Has an audience member ever stopped a show?- Page 3

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 12:16pm

if it's not in a humorous way (ie jackie mason) i don't think its really fair to do that to late comers. I know it's rude but its not like they intended to be late, I'm sure they had some reason and weren't happy about it, you know?

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 1:33pm

I think you're being too generous. While few people INTEND to be late, it's still a very selfish way to behave. They know that their late entrance is going to disturb many people, but they don't make an effort to get to the theatre in sufficient time to get settled before curtain.

There are times when lateness is truly unavoidable, but more often than not, in my 20 years' experience on FOH staffs, latecomers are just sloppy. They don't leave enough time, they don't take weather conditions into consideration, & so on. Still, I'm never crazy about performers breaking character unless it's absolutely necessary.

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 1:51pm

eh i suppose you're right. I guess it's the behavior of the late person, rather than the fact that he or she is late. I mean i've been late to theatre before (for example when i saw avenue Q, my friend's subway broke down and she had the tickets so we waited until after the first number when they let us in and went as quietly as possible to our seats.

[thereisnofuture]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 1:53pm

I've never been late, but I was almost late to spelling bee on tour because there was a traffic jam.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 2:05pm

I am now picturing Hugh Grant as Peter Allen.

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 2:52pm

I'm picturing the hooker he got arrested with as Peter Allen....

[CJR]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 3:08pm

I was only late to a show once. Missed the first 20 minutes of Losing Louie at MTC thanks to a ridiculous amount of traffic on the west side highway and two street fairs in midtown. Thankfully, they have you sit in a lounge and watch on plasma screen tv's. So nobody was disturbed by my late entrance.

[goldswann]

Posted: 6/14/08 at 9:14pm

Speaking of late...this past Wednesday I went to see the matinee performance of "A Catered Affair". I had an aisle seat and the seat next to me was empty. About 15 minutes into the show an usher comes down and asks me to stand for the person who has the empty seat next to me. After what seemed like forever, the woman makes it down the aisle and immediately sits in my seat. The usher kindly asks her to move to her correct seat and she says very loudly "NO, this is where I'm sitting and that's that!". Everyone around her starts shushing her but she just keeps insisting that it's too bad, she's not moving. Eventually the usher moved me to an empty aisle seat a couple of rows up (and I get dirty looks because the people around think I'm late) but at this point I've missed maybe 5 minutes of the show and who knows what I've missed! She pretty much ruined the experience for me...

I know being late is sometimes unavoidable but to be late and rude...why?

[LoveIsCompany]

Posted: 6/14/08 at 11:36pm

During Gypsy a month or so ago a plate went flying during "Through It Together" and hit a young girl in the eye who was seated in the front row. They had to stop the show and retrieve the plate, I will always remember Gaines gasping and running forward. They turned it into a bit kind of but it was pretty scary.

[choked_on_tittup]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 3:18pm

Nothing exciting happened during a Broadway show but two did during our school production or arsenic & old lace. Before the show one of the moms collected 3 phones from cast members and decided to put them in the bag near the sound box. She and the person who owned one of the phones forgot to turn it off and of course I was doing sound that night. So right in the middle of the first act the phone goes off and EVERYONE turns and stares at me because I happened to be where the phone went off. It was also a performance in which my former band director, former choir director, current choir director, and best friend were attending so I got fussed at by all of them including my theatre director and whoever else felt like making me feel bad. Fortunately the stage mom who was responsible explained it to my director who in turn explained it to everyone who fussed at me.


I think it might've been that same night that the light people got locked out of the lighting booth and we had to wait an extra 15 minutes during the intermission to start. Hilarious!

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 3:27pm

I heard that Anika Noni Rose stopped Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a couple weeks ago because there was an illness in the audience and it was causing a big commotion.

[Ryan4]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 3:45pm

During Betty Buckley's tenure in "Sunset Boulevard" a guy had a heart attack in the audience and his wife panicked and started screaming Betty Buckley's name for help. Needless to say they stopped the show, Betty tried to keep things in order by calmly chatting with the audience until they had taken the guy out.

Nathan Lane frequently stopped "Forum" for flash photography (among other things) but naturally always made a comic bit out of it.

I'm sure most people around here remember Richard Griffiths stopping "The History Boys" due to cell phones a couple years ago.

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 4:22pm

Several years ago, during "The Producers", a gentleman unfortunately had a heart attack & died in the balcony during the performance. His poor wife started screaming, to the point where Matthew Broderick simply could NOT ignore it. He looked up & said, "Um, curtain?" They brought the curtain in & dealt with the situation. Very sad.

[choked_on_tittup]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 5:50pm

Also during a movie (like I said nothing weird happened when I went to broadway) called The Bucketlist a lot of people had heart attacks at our local theater and the one who had a heart attack when I saw it died =(

[Mamie]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:02pm

About 6 years ago I went to see Alan King in "Mr. Goldwyn" at the Promenade Theatre (off-B'way). This is a one man play with him walking back and forth across the stage and talking to the audience about different events in his life. A few minutes after the start of act II, he walks over to stage left and looks into the audience and asks "Are you all right? Do you need help?" Then he looks up and asks "Is there a doctor in the house?" The audience, which has been laughing throughout the show, laughs at this 'line' too. Then he says "I'm serious. We need a doctor here." A man in the front center orchestra jumped up and said "I'm a doctor" and he literally climbed over the top of the people sitting in his row and got to the lady who was having the problem. It turns out that she was sucking on a candy or cough drop and when she started laughing the candy became caught in her throat and she was choking. She was by herself and nobody noticed her trouble. He (Alan King) could see it from the stage and he stopped the show.

[Leo_Yikes]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 8:05pm

I was in a show (I was like 7 so I dont remember much) but a lady sitting in 3rd row went into labor. They stopped the show, got her up and out into the isle and then continued with the show...fun

[BwayBoundJoe]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 8:38pm

Once, in 110 in the shade, steve kazee's character was to come down the aise screaming STOP!

well, a woman who was on the aise stood up and screamed at the top of her lungs...O MY GOD..ITS A ROBBERY...JUST TAKE ME MONEY...I DONT WANT TO DIE...

there was laughter, she got red, and set back down, the show continued

[HamletWasBipolar]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 8:44pm

This brought back memories! I was doing a regional production of Clue, The Musical, and I was playing Mr Boddy, who is the emcee/guide of the show. I was on stage, and an audiences members cell phone went off. Ok, no problem. 5 minutes later it went off again, I didnt even think about it, and broke character, and waved the rope, which was a murder weapon in Clue, at them, and said " Would you like me to use this on you?" Needless to say, no more cellphone..lol.

[lola_actor22]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 11:53pm

bahaha
that 110 In The Shade story is probably the best!

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:16pm

I was there at History Boys when a huge fight broke out in the audience one row in back of me - in the back of the center orchestra. Some older guy with a cane smashed the hell out of a male ticket holder. There were loud screams and profanity and Richard Griffith announced from the stage that the cast was not going to begin until all of the commotion was over. He also warned the audience that if another "Damn American cell phone" went off in this performance, he would leave the theatre. The cells phones of course went off, and he left the stage. The fight in the back row went on for 15 more minutes with the house manager swearing as loud as the two guys who were killing each other. And then I woke up a week later and the old guy who started everything- because he snuck into the theatre which was sold out that day, and tried to get a free seat - was suing the theatre for several million dollars. Oy Vey!
My Theatre Schmooze Column on DC Theatre Scene

[WiCkEd BaCcHaE]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 5:49pm

I heard there was this guy named Wilkes who shot someone at a show and ran away. They found him at a barn later. Weird.

[Patash]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 9:19pm

Interesting how many stories there are of people dying in the audience. I've seen quite a few agonizing deaths on stage, but none in the audience!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 9:49pm

It wasn't Broadway, but I was at a matinee of Verdi's MACBETH at the Metropolitan Opera when a man committed suicide by throwing himself off the balconey during the second intermission.

I never got to see the last act. Drat!

[keen on kean]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:03pm

Dollypop - I was there, too. No wonder that opera shares the play's reputation.