Hecklers - "Frogs" Sat. night

[HeartinNYC]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 6:06pm

During a very poignant moment in Saturday night's performance of "The Frogs", where Nathan's character was speaking of how our leaders mislead us, and how they want us to live in fear and to prevent us from thinking for ourselves, some older guy (i.e., bozo) from the audience loudly yelled, "FOUR MORE YEARS!" It's a good thing I wasn't sitting anywhere near him or I might have pulled a Ruth Buzzi and slapped him with my purse.

What the heck? The epitome of RUDE?? I don't care what your political persuasion is, don't people have any basic manners anymore? It was very disruptive, and I felt very bad for the cast; particularly Nathan, who only briefly hesitated, and then continued the performance. I think he showed great restraint, considering how pissed off he must have been.

How about you? Are you finding more and more hecklers in the audiences? Is our society becoming this asinine?

Updated On: 9/12/04 at 06:06 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 6:25pm

I know someone who can be quite rude at the Theatre. I refuse to go with him anymore. Just this past May, he and his friend were at Little Shop in the front row and were so loud that an usher had to speak to them at intermission. The actors, from what I understand, actually complained. He was drunk (which is usually his state of being when at the theatre). He fell asleep, because he was so intoxicated, for the second half of Wicked. When he got back home had to ask me what happened in the second act. For $100.00 a pop, I want to remember what I just saw.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 6:35pm

Maybe he was getting his revenge on Nathan for humiliating the First Family minus Dubya at a performance of The Producers. Overall I think it delightfully evens out.

[HeartinNYC]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 7:06pm

Define humiliate. It's been awhile, and I forgot what was actually said.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 7:15pm

If I'd been an usher at that performance - I would have very quickly and concisely ejected that man from the theatre. People like that do not deserve to be exposed to entertainment of any kind.
And while we're on the subject of RUDE - at Broadway on Broadway the crowd was VERY rude - people kept shoving us out of the way and stepping on our feet without saying "excuse me" and I was just embarassed for the human race - it seems to me that Please, Thank You and Excuse Me have gone far, far away and may never become revived phrases. It sickens me that parents let their children out of their homes with such bad manners these days.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 7:34pm

Such hecklers will only encourage Nathan to delightfully disembowel the Bushies even more entertainingly!

Ah, a pity I was not there and seated behind the heckler. His head would have been been quite swollen and bruised from my "Playbill" "accidentally" "falling" from my "lap"!

Updated On: 9/12/04 at 07:34 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:03pm

I think it's kind of a funny thing to heckle at that moment, I'm shocked Nathan didn't have a pithy comeback.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:06pm

Oh, if life were made of moments,
Even now and then a bad one--!
But if life were only moments,
Then you'd never know you had one.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:08pm

What'd Nathan do at THE PRODUCERS??

[SamIAm]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:17pm

This version of the 'bush family visit to the Producers' is not at all the version I know.

And, even if it were...five min of humiliation is nothing compared to what Bush has put this country through for 4 yrs...It's only too bad Bush wasn't there to get it first hand.

As for the guy at the Frogs he IS lucky Lane didn't unload on him and he deserved to be removed from the theater. If he had taken the time to research the show before he bought tickets perhaps he would have discovered it was not exactly a love song to the Bush administration and if he had so little sense of humor, would just have stayed away to spare his feelings.

Interesting to me that those of us who voted for Clinton were expected to grin our way through all the harrangue on him during his problems but we aren't allowed to say a word about the Precious GEORGE. What goes around, comes around.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:29pm

Shakespeare's theater troupe, The King's Men, dealt with hecklers all the time. It's in the grand tradition of theater.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:30pm

It was, Namo. And depending on the show, audience participation is still encouraged sometimes. But nowadays shows are designed to be enjoyed more...um...quietly?

I mean, Shakespeare stuck in a lot of dirty jokes to keep the audience's attention, too. :P Updated On: 9/12/04 at 08:30 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/12/04 at 8:45pm

Aristophanies utilized actors who wore strap-ons onstage.


"Roger, it would be historically accurate if you wore THIS in the scene where you chase the Dionysean maids..."

Updated On: 9/12/04 at 08:45 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/13/04 at 8:04am

Amen, SamIAm. If Clinton's Monica episode was seen as defining of his "character," then I think we're entitled to look at Iraq as Bush defining.

"Four More Months!"