Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Obnoxious screaming over money notes
#1Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:35am
I feel many (including myself) have complained about this in various posts but I wanted to start a thread to hopefully spread the word about this and slowly change behaviour (or track it over time). I never, ever will understand why people who apparently are really enjoying a live performance, will express this by screaming over the top of it.
And it's always during the most important moment of the song (i.e., the money notes in 11 o'clock numbers or Act One closers, typically). Caissie Levy probably has the easiest job in the world - she'll get all the praise for singing "Let it Go" but if she is feeling ill or lazy she can just mime the song and it won't matter. The fans who are apparently 'loving it' will be too busy screaming over it for anyone (including themselves) to notice. When did this start? Why does it continue?
If you or your friends are screaming over the top of a performance - please stop. We didn't pay large $$$$ to hear you scream. And why wouldn't you want to actually enjoy the performance BEFORE all you can hear is your screeching voice?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 2/8/18 at 12:35 AM
#2Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:44amYou need to get over yourself. You will have a much happier and less miserable life when you realize you can’t control other people’s behavior...which leads me back to: GET OVER YOURSELF!!!
#3Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:54am
I mean by that logic we might as well give up on any issues we face in society. What a sad state of affairs if we have to grin and bear it.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 2/8/18 at 12:54 AM
UncleCharlie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/26/16
#4Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:52am
Frozen hasn't even started previews yet. WTF are you talking about?
But yeah, let's track it over time. What would that spreadsheet look like?
#5Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 2:55am
Well I was hoping you'd volunteer to get in the Delorean and watch every performance of Wicked ever with a stopwatch and dB reader - recording the exact moment and strength the screaming started at the end of "Defying Gravity".
Perhaps I'll just pray for it to stop.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
UncleCharlie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/26/16
#6Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:17amYou know, I would have been happy to do that but I find I am currently pretty busy spending every waking hour obsessing over Hello Dolly's attendance, future sales, break even points, marketing, age range of potential audiences and relevance to 2018 along with Bernadette's inflection on every note in every song, delivery of every line, tear volume at the emotional points as well as a detailed analysis of every media appearance. So unfortunately, I just don't have the time.
#7Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:21am
UncleCharlie said: "You know, I would have been happy to do that but I find I am currently pretty busy spending every waking hour obsessing over Hello Dolly's attendance, future sales, break even points, marketing, age range of potential audiences and relevance to 2018 along with Bernadette's inflection on every note in every song, delivery of every line, tear volume at the emotional points as well as a detailed analysis of every media appearance. So unfortunately, I just don't have the time."
What a coincidence - I am busy doing the same thing! We have so much in common :).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 2/8/18 at 03:21 AM
#8Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:52am
Totally agree with the OP---the audience now wants to be the performer.
I blame it on those ridiculous TV shows that encourages the audience to scream and yell and stand every time Oprah and Ellen or whoever blows hot air.
You won't change it, it is now embedded as part of 'the experience' , so either accept this, or don't go-pity.
You have every right to feel pissed off.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#9Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 7:14am
Sweet Lips wrote: "the audience now wants to be the performer."
Wants to be? It IS.
And a very lousy performer, I might add.
carnzee
Broadway Star Joined: 9/2/11
#10Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 7:31am
I also dislike the yelling when a performer makes their first entrance. I understand that entrance applause is a tradition, but the yelling is too much.
To answer your question, I think people don't know the difference between a concert and theater.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#11Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 7:53am
Except at closing night/last performances, I've never heard it happen throughout a song. At the end when they haven't finished? Yes, but sometimes it feels organic, (well, really only referring to applause here) as if the audience couldn't contain themselves anymore.
But yes, most audience members try to make it about them.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#12Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 8:34am
Ought implies can. In the case of Frozen, there is simply no way anyone will be able to stop the little girls from belting out those songs.
metropolis10111
Broadway Star Joined: 7/28/06
#13Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 8:48am
UncleCharlie said: "You know, I would have been happy to do that but I find I am currently pretty busy spending every waking hour obsessing over Hello Dolly's attendance, future sales, break even points, marketing, age range of potential audiences and relevance to 2018 along with Bernadette's inflection on every note in every song, delivery of every line, tear volume at the emotional points as well as a detailed analysis of every media appearance. So unfortunately, I just don't have the time."
Where you are farther along then me. I'm still obsession over the shade of red used the dress in Follies to even begin to think about Dolly
#14Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 11:12am
It's only about 120 years now that the tradition of white Western theatre has held audiences should restrict their responses to two sounds: applause and the absence of applause. Theatre before that was much more give-and-take participatory, and it's becoming that way since.
While one can argue whether this is good or bad, it's short-sighted to say that the rules of audience response are sacrosanct.
#15Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:07pm
carnzee said: "I also dislike the yelling when a performer makes their first entrance. I understand that entrance applause is a tradition, but the yelling is too much.
To answer your question, I think people don't know the difference between a concert and theater."
I agree with this. Enthusiastic applause is one thing, but the yelling/shouting seems very much out of place in the theatre. I'd make an exception for a closing/last performance by that performer, but I'd never do it myself.
#16Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:32pm
If this is happening at Wicked and Frozen, perhaps you're just going to the wrong shows?
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#17Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:01pm
Nah, this sh*t has been going on for decades with certain shows. I remember how annoying it was back in 1982 in the original Broadway production of DREAMGIRLS with Jennifer Holliday and people standing up and screaming and carrying on while "And I Am Telling You..." was going on. Hell, they even lost their sh*t during "I Am Changing." During those moments it genuinely felt like you were at a church.
#18Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:35pm
The rhythms of writing, staging and composition add to it. I doubt you'll see this reaction at Carousel or Hello Dolly simply because the material does not support it- the shows are written in a more sedate way, for a more sedate time.
broadwayboy223
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/2/14
#19Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 2:14pm
If only it were only the money notes... When I saw Aladdin on Broadway (worst show i've seen on broadway) people were singing along with a whole new world and flash photography during the carpet sequence. It was horrible
#20Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 2:46pm
broadwayboy223 said: "If only it were only the money notes... When I saw Aladdin on Broadway (worst show i've seen on broadway) people were singing along with a whole new world and flash photography during the carpet sequence. It was horrible"
The ushers didn't intervene for the photography?!
#21Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 2:49pm
darquegk--a great musical and intelligent explanation---never thought of the 'problem' that way and BrodyFosse123--I was a white boy in a predominantly black audience for Dreamgirls in SF many years ago and I nearly fell off my chair when the audience started responding throughout THAT song. I had never been exposed to that sort of an experience before[a virginal Aussie lad]--frightened the sh*t out of me.
#22Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:08pm
It all comes down to knowing what you don't know. I'm a frequent member of the commentariat at AV Club, which tends towards the Gen X, white, straight, atheist/Jewish big city demographic. People are frequently befuddled by the popularity of Madea as a cultural phenomenon, because they're unaware of the fact that Madea is playing on tropes that are unfamiliar to this demographic, who have never been exposed to "gospel mimes" or the black Pentecostal tradition of participatory allegorical theatre. But because I dated a girl who came from that tradition, I may not enjoy the Madea "thing," but I get and respect where it's coming from.
#23Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:10pm
CarlosAlberto said: "You need to get over yourself. You will have a much happier and less miserable life when you realize you can’t control other people’s behavior...which leads me back to: GET OVER YOURSELF!!!"
THIS!!!! Gurl, you have way too much time on your hands.
#24Obnoxious screaming over money notes
Posted: 2/9/18 at 9:24am
"People are frequently befuddled by the popularity of Madea as a cultural phenomenon, because they're unaware of the fact that Madea is playing on tropes that are unfamiliar to this demographic, who have never been exposed to "gospel mimes" or the black Pentecostal tradition of participatory allegorical theatre."
And yet I know many people of color who are repulsed by Madea, seeing her as a contemporary Aunt Jemima/Stepin Fetchit phenomenon. It can't be denied that the entire Tyler Perry oeuvre is extraordinarily lowbrow, but it also can't be denied that lowbrow sells. And that screaming while others are performing is also undeniably lowbrow. And that there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that. What's problematic is pretending that stupid is smart (reflected every day in our country's present political discourse).
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