LuPone stops Vegas show - Page 3

Posted: 6/22/09 at 3:45pm

Oh please. Stop getting melodramatic. I buy a ticket, I am the customer. If I want to pick my toes while Patti sings Meadowlark what difference does it make?

Imagine if she was a chef! Mid course, the kitchen door flies open and she starts ranting at a customer: "I PUT the carrot Puree on the PLATE so that you'd eat it with the pork and ENJOY the counterpoint between the two! If you weren't talking on your cell phone you could have EATEN the damn CARROT PUREE like you were supposed to!"

"But I don't eat carrots! I am allergic to them actually!"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT EXCUSES! EAT THE DAMN CARROTS! I'M NOT SERVING ANOTHER TABLE TILL YOU DO! IF I SAY EAT THE CARROTS, YOU EAT THE CARROTS!"

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 3:53pm

I don't think that's the right metaphor. It's more like someone's in a restaurant and smoking (or even talking on a cell phone). The chef is unlikely to see them, but someone else would, I hope, ask them to stop.

I think you'd be perfectly entitled to be bothered by Patti's outburst. But I think she and the other audience members are equally entitled to be bothered by someone texting.

I just don't agree that buying a ticket entitles you to do whatever the hell you want. I think it's a contract, and your half of the bargain is that you sit quietly--respctful of the performer and the rest of the audience--while the show's going on.

[winston89]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 3:57pm

JoeKv99, VERY funny, I like that very much.

Joe pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I was trying to say. While there is clearly something wrong with texting or talking on the phone etc while someone is performing, the way Patti is dealing with the situation is not any better. It's like the old childhood saying two wrongs don't make a right. There are more professional ways to deal with people on their phones or taking photos during the show.

And, most people don't understand how hard it is to be an usher during a performance when someone is taking pictures. Your job is to stop the person from doing so while not bothering the rest of the audience. Not an easy thing to do.

With all that said hearing this story about her made me loose what little respect I had for her from the get go.

[bertandrew2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:00pm

..then she made everyone in the rest of the casino stop gambling.

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:11pm

"I think people who believe her antics are fine would start feeling differently if all actors began the practice and interrupted shows to correct audience members."

I wish that would happen! Good for Patti.It's about time these jerks are called out in public! The disrespect from audiences is over the top. Don't go to a performance if you can't watch it without seeing what your friends are doing at the moment.

[winston89]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:19pm

Jane that would work but your forgetting one thing. It is the job of the actor to be professional and not to act like a little child. A good actor who is professional would see that someone is texting and not let that bother them and go on with the performance. An unprofessional actor like LuPone would do the opposite. They would just bitch and moan like a little child until they got their way.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:25pm

I'm with Jane.

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:30pm

Thanks Reggie.

Winston, you sound like this is the first or one of a few times that someone in the audience was rude. Professional bullcrap! You go be "Professional" night after night, week after week, month after month, year after year, and put up with the true "dregs of the earth."

Professionalism has nothing to do with this whatsoever. She's human and took as much as she wants to take of this ABUSE. And brava to her that she's a big enough star to do what she wants without fear.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:33pm

Nothing irks me more than rude audience members. I am totally in favor of performers calling them out during a live performance.

And all the haters who talk about her ruining the show or whatever, that is B-S. I would love to have been there for her freak-out during Gypsy. Like come on! That's a great story to tell and experience to have. It makes the performance more unique than any other.

More importantly though: it stops the audience member from being rude and bothering other audience members. Good.
Updated On: 6/22/09 at 04:33 PM

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:34pm

Jane that would work but your forgetting one thing. It is the job of the actor to be professional and not to act like a little child. A good actor who is professional would see that someone is texting and not let that bother them and go on with the performance. An unprofessional actor like LuPone would do the opposite. They would just bitch and moan like a little child until they got their way.

And yet again you fail to realize the problem. Texting bothers others in the audience. Patti telling them to stop solves the problem for others in the audience.


Imagine if she was a chef! Mid course, the kitchen door flies open and she starts ranting at a customer: "I PUT the carrot Puree on the PLATE so that you'd eat it with the pork and ENJOY the counterpoint between the two! If you weren't talking on your cell phone you could have EATEN the damn CARROT PUREE like you were supposed to!"

No, it's more like taking the carrots and throwing them at other diners. Cell phone use is not a problem unless it interferes with other's enjoyment of a play/movie/etc.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:35pm

I don't understand why so many people in this thread insist that her refusal to be victimized by rude audience members is "unprofessional."

We've all been annoyed by talkers at the movies and theater--what's wrong with someone taking a stand against the behavior?

When someone is talking at the theater, do you sit there upset? Or do you shush them?

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:41pm

A"nd yet again you fail to realize the problem. Texting bothers others in the audience. Patti telling them to stop solves the problem for others in the audience."

"Yet again" I fail to realize the problem? What were the other times?

YOU fail to realize the problem. Sadly. You actually think she called out the jerk so that other audience members wouldn't be bothered by the texting? You really think that???? You really don't get this.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:45pm

Jane, I don't think Doom was directing that at you. it seems to be directed more at Winston.

[fbueller]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:48pm

Patti: C U Next Tuesday!!!

Does anyone have tickets for Tuesday night's show?

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:50pm

What the hell Jane!? I quoted Winston's post. Why would you think I was replying to you? I have obviously been agreeing with everything you've said this whole thread.

Updated On: 6/22/09 at 04:50 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:50pm

Thats hard to decipher. Either way, givesmevoice, he/she doesn't seem to realize that the texting bothers Patti. The amount of disrespect it shows to Patti is much more than the annoyance to some other audience members.

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:51pm

Do you think she was angry that the texting was disruptive or just that he wasn't sitting in rapt attention of her?

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:53pm

"It's unprofessional. She can speak to house management, etc. to have matters addressed."

Just curious how you imagine this could work out. When would she speak to house management? And how would you suggest that house management address the matter?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:54pm

We all know Patti is a bee-yotch and I think that is part of the problem. She exercises her right to b#*@h more than the average entertainer. After she shredded a customer rep at Bank Of America and then posted it on her blog, I thought, this woman has problems with anger and she is kind of a moron.

I think the woman is divinely talented. Some of us prefer to see her just shut up and perform and others are cool with her going off on people. We need to agree to disagree on this one.

I also wouldn't go so far as to use words like "victimized" or "abuse" to describe a texter in the audience. We are all big boys and girls and can ask the offending party to stop. I do it all the time.

I see both sides, but my preferences is for her to be more civilized when she has an issue with something.

She is also very rude to fans at least half of the time. I don't just mean brief or short, I mean RUDE. (I didn't say that to prompt 40 "'Patti was nice to me' stories.")

To address Jane: She can walk off the stage, tell the stage manager to get on the horn and have the texter in the second row removed. That is how stage management communicates with the front of house.

Updated On: 6/22/09 at 04:54 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:55pm

Cape twirl, I'm sorry. I thought you were addressing me, since you didn't mention Winston.

I didn't know you were agreeing with me during the entire thread since I didn't go back to the beginning to read the whole thing. I just started p osted in it.

Again, my sincere apologies!

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:55pm

double post

Updated On: 6/22/09 at 04:55 PM

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:00pm

No problem Jane. Didn't mean to cause any confusion. :)

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:04pm

"Do you think she was angry that the texting was disruptive or just that he wasn't sitting in rapt attention of her?"

Joe, I think she was angry because there's just so much rudeness she was going to take.

[kchenofan]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:07pm

CToD, I second your Brava to Patti. She has every right to discipline rude audience members at HER concert. It is HER show. If only she were performing during the "sex box" incident.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:07pm

To be fair, it's more to rude to other patrons than it is to Patti. She still gets paid.

I do agree that theatre behavior is atrocious. I just think that Patti LuPone's behavior is atrocious as well.

I also wouldn't go so far as to use words like "victimized" or "abuse" to describe a texter in the audience.

I agree with that. I think those words are a little too loaded.

As Patti enters her sunset years, I expect we will see more and more of this behavior. It seems to be her new trademark. Perhaps it's to balance out that she doesn't slur her words like she used to.