Meandering
Meandering
Meandering#0
Posted: 7/22/04 at 5:23pmI 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?
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
re: Meandering#2
Posted: 7/22/04 at 5:55pmMatt, 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.
re: Meandering#3
Posted: 7/22/04 at 5:58pmMaybe I got the shows confused (It was 7 shows in 5 days, after all). When did you see Assassins?
re: Meandering#4
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:03pmI 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
re: Meandering#5
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:20pmPeople also wear jeans or shorts to shows now. YOu never would have seen that even 5 years ago.
re: Meandering#6
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:24pmWearing 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.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Meandering#7
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:28pmWe also found that people were incredibly rude during Assassins. Perhaps it was b/c it had just opened and there were a lot of Roundabout subscribers who did not comprehend the meaning of the show (or maybe I'm just looking for excuses), but so many people got up and left....it was rude, distracting, and we thought, unwarranted.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/03
re: Meandering#8
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:29pmi 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!'
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
re: Meandering#9
Posted: 7/22/04 at 6:35pm
I go crazy when people talk during a show (or a movie).
I saw Bombay Dreams yesterday afternoon and there was a busload of older people talking constantly. The younger people had to keep shushing them which is funny to me. One depressing thing happened when one of the older (75+) women asked my sister and I if we came on the bus with them. That was kind of a rude awakening I must say.
re: Meandering#10
Posted: 7/22/04 at 8:06pm
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
re: Meandering#11
Posted: 7/22/04 at 8:26pmOr when you're a tourist who's been hiking all over the city and doesn't have time to go back to your hotel and change before the show. Jeans are fine to some things like Rent, but not to Phantom.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Meandering#12
Posted: 7/22/04 at 9:29pmHey, 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.
re: Meandering#13
Posted: 7/22/04 at 9:30pm
Really, Phantom? Maybe because, for me, Phantom has become the McDonald's of Broadway, I don't see it as a dress-up event at all. In fact, if I saw someone in dress pants and shirt at Phantom, I'd think, "Virgin theatre-goer." 
re: Meandering#14
Posted: 7/22/04 at 10:15pmPeople 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.
re: Meandering#15
Posted: 7/22/04 at 10:34pmLook, I've been guilty of wearing jeans to musicals, but only very new, dark-colored pairs, and only when, as someone else pointed out, I'm going to have to walk all around the city for hours before the show. When I went to see Caroline, or Change I bought the rush tickets at around 2:30 and wandered around (in the rain) for the next 5 hours. I can't wear a skirt and heels for that kind of activity. Sorry.
re: Meandering#16
Posted: 7/22/04 at 10:36pmWell, 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.
re: Meandering#17
Posted: 7/22/04 at 10:42pmBut, Plum, you can wear pants and nice shoes that are comfortable. You don't have to go as far as wearing jeans.
re: Meandering#18
Posted: 7/22/04 at 10:57pm
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.
re: Meandering#19
Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:40amActually, I only started going to the theater in 1995 and when that happened there were plenty of people in jeans and t-shirts. I don't see anything wrong with that at all. I mean, I'm not going to an opening night in it, but still I don't see any problem with it. I also especially don't see why someone would say its appropriate for Rent but not for Wicked.
re: Meandering#20
Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:42amOh, ok. I didn't mean ultra formal wear, I meant like a skirt and nice shirt or a tie or whatever.
re: Meandering#21
Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:44am
Yikes, a tie?
I don't even wear ties to wedding receptions.
I do try to "dress up" as much as possible for the theatre, though - especially for a show I'm excited about, or as a celebration, etc. But when I'm in New York, backpacking through the city and staying at cheap hostels, seeing shows every day and night, etc., I don't have the time nor the clothes ready to get all hooched up for a evening of theatah.
But I promise to be the most polite audience member ever.
re: Meandering#22
Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:45amGuess you don't live around here, then. A tie is semi-formal.
re: Meandering#23
Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:48am
No, it's more a matter of me not having any nice ties.
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