Have You Left at Intermission?

Inspired by the discussion about Floyd Collins audiences, have you ever left a show at intermission and why?

The only Broadway or touring show I left was The Kite Runner, which I found to be absolute misery porn and incredibly (intentionally and unintentionally) unpleasant. Learning that Act 2 was longer than the first made me walk out of the theater, and I had no regrets, especially after reading the plot summary.

There have been many others where I’ve thought about or discussed leaving with my seat mate, but I rarely pull the trigger, for better (getting to see the Tina curtain call) or worse (all of Dear Evan Hansen).

I left in the middle of Outside Mullingar despite it not having an intermission.

Updated On: 4/20/25 at 10:56 AM

Thrice. “A Touch of the Poet” at Studio 54 and Tom Stoppard’s “Rock and Roll” & I left after the first act of part one of “Coast of Utopia”.

I generally find Stoppard insufferably boring.

I left something at intermission at the Lortel years ago, a Charles Busch play? My friend and I discussed leaving Roundabout's On the Twentieth Century revival and I ultimately vetoed the idea because after hearing so much about this show I was gonna see it through because no way would I sit through this material ever again.

Reading through some of these responses made laugh: I saw This Ain't No Disco 3x, and yes, it was awful but I kinda loved it and tix were cheap. Rock 'n' Roll twice, and each part of The Coast of Utopia 3x one of which was a marathon day.

I left Paradise Square at intermission on a comp. Wish I'd left Finding Neverland a few others, but that's the only Broadway-level production I couldn't get through.

I've never left a Broadway show or professional touring show at intermission. There are times I've wanted to but my feeling is I paid the money and want to see it through. I have left some amateur productions at intermission though they have to be really dreadful (and I have to not be there to see anyone in particular) for me to do that.

MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "Also there was a recent play at Lincoln Center in the downstairs theater last season...I can't even remember its name because I've erased it from my mind mostly. Something about media coverups and journalists. I have never been so bored and when the lights came up at intermission I thought, "life is just far too short for this" and fled.

As a former journalist, I appreciated what Corruption was trying to do, even if it didn't succeed. That show also had the single oldest audience I've ever seen in New York. When a character said the name George Michael at the end of act 1 (right before you walked out) multiple people yelled "Who?"

Girl from the North Country. Had a comp and it was a snooze fest, thought the afternoon would be better spent outside on a beautiful day.

Around 2010 or so, I saw a touring production of Spamalot in Dallas. I found the show tedious and boring. However, I did love the Lady of the Lake. Right at intermission, I did want to prolongue the agony and just left.

I debated leaving at intermission during Almost Famous and the recent 1776 revival. I wish I left.

When I was younger, I never left anything at intermission no matter how lousy of a time I was having. Then I realized my time was finite and it seemed silly to be wasting it on something that wasn't worthwhile to me.

I also started having to sit through some really, really bad theater for work- things like lower-tier fringe shows and semi-professional productions regionally. Nothing makes you appreciate the value of your time more than sitting through an inept, self-indulgent production in a barely passable basement venue that you cannot walk out on.

The only professional production I've abandoned was Harry Townsend's Last Stand a few years ago; it wasn't very good and Len Cariou seemed to be struggling with his lines.

I also, about two or three years ago, left a community theatre production of Nine at intermission; I wasn't interested in going in the first place, it was poorly performed and directed, and was being staged in a blackbox theatre which was completely the wrong space for it. It's the only production of Nine I've seen thus far, so I'm eager to see professional production at some point (fingers crossed it will be done at Encores! at some point).

Additionally, back in 2023, my mother got 2 free tickets for Bad Cinderella. I turned down the other ticket, just knowing I wasn't going to like the show, so my brother wound up going with her; they both left after the first act.

Strangely, I almost never feel the impetus to leave a show at intermission, no matter how flawed or even bad I thought the show/production was. Most recently, I attended the second preview of Othello and walked away feeling like I had just watched, well, a second preview; despite that experience being one of the most disappointing (and, if I'm being honest, miserable) I've had in the theatre in quite some time, leaving prematurely didn't feel like an option (granted, I wasn't going to be able to see it again). Either I'm a glutton for punishment or I always hope that I'll at least get something out of the next act.

Updated On: 4/20/25 at 02:48 PM

In recent years, I have not seen anything that warranted leaving at intermission. The last show I really disliked — HARMONY — was not so bad that I felt a need to leave.


I have to admit that I have never waited for intermission to leave. If I am sitting super-close, the proximity to the stage keeps me interested (I actually think I enjoyed King Lear so much is because I was so close to Glenda Jackson).

in the day, the most surprising exits mid-Act 1 — because they received very food reviews — were No Man’s Land, with Gielgud and Richardson (solidifying my opinion that I hate Pinter); Rosencrantz…, with the original cast, because I was bored to tears; and Ulysses in Nighttown, with Zero Mostel, again because I was bored to tears.

i saw a lot of bad shows, but only managed to leave a few times, all many years ago: Jimmy, Dr. Jazz, Copperfield, all horrible.

i also left, and regret leaving, Assassins at Studio 54, because I was tired and I realized that I was just not in the mood for it. I did not wait for intermission, if there was one.

i also walked out of a ‘pre-Broadway’ run of a show about Josephine Baker that was previewing in Sarasota, FL. Had it made it to NYC, it would have been a legendary flop.