Meandering

I noticed a new trend in audience rudeness. During 42nd Street, Rent, and especially Assassins, people would get up during the performance, go out to the bathroom or for a smoke and come back in during the performance as many times as they felt necessary. During Assassins, it was pretty much constant throughout the show. We were in the first row of the upper mezzanine and mostly 20-somethings would just crawl though the bar in front of the seats and walk in and out as they saw fit. It was INCREDIBLY distracting and not a single usher took notice or interest. At 42nd Street, we were in the back row of the orchestra and the ushers behind us carried on a lengthy conversation directly behind our heads. At Rent, a middle-aged woman near us took of her shoes and propped her bare feet up on the chair in front of her until the people arrived to sit there where her nasty feet had been. Do they think they're in their living rooms or something?

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Matt, I swear to God I had a woman right next to me take off her shoes and prop them up at ASSASSINS. She was middle aged also. Right before the show, her girlfriend showed up and her seat was behind her and during the first number she kept turning around talking. I just informed her that she'd better not plan on doing that the entire show or I would cause a scene.

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I saw the same thing happening at Chicago last week! It was so distracting not to mention disrespectful!

Updated On: 7/22/04 at 06:03 PM

Wearing jeans to certain shows isn't that bad. To Wicked it's not appropriate but to Rent it is. Shorts are inappropriate but I'd rather see people in jeans at a Broadway show than in pretty dresses.

i always wear a skirt or something to a broadway show. i can't believe people actually prop there feet up on the seat. i would sit in that seat and be like 'man it smells!'

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People also wear jeans or shorts to shows now. YOu never would have seen that even 5 years ago.

I have excellent theatre etiquette (I don't even like bringing bottled water into the auditorium), but I have no problem wearing jeans and a T-shirt to the theatre. Theatre should be a populist entertainment, and although it's a lot of fun to dress up to go to the theatre, it shouldn't be a snooty or button-up experience.

This is especially true when you're a tourist and you didn't pack any collared shirts or dress pants to your trip to NYC, which is what happened to me. :=D

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Hey, if everyone would "dress up" their theatergoing manners and show apnple respect to both fellow audience members and the actors onstage, I couldn't care less what they wore to the theater.

People have been wearing jeans and shorts for longer than 5 years now. I noticed it quite a while back. I still think it's disrespectful. And if you're going to a show, why wouldn't you want to make it the full experience? In the "old days" people walked around the city all day and then went to a show too - they just went back to their hotels and changed first.

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Updated On: 7/22/04 at 10:15 PM

Well, I guess I'm a theatre virgin then, Wizard. I haven't yet seen Phantom (another year before the tour), but I've always heard it was dressier.

Well, I guess I'm a theatre virgin then, Wizard. I haven't yet seen Phantom (another year before the tour), but I've always heard it was dressier.

LOL. What I meant was: you can always tell who's not used to going to the theatre when they wear tuxes or full gowns to the show.

I made the mistake of not packing any dress pants on my last trip to NYC, so I went to all the Broadway shows in either jeans or cordoroys.

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Oh, ok. I didn't mean ultra formal wear, I meant like a skirt and nice shirt or a tie or whatever.

Guess you don't live around here, then. A tie is semi-formal.

That also affects things.