Have You Left at Intermission?

[ChiDoc]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 10:45am

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).

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 10:56am

A few times. Despite enjoying the production quite a bit, I left South Pacific with Laura Osnes and David Pittsinger because I found their age difference and Pittsinger’s overall performance creepy. And I’ve all but fled from Operation Mincemeat, Something Rotten, This Ain’t No Disco, The Gin Game with Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, and King Lear with Glenda Jackson. There have been others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Updated On: 4/21/25 at 10:56 AM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 10:56am

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

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

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 10:58am

The answer is no. I have never seen anything that horrible IMO that felt I wanted to leave the theater. Granted, I have not seen as many shows as many of you and I am pretty selective with shows I go to see. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 10:59am

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. 

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 11:21am

Only a few times.

My husband and I were two of just a handful of audiences at "Himself and Nora" at the Minetta Lane. At intermission we felt bad because it would be so obvious that we were gone (4th row center through a papering service...perhaps only 25 people total in attendance). But it was just so dreadful that we couldn't stomach the thought of going back for act 2. We enjoyed a summer afternoon in the village instead. No regrets!

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. Then my husband and I did the same thing at KPOP. I know some folks really loved it, but I found the acting and book scenes to be pretty painful.

Things I WISH I had left at intermission: that horrendous one man show/life story from Gabriel Byrne. He read lines from a teleprompter all through act 2!!

[scripps]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 11:25am

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. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 11:36am

Things I WISH I had left at intermission: that horrendous one man show/life story from Gabriel Byrne. He read lines from a teleprompter all through act 2!!

Ha, yes that is the only show I've walked out on. Walking With Ghosts was a great book and this show was really popular in Ireland, but it was like being in the most boring class in school with a teacher that didn't GAF. Terrible. 

                                                    

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 11:44am

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. 

[wsondheim94]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:04pm

Only once. The recent Lord of the Rings musical in Chicago. It was nice enough. Perhaps if I wasn't in town visiting friends I would've stayed, but I just would've rather spent time with them than be in a show that really wasn't very good. 

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:18pm

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]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:28pm

Sutton Ross said: "Things I WISH I had left at intermission: that horrendous one man show/life story from Gabriel Byrne. He read lines from a teleprompter all through act 2!!

Ha, yes that is the only show I've walked out on.Walking With Ghosts was a great book and this show was really popular in Ireland, but it was like being in the most boring class in school with a teacher that didn't GAF. Terrible.

"

YES! Walking with Ghosts....should have been called Walking out of the Theater! I had comps from someone working on the show so I really couldn't leave as it would have been noticed. But dear GOD it was so bad. And LONG. The fact that Byrne knew he wouldn't get the lines, so they had two monitors for him to read off of at each end of the stage? Embarrassing. He didn't look up from them for all of act 2. And no that is not hyperbole. Literally read every single line from them. I was like...YOU wrote this dude! It's YOUR life! C'mon! I see around 50-60 shows a year and this was absolutely top 3 worst things I've ever seen and I'm still furious I cannot get that time back. 

 

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:32pm

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?"

 

[spicemonkey]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:35pm

I had never left at intermission until I realized life was too short.

 

So far i have left after act 1 for:

Tammy Faye 

Jamie Lloyd’s The Tempest 

 

both times because I found the show / production very  uninteresting and a waste of my time 

[shrekster224]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 12:45pm

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. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 1:06pm

"Soul Doctor".

I knew there was just no way I could sit through the second act. Was hoping to like it but the first act just seemed to drag on. 

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 1:12pm

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.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 1:31pm

All Shook Up

 

And I would have left Story of My Life had it an intermission, or if I was on the aisle.

[TapDanceGal]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 1:40pm

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

[yfs]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 1:44pm

I do it without guilt. If I'm having a lousy enough time I know there are better things to do with the rest of the afternoon or evening. And as a producer I have had a gentleman approach me at intermission and tell me how unhappy he was with act one. I advised him to leave and find something he wanted to do more, as the second act was more of the same. It was a show I was very proud of, but he didn't like it. So it goes. 

[Kad]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 2:13pm

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.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 2:15pm

Yes, but not for the reason you're thinking.

My senior year, my college did a production of Godspell. I caught the matinee, but underestimated the runtime, and realized if I stayed, I was going to be late for work. Didn't help that I made this realization right before the end of intermission, and ducked out of the theatre, right where the entire cast (all of whom were friends and/or classmates) was waiting to enter.

I ended up coming back to watch the full show, purely so the cast didn't think I was a jerk.

[Yessica Haircut]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 2:48pm

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

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 3:11pm

I've left two shows at intermission: Spongebob and the Spamalot revival. Guess I should just avoid any shows featuring Ethan Slater in the future..

[Jarethan]

Posted: 4/20/25 at 3:19pm

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.