Have You Left at Intermission? — Page 3

Los Angeles, California:

LOVE NEVER DIES, National Tour; Pantages Theatre, (April 2018).

Libretto was too "wordy", so I was lost in the plot. I left in a daze at intermission.

OKLAHOMA!, National Tour, Ahmanson Theatre, (October 2022).

I walked out at intermission. Days later, I re-watched old versions on DVDs for my sanity's sake.

I tried to give Rent a second chance after much pleading by my boss at the time, and just couldn't do it, having been truly bored the first time around. Sometimes, a second act seems like an eternity, which was the case with this show for me. The only other Broadway shows I can recall walking out on during intermission was An American in Paris (having seen the matinee of Gigi and enjoyed that much more), finding the view from the top of the Palace a horrible experience and the show ponderous and slow. I had a headache by intermission of that rock revue that played the Broadway theater a couple years back so I left. The usher said I couldn't get back in without my ticket on me, and I told him I wasn't returning anyway.

There have been multiple Off Broadway shows I didn't stay for, some truly bad and others just so far away from public transportation that I decided enough was enough. Usually if I go to a matinee, I'll stay for the entire show because I made plans afterwards and didn't want to have time to kill. A few times, I left because the audience was really bad, and being p.o'ed while trying to have a good time becomes really difficult. I remember getting a comp through a papering site, reading bad reviews, and not wanting to be penalized from that company picked up the ticket and just left without seeing anything. But all those situations have been very rare.

Dreamboy3 said: "Countless Broadway shows. The only one I felt bad about was Travesties - I guess Stoppard is a recurring theme here- because it was an excellent production but I had absolutely no idea what was going on



I couldn’t get out of the theater fast enough and hit the bars. “Dada dada dada…..”

Not the same thing, but I’d return to Song and Dance and leave at intermission; only wanted to hear Bernadette sing.

I don't know why, but I always stay.



I was sitting next to Barbara Walters at the 2002 Into the Woods with Vanessa Williams. She left at intermission.

The recent Camelot at LCT.... utterly dreadful.

Updated On: 4/21/25 at 04:40 PM

Most recently I left Floyd Collins. I also left Stereophonic at intermission - I know I'm in the minority on that one, but I just did not enjoy it.

Chalk up one more for Tom Stoppard's TRAVESTIES. I couldn't wait for intermission so I could flee the theatre. I, too, didn't know what the heck was going on.

GONE WITH THE WIND at the Curran Theatre starring Leslie (Ann) Warren and Pernell Roberts. I enjoyed Harold Rome's score listening to the OLC album but the show was dreadful.

BITTERSWEET with Shirley Jones in Long Beach, CA. Poor direction made it unbearable to sit through.

LITTLE WOMEN. The cheapness of the show irked me. Especially the ballroom scene. Instead of a ballroom set, we watched the characters talking outside the entry doors and never entering the room.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH at USC. Dorothy McGuire was totally miscast in the lead role (as was Elizabeth Taylor in the TV version). No one could better Geraldine Page as the Princess Kosmonopolis.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. In this case, Taylor and Burton outshined them both in the film version.

TRIUMPH OF LOVE. The show wasn't bad at all but it was my very last day in NYC and I decided to second act SIDE SHOW again instead.

HALLELUJAH, BABY! starring Diana Sands at the Mineola Playhouse. Though a wonderful actress, the woman couldn't sing to save her life. Her big final big note in the first act finale's "Being Good" was horribly flat and off key as was most of her singing.

THE FANTASTICKS at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. I had seen the show previously in stock with Elliott Gould and Liza Minnelli and it was wonderful. Many years later I decided to revisit it in the theatre it originally opened at in the village. Unfortunately, the actress playing the girl couldn't have been a day under 35 and had badly dyed red hair and plucked eyebrows. Later I was told she had been a last minute replacement who had first played the role a decade earlier.

RUNAWAYS with a score by Elizabeth Swados. Didn't care for the show or the music. And neither did most people.

So. Much. Ducking.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. In this case, Taylor and Burton outshined them both in the film version.

Blasphemy!

ChiDoc said: "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 hadno 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)."





Since leaving NYC, I rarely post anymore; the shows I see are chosen so carefully that there's little chance I would leave. In my youth, however, when I was local and tickets were "cheap" I saw everything I could. Still remember Stoppard when he was just coming up, and loved R&G and especially Travesties (which to be fair, was pretty empty after the half), but I was also a PH.D student i drama, so...

I do remember despising/leaving Alan Ackbourn' s Bedroom Farce, anything by Lloyd Weber except Sunset Boulevard (particularly Aspects of Love), Death and the Maiden, Naked Boys Singing, The Performers (Henry Winkler as a porn star!) Sammy Davis' Golden Boy, Generation. Just an assortment.

There have been multiple times where I wanted to, but I could never. The cost of tickets travel, etc. always stopped me. I've also seen shows I didn't care for the first time around, more than once to see if I missed something the first time.

However, this past summer, I left at intermission of the tour of Tina. I love her music, but I was so put off by the amount of physical abuse on the stage that I felt like I couldn't take anymore. The first act just seemed to be an hour of abuse stopped every few minutes for a Tina Turner song. Not for me, and I even sat through an entire performance of the stage version of "Room".

funny addendum...Had tickets for the Sally Field Menagerie but it closed before we could see it. Never did receive a refund

Only once. Urinetown.
Looking at the faces of my friends at intermission we all knew we were just going to go out and have an earlier dinner than planned.
Got the message, and what it was trying to do, but just didn’t care.
Didn’t resonate for us on any level really.