Musical Theatre Pet Peeves- Page 6

[sarla]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 3:27pm

"Ensemble members talking in the background of a scene. Not in a "mingling" crowd setting....Do they not realize that they ARE onstage? Just because they're not in the spotlight doesn't mean no one notices them."

Manuel Herrera - drives me f**king crazy! So unprofessional

[lildogs]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 3:34pm

I think ensemble people get bored very quickly and begin to form backstories for their "characters." They really think nobody's watching them or that it adds richness.

It's really just a case of the director/SM letting them run wild.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 3:49pm

Saturday's matinee of CHICAGO.
I'm front row, and the gentleman sitting behind me, over my left shoulder, is singing along (TOTALLY FLAT). Thankfully, it wasn't all that loud, and I'd shoot him this look every now-and-again. I was all, "Yeah, hi, I'm a man of the theatre ... What are YOU?" He hushed-up right then!

[A Fleur De Toi]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 5:21pm

when ppl cheer excessively. I was at Hairspray and i think it was a school outing to the theatre weekend or something, so Neil Simon was crawling with many teenagers, who wouldnt shut up.

I'm like, relax we aint at a basketball game geez.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:48pm

When people immediately refuse to like a show

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:52pm

Oh, tall people in front of me. I'm 5'1.

Ignorant people who have no business in the theatre
"Hairspray? I thought it was about a beauty parlor?"
"Wheres Reese Witherspoon?"
"THIS ISNT SCARY! I THOUGHT PHANTOM WOULD BE SCARY!"
"Wheres Johnny Depp?"

You get the idea...

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:07pm

I also hate people who try to leave during the curtain call.

If they're in my aisle, I won't let them by. They can stand there until I'm ready to leave or try the other end of the aisle if they're that desperate.

Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:15pm

When people smack their thighs and hum along because they know the two famous songs in the whole show... so fun.

Cellphones.

Standing ovations are sometimes great for shows, but if you are person who has seen the show multiple times, it just kind of gets old.. no offense to the performers who are doing a great job.

"people who wear prom dresses or floor legnths gowns, especially to shows like rent and in the heights, its not so much a pet peeve as it is just hilarious. "
I think it's hilarious too haha. To be underdressed and overdressed, although I have gone underdressed before, I'm not going to lie.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:21pm

EYEDEENA!!! OMG ITS EYEDEENA MENZUL!

Fangirls
Unnecessary laughter
Responding to actors questions
People coming in costume (to an extent, Rent is fine, Les Mis is fine, Phantom, Cats, and Wicked always get out of hand)
Singing along with the actors
Saying lines before the actor says them
Talking about the actors as if they were your personal friends that you have lunch with
Telling people how many times you've seen [show] or [actor]
Talking about understudies and when they go on CONSTANTLY as if you are a stage manager

[bwayfan45]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:27pm

When I was at Legally Blonde there was this guy and girl sitting in front of me dancing in their seats to all of the choreography. It was most annoying during What You Want, Positive and Legally Blonde Remix. I wanted to shoot them!

[Eris0303]

Posted: 6/3/08 at 11:32pm

I don't mind late comers so much because it happened to me once. I left the house with plenty of time to get to the theatre but every delay you can imagine was thrown in my path. The parking garage at the train station was full but they had forgotten to put the "garage full" sign up and I missed a train while just looking for a space, the train was stuck on the tracks, etc. So I don't damn people who come late because, for all I know, they tried their darnest to get there on time.

I hate people who don't dress nicely for the theatre. I'm not asking for gowns or anything. When I go I wear nice slacks or capris with a nice blouse. And if you're going to wear flipflops at least make sure your feet don't smell. At Hairspray once this woman next to me had flip flops on and when she put her feet on the back of the chair in front of her I could smell them. Yuck! Be clean when you come to the theatre!

[fairygodmother]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 6:40am

i love that whole " hate it when, after a button, the actors fall down laughing at what just transpired. Like in the SWEET CHARITY film, after "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This."
that's sooo true!
it sort of demeans what they've just been doing, like, oh how silly are we....its a cheap trick

when actors are obviously bored with their run and phone in their performance

when you see an understudy run and other, regular actors mess around and try to make people corpse - i'm still there to watch a show

the people who get obsessed with what show will go into what theatre - as if that's the most exciting thing to talk about when a new show is arriving?!

the people who trash a show before they've seen it, or shill about it too

the people who claim they're in the business and therefore know everything that's going on; 1. no-one in the business knows EVERYTHING, and mostly we're working on rumours anyway and 2. often they're version of being in the business is ushering or street teaming.

the way that you absolutely have to belt everything these days before people are impressed with your voice

crazy vowel moderation - as long as haaaaaaayyy naaaaaaayyyds maaaaaaaaay (and for you US types, no, that's not how we talk!)

unnecessarily bad accents - that's just lazy. sometimes its from a crazy producer who reckons the audience won't understand them (and then we have Dick Van Dyke all over again)

acutally, yeah, producers who assume their audience are truly dumb, so take out local references when things cross the pond - come on people, the UK audience know who Gary Coleman is! and anyone who doesn't, doesn't deserve to get those jokes!

[Weez]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 7:03am

People who overreact to what's on stage. It's fine that you've gone to see a comedy, but that doesn't mean that every other line is a joke, so please be quiet unless they've actually moved you to chortling. I understand you've paid a lot of money for your ticket and therefore want to have the best time possible for your buck, but I don't need to be convinced that you're having a good time, so stop laughing in my EAR. ALL the TIME. AUGH!

I wear jeans to the theatre. For the longest time, I'd wear nice trousers or skirts, proper shirts or nice tops, but really, I don't own that many nice clothes, and am very casual in my everyday life. If I only went to the theatre once or twice a month, then that'd be fine. But I'm averaging 8.4 trips a month so far this year, and I'm sure there are way more people who go way more times than that. I just want to be comfortable, especially as I'm a sucker for marathon days. If I'm going to be sat in your theatre for twelve and a half hours, I'm going to wear what makes me feel good. Besides, I've dressed casually, and the lady next to me has dressed up all smart and nice. Which of the two of us is consequently wearing excessive jewellery that clangles and jangles every time she even BREATHES?

Don't diss me for my jeans. Love me for my ability to arrive on time, switch my phone off, sit quietly for the duration, and give the actors and orchestra their full due at the end of the show. :P

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 7:38am

Don't diss me for my jeans. Love me for my ability to arrive on time, switch my phone off, sit quietly for the duration, and give the actors and orchestra their full due at the end of the show. :P

Amen Weez! :)

As for my biggest pet peeve... Picnics in the theatre. Seriously. When I saw Frankenstein, there was a family behind me that had gotten Subway and put it into a Duane Reade bag I guess so there would be less questioning of them coming into the theatre. They proceeded to wait until almost time for the show to start to begin unpacking the meal, and since they'd all gotten different sandwiches had to discuss who had what, etc. QUITE annoying. And I'm fairly sure that there has been at least one picnic with silver and china in the mezz of the Roundabout ~ definitely sounded like it once when I saw 110 In The Shade (and no, it was NOT when Lizzie was messing with place settings on stage).

Then again, when the theatres sell peanuts in cellophane bags that make impossible noise (*cough*Roundabout in particular*cough*), what are people supposed to think?

Updated On: 6/4/08 at 07:38 AM

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:54am

--- People not dressing up

--- Cellphones and picture taking

--- Fangirls

--- Actors/actresses who step into roles after a "star" and do nothing to make the role/song(s)their own and simply "imitate" (often badly) the "star"

[philcrosby]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 8:59am

Audience members who don't turn off their cell phones.

Or talk on their cell phones.

Or take pictures with their cell phones.

OK. Just cell phones.

[SheepyFuzz]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 2:52pm

Or when the people behind you/around you won't stop singing/humming along. I paid to hear the people on stage sing, not the person sitting next to me!

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 2:59pm

This isn't specific to musical theatre, but I hate when patrons come in and try to grab Playbills out of my arms while I'm examining their ticket. The other day I lectured a girl for doing it. She tried to take one from my arms and I pulled away abruptly and said "Excuse me!" She stammered something like "Sorry, I didn't mean to do anything," so I said "That's okay, you just don't take things out of people's hands." She went slinking to her seat. Hope she never tries that one again.

[proptart101]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 4:11pm

My Pet Peeve is:

How shows are mixed at such a high volume that I might as well be at a Rolling Stones concert. There's no room for any subtlety in the music anymore if everything has to be at least 95db.

Seriously, I wear earplugs to musicals and movies these days so I will be able to enjoy music for the rest of my life.

[xOnMyOwnX]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 9:19pm

TEXTING! I hate when your sitting there and you just see all those annoying lights. My parents got tickets for my family to see Avenue Q (awkward, but that's an entirely different story) and my BROTHER started texting in the middle of "Purpose". I got so mad at him during intermission...

[Eris0303]

Posted: 6/4/08 at 10:49pm

"my BROTHER started texting in the middle of "Purpose". I got so mad at him during intermission..."

If it was my brother I'd have reached over and snatched it out of his hand or something. It's easier when it's someone you know. When I was at A Catered Affair the person next to me was reading her playbill by the light of her cellphone. Now, I don't mind the occasional glance at the song listing to see which one is next. I've done that (never by the light of my cellphone of course). But she was reading the cast bios. She was missing the show in order to read the cast bios. Sad.

[b=[^.^]=d]

Posted: 6/5/08 at 12:52am

I've never seen a Broadway show so my response will have to stick to the theatre that I do know.

I hate when the house is full of people that don't know much about theatre, (example: maybe relatives of the folks onstage that wanted to support son/daughter/cousin etc.) so they act in their non-theatre manners.
- Laughing at something that's not funny.
(example: any sad death scene, think of All My Sons ending)
- Low brow humor.
(example: any form of stupidity that fans of NASCAR would laugh at for years, think like Scary Movie-esque humor)

[StuckToTheStage]

Posted: 6/5/08 at 1:24am

HARASSING performers at the stage door. It gets old.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 6/5/08 at 1:30am

I don't mind latecomers, except for when they're at the end of one row, enter through the other end and make everyone stand up
I also don't like it when people cover their eyes during a nude scene (not including children)

[Marianne2]

Posted: 6/5/08 at 1:57am

I agree with clothing, latecomers, cell phones, and talking. It also bothers me when people bring children to shows, which clearly were not aimed at them. I mean, do these kids actually like the show, or are they just going to get bored or confused? I swear I saw a girl who looked like she was only 10 at 'Chicago.' With the outfits and subject matter, I really questioned what her parents were thinking.

My other peeve is people trying to be grabby about seats. I know the majority of theaters you get assigned seats, based on the section you chose. Well, at 'Spamalot,' some lady with her young child had either mezzanine or balcony seats. Way before curtain came down, she was trying to move down to the rear orchestra. Like she found some seats that people had not come in for yet, and had her son guarding them, and telling him what to do incase anyone came, while she went up to inspect where their original seats were. Of course, these people did not show up, so they sat there. I mean, it's one thing if you are not going to disturb people to move up or back in your section if you know you can do it, but only at appropriate moments. And never in front orchestra. But also, you never know when latecomers might arrive, and you might be in their seats.