Hard time at "kids shows"

Not a kids show but these children at Wicked. They were talking they had a game boy and played it. It was bad.

I would consider Wicked as sort of a kids show, but that's just plain stupid to do in a theater. They shouldn't have gone if they were going to play it the whole time.

This was just people being annoying, talking, and crunching cellophane.

I often find the mothers to be the real pains. I've had more than one experience, not necessarily at kids' nights, where they bring out the cellophane or the baggies for the kids, or insist on saying "did you see that?" or "ooh, he's bad", etc. Often the kids are more well-behaved in those families!

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This is not a kid's show, but the only time I saw B. Peters in Gypsy, in a very good seat at (wait for it) the saturday matinee closing week, this 9 year old girl in front of me had a hacking dry cough throughout Rose's Turn and her mom just put her arm around her shoulders and comiserated instead of saying "Shut the ferck up honey! Stifle yrself! This is called Rose's Turn! Even in New Jersey we've heard of it!"

I witness more bad behavior from adults than from kids, although it’s probably because I attend more “adult” shows where there are virtually no kids in the audience at all. When I’m actually at a kiddie show though, I mainly see restlessness and talking from the kids, which I sort of expect. The adults cause more problems I think, with candy wrappers, cell phones, rudeness, you name it.

The topic has been discussed over and over again. It’s just that people don’t know better and/or don’t care. I’ve never had a problem with someone that severe, but it does get annoying. This woman sitting behind me at the final performance of Gypsy was the epitome of a rude, annoying audience member… talking all through the orchestra and in response to some of the lines, humming along with the music, not shutting off her cell phone, telling her husband everything she knew about the show during the show, yelling at people if she couldn’t see (like when people stood up for Patti’s entrance or when an usher was standing in the aisle in her way). So annoying!

I can only control myself. I respect the performers onstage and the audience members around me. I follow all the rules and advise the people I’m with to do the same. That’s all I can really do I guess and just hope that other people will do the same.

I've had similar experiences, one specifically at Wicked a couple of years ago. I don't really consider Wicked to be a "kids show", so I would think that if your kids wanted to see it, you best make sure that they are old enough and mature enough to sit through the show in a theatre full of adults!

I had two kids sitting behind me (with their parents off in different rows - smart thinking) who made such comments right off the bat, like, "Ohhh look, there's GLINDA!" (Said at top of lungs) and "Wow, she's so pretty!" and proceeding to sing every one of her lines. Needless to say, that didn't last too long...I turned around and 1. told them (in no uncertain terms) to be quiet and 2. to ask where their parents were to quiet them down.

At the end, one of the kids said, "Wow, Glinda is just so good, and that Elphaba is just so bad."
Clearly the whole point of the show was missed entirely. Are these kids really old enough to be seeing this show, when they clearly weren't old enough to understand the "moral of the story?"

End rant.

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