want the WHOLE THEATRE to myself !

Movies---alone, as I always want to sit against the far wall with no one around me.

Theatre--alone. Aisle, so only one person next to me but never knee touching close [weeeel-it did happen once and we dated for over a year so going alone occasionally has its advantages].

I love it, the whole experience is much more intense. Not distracted by chit chator having to wonder if the other person likes it as much as you do, etc.

I guess I'm in the minority with this opinion, but I don't like going to theater alone. Sure I do it occasionally, but mostly I go with my friends. Of course there's the aspect of intermission and post-show discussions, but there's another thing too and that's the way seeing a single unique performance can bond two (or more) people together in intangible ways.



I think of this off-Broadway bizarro campfest called Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe starring Andre De Shields that I saw with one of my good friends about seven years ago that to this day we are flabbergasted by what occurred on that stage! I could sit down with anyone of you for two hours to try and explain what it was like to be in that audience, but it wouldn't do any good. You had to have been there. Even if you were at a different performance it wouldn't be the same, especially since audience participation was involved, making the experience all the more unique. My friend and I are forever bonded over this experience, as well as the 30 other people in the audience that day. That's one of the great mystical powers of the theater and why the ephemeral quality of a performance is so alluring.



When you see shows with the same friends (a spouse, family, etc) over the course of a year, five year or multiple decades the bond between you becomes something very special indeed.

I have yet to find a theatre companion that enjoys it as much as I do (perhaps my daughter does) so I really like to go alone. Last time I was in NYC I was with a girlfriend. We went to see Curious Incident (she dozed off), Spring Awakenings (fidgety), Something Rotten (she loved) and Hamilton, where we didn't sit together but we were just a row and a couple of seats away. I was so enthralled by the performance that I didn't take much notice of her reactions, but when it was over, as I wiped the tears from my eyes, she came up to me and said "that was the longest most painful thing I've ever sat through"..... so, yeah.... I vowed to myself to only go on my own unless I'm absolutely certain that my companion does indeed love theatre, especially musicals.

The upside to being solo is that you can score amazing seats, you get to people watch during intermission and you tend to strike up conversations with your row buddies. I've met a lot of really great people and received great reviews on shows that I haven't seen yet. There's a whole community out there:

How long are you here for and how many shows are you seeing??....

Those peeps are my soulmates!

I'm going in June solo and can't wait!!

Anybody going to Hamilton alone or planning trying to get Cancellation ticket solo. Send me a PM, if interested in splitting Linesitter cost or interested splitting the time

Jay Lerner-Z said: "Gaveston, is it so inconceivable that some people might prefer to go alone? I know I do!

If your Asperger's diagnosis is accurate, your Lonely Hearts Club idea would likely be hell for us too, but thanks!



"

You're welcome, Jay. No, it's not inconceivable, since we've had umpteen threads with people complaining about the enormous burden posed by the existence of other human beings, including even gripes about people applauding after individual numbers because it "takes the viewer out of the show".

And as I said, I see nothing wrong with attending a show alone.

But when posters insist they ONLY want to attend alone because they don't want anyone talking to them before, during intermission, or afterwards, I think they are confusing the theater with reading a novel. The latter is a solitary, individual experience, but the former is communal, practically by definition.

I had a very good comp.seat to the ballet one night and a 'God' sat in the single seat next to me.

Being a smart arse I said 'Who do you know to get such a good seat'?

'I'm the altermate [male] lead dancer and just watching the performance tonight'



I didn't say another word.

Should be called NoLips not SweetLips but slowly learning.

I prefer to go alone. Don't have to worry if someone else is enjoying themselves. Plus I typically sit in the cheaper seats up in the balcony and my friends are seat snobs that like to sit up close and those seats are expensive.