Obnoxious screaming over money notes

[binau]

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?

 

Updated On: 2/8/18 at 12:35 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:44am

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!!!

[binau]

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.

Updated On: 2/8/18 at 12:54 AM

[UncleCharlie]

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?

[binau]

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.

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:17am

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.

[binau]

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 :). 

Updated On: 2/8/18 at 03:21 AM

[SweetLips]

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]

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]

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]

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.   

[Andy51]

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]

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 

[darquegk]

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.

[msmp]

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.

[haterobics]

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]

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.  

[darquegk]

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]

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

[msmp]

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?!

[SweetLips]

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.

[darquegk]

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.

[Kalimba]

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.

 

Updated On: 2/8/18 at 03:10 PM

[newintown]

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).

Updated On: 2/9/18 at 09:24 AM