My worst theater experience- Page 2

[Marlothom]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 7:10pm

Although, understandable, when I saw Amour...they had techinical difficulties and they had to stop the show. It was in previews, so holds barred, I know, but it was new thing to me and it ruined the already tepid show for me.

Also, Dance of the Vampires...even the ensemble members were laughing at themeselves.

[James885]

Posted: 5/2/05 at 9:10pm

I've never had any really bad theater experiences.... there was one annoying experience when I saw Beauty and The Beast last May. There were a bunch of kids there on a class trip behind us, and they felt the need to sing along very loudly....especially during Be Our Guest.

I guess they thought it was like one of those Disney sing along videos.

[blackisthisyearspink]

Posted: 5/3/05 at 10:46pm

I know what you mean guys...
At chitty chitty bang bang I had an awful theater experience. Now, let me just say that I totally understand that there were going to be many, many kids in the audience (who were all well behaved from what I could tell) but I just happened to be sitting in front of the three loudest ones ever.
Literally the second the show starts, they say over and over again how hungry they are and how they were going to die if they didn't have food. Next they actually started leaning over my seat and pulling my hair! I couldn't believe it! I turned around and gave the babysitter a stare, thinking that she would get the point...but no! The kids kept on talking and saying how bored and hungry they were while the babysitter became even louder than them trying to explain the plot etc...
During intermission we (along with our whole row and the row in front of us) ask them to please be quiet. I think some ushers said the same.
Act two--
They finally get their candy, which they then start tossing at us and the other rows in front of us. Now, I am so pissed that I actually turned around and tell them to PLEASE stop right now or leave the theater. Neither of which they do…

This ruined the show for me big time... you know its bad when the applause at the end is the best part (because I couldn't hear the kids!!).

[Sant]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:19am

My worst experience? NOTRE DAME DE PARIS!! The show was THAT bad.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:58am

ClumsyDude15 - I would have politely asked the person behind that man to kick the back of his chair for the second act, if he thinks it's nothing to complain about.

mikem - Next time tell the woman you also paid a lot of money to see the show, but not to listen to her kids. She'll consider it wasted money if the ushers ask her to leave. And I had the EXACT same thing happen when I saw Saving Private Ryan. What kind of MORON brings a small child to a Rated R modern WWII film? Did they think it must be like ET because it was Spielberg? IDIOTS!

I thought there was some law passed in NY banning cell phones. If someone leaves during a show to answer a call and then returns to their seat during the performance, wouldn't the ushers notice? Or is that just asking too much? When I attended the final performance of Assassins, people were coming and going throughout the entire performance like they were in their living rooms. It was nonstop. What's the point of having ushers if they don't enforce anything? And they have a UNION! It was the final performance and there was no intermission, so it wasn't like we could come back on another night or anything. It was VERY distracting and nearly ruined the entire show for me.

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:30am

well at least it was at little women and not a GOOD show, right?

[TGIF]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 12:03pm

I will copy and paste what I said on my Spamalot review from March. NEVER have I had more uncomfortable theatre experience.

"I have never experienced worse audience etiquette then I did today. My first thought was: “Okay, these must be Monty Python fans and aren’t familiar with proper theatre behavior. However, after listening to an argument between the man and the woman if Patsy was supposed to be a guy with coconuts or an actual horse, I didn’t know what to think. I was seated in row D of Mezzanine and had a perfect view, surprisingly close. However, the man thought it wasn’t close enough so he whipped out his binoculars. (Now I know many people do this and its not a bad thing, but that is when you are last row balcony not front of the mezz).

Now in between passing the binoculars between himself and his wife/girlfriend/sister/whatever she was to him, I felt random taps on my head. It took me a couple seconds to realize what it was. It was his ARM. Yes. His arm. I found it around MY chair (Yes. My Chair.) every couple of minutes. This made me extremely uncomfortable. They also had a lively discussion to find out if that was “that guy from ‘The Birdcage’ ya know the one in the knights outfit” while wildly passing the binoculars back and forth."


Talk about invasion of your personal space. *cries*
And no I will not let this go.

*Gets coat to go to weekly therapy session*

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:06pm

Well, equating bad theater experience with bad audiences, I've had a few:

*Miss Saigon where there was Asian family sitting behind me translating every line for the non-English speaking Grandmother....yes, every line.

*The usual array of cell phones for Les Mis. One night there had to be at least EIGHT go off.

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:07pm

My Little Women audience was obnoxious as well, but I have had worse.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:47pm

Well, my cousins from Israel talked throughout my uncle's wedding and made fun of the rabbi's hebrew during the service so I can't say this surprises me

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:06pm

Alright, I think this experience might have taken the cake for me. I saw Into the Woods revival a couple of years ago. We sat in the front row and the right side which was pretty cool. But a couple songs into the show, this stupid woman behind us decided it would be comfortable or something to take off her shoes. I cannot tell you how much her feet smelled! And she didn't put the shoes on for the rest of the show! We then watched the rest of the show holding our noses. Idiot.

[BNIN2MUR]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:42pm

Speaking of theatre etiquette, one thing I cannot stand is howling. Maybe its b/c i just feel differently about the audiences participatory role in theatre. For example every time i saw wicked (not to pick on those wicked fans out there its just the 1st one to pop into my head, the same thing happened in BRKLYN) after every Idina or Chenowith song all you would hear is clapping (acceptable) and howls (wooo or whoooo and the occational Yeah!). At the end of the show this is no deadly sin... heck howl all you like... but not in the middle of a show... The theatre is a temple not a football stadium!!! And they are a cast not a team you are rooting for...sorry i sorta went on a rant..and maybe im the only one that feels that way...so...yeah...

[Forester]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:45pm

This was about 5 years ago or so. I took my baby sister to see Les Miserables for her birthday. I got us orchestra tickets. Well, show started and she was enjoying herself. Then Eponine shows up and the lady next to her decided that she was also Eponine. She sang along to Eponine's part. It really really annoyed me and this was my baby sister's first Broadway show. During intermission, I politely asked the lady if she was part of the production. She said now, I proceeded to say "Can we keep it that way?"

[EganFan2]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:55pm

Good one!

I haven't had a really, really bad experience, but it is annoying when people cry loudly. I was at (surprise, surprise) Phantom and this woman was snorting, honking, etc. Yeah, it's sad, lady, but come on!

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 4:53pm

Ooh Bnin, that's kind of another thing that has been bugging me majorly lately. When in shows like Wicked for example(I can use it because I love it), when they're holding out notes like The last "I" in Wizard and I and the "Down" in Defying Gravity and the "Again" in No good Deed, people interrupt to clap and scream while the note is still being held. This happens all the time in many songs and I hate it, I wish you could at least wait until the song is over to make noise. Grrr.

[Erica2]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 6:31pm

Speaking of theatre etiquette, one thing I cannot stand is howling. Maybe its b/c i just feel differently about the audiences participatory role in theatre. For example every time i saw wicked (not to pick on those wicked fans out there its just the 1st one to pop into my head, the same thing happened in BRKLYN) after every Idina or Chenowith song all you would hear is clapping (acceptable) and howls (wooo or whoooo and the occational Yeah!). At the end of the show this is no deadly sin... heck howl all you like... but not in the middle of a show... The theatre is a temple not a football stadium!!! And they are a cast not a team you are rooting for...sorry i sorta went on a rant..and maybe im the only one that feels that way...so...yeah...

BNIN2MUR...you're not the only one. I felt the same way when I saw Wicked. I saw the show on 4/14, and there was lots of woo-ing/howling/yelling during the performance, not to mention constant murmurs throughout the audience. It just seemed like the most casual broadway audience I've ever seen. I know it's not as bad as some of the stories on this thread, but it's my pet peeve. Why would you talk during a show you paid $100 to see?

[Tenorific2]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 6:39pm

The Rent heads will probably throw heavy objects at me, but I hated seeing "Rent" in 1997 because I was with my conservatory and some friends got tickets, but we were all scattered through out the Nederlander. I was in the second to the last row of the main floor, and I could barely see, and these two Spanish girls sat behind me and talked through the whole thing. I wanted to turn around and say, "silencio, por favor", but i didn't think that would be appropriate. yeah, i got to see adam and idina, but i have a vague recollection of it, and i've been turned off to that show ever since.

[oxdreaminxo]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 6:47pm

My worst esperience was when I saw West Side Story last year at...arg, I forgot what theatre it was, in Jersey though. Anyway, it was a school-wide thing and I am sure more than half the people didn't want to be there. All the guys in my grade were being obnoious and snapping their fingers...for some odd reason...and talking loudly the entire time. They were so rude, I wanted to scream because I was enjoying the play. At intermission, however, an Usher screamed at them and some of them had to leave the theatre. That part was actually pretty funny.

[ikmbway]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 9:14pm

I love seeing friends who are being annoying get in trouble for weird things! I am sorry for everyone else who has bad experiences. I haven't had many that were that bad.

[paphillyguy]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 9:15pm

I was at the pillowman on Sat mat and the lady behind me had a plastic bag that she keep some food and a drink. She kept the bag in her lap and it kept moving as she did. The guy next to me asked her to put the bag on the floor the lady said NO. It was a bit better during the second half though. People can be so rude.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 9:56pm

When I saw Fiddler there was a row of people behind me who were all from some other country, I couldnt tell where but they didnt speak english. Throughout the entire show, they were all trying to figure out what was going on and talking at a normal level trying to explain to the other people in their group what was happening. I kept giving them dirty looks

[jezzebelle]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:44am

When I saw "Hairspray", the people in front of me were passing a box of Junior Mints back and fourth, as if they were at a movie. The people behind me were equally annoying. Anytime anything remotely funny was said, the woman would repeat the joke to her companion. Loudly. Every single time.

The worst case of theatre behavior I have ever witnessed though, would have to be at Johnny T's last show in Avenue Q. This woman tried to bring in a doggy bag from Sardi's into the Golden and was apparently told by ushers that no food was allowed into the theater. I guess she ended up throwing it away and she was screeching and complaning extremely loudly to anyone within earshot. She was also incredibly intoxicated. It was the most immature and embarssing thing I have ever seen. I was mortified for her over her behavior.