'Live' commercials before theatre?!? What level of HELL are we descending to now? — Page 2

STOMP in the East Village is now having live commercials prior to each performance. Apparently, the audience ignored it, kept chattering and talking on their cellphones:

"Last night's ad began with a woman onstage putting the audience on notice that they would in fact be watching a commercial, "brought to you by Visit London."

The audience, mostly foreign tourists and students from a Brooklyn school, clapped and kept chatting.

The cellphone rang in the audience and the mother-daughter scene followed, with an almost-inaudible daughter, onstage, recommending London attractions. And the British actress Parminder Nagra (Dr. Neela Rasgotra on "ER") stood up for a cameo appearance.

Next, the audience was treated to an onstage couple on their London honeymoon discussing "a stroll along Shaftesbury Avenue," in the West End.

A disembodied voice chimed in: "Whatever you like doing, you'll love doing it in London."

And... scene.

"It took a long time for everything," said a Dutch-born New Yorker, Daphne van der Meulen, 29. "I think you can see from the people that it didn't really — how do you say it? — didn't really hit."



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/theater/24ads.html?hp&ex=1148443200&en=4827090515f81c85&ei=5094&partner=homepage