Opening Applause for Celebrities? — Page 2

Going back to antedeluvian times, I recall when Bette Davis made her entrance in the original production of The Night of the Iguana, the audience went wild -- screaming, hollering, the whole bit. Davis finally broke character and acknowledged the applause with a smile and a nod and the performance was able to continue. As the evening wore on, it became obvious that Davis was not right for the role, plus the part was significantly smaller than that of Margaret Leighton's. Davis took her curtain call third from last and the applause dwindled quite noticeably, only to be resumed at full force for Margaret Leighton,who received a standing ovation. Davis left the show shortly thereafter, being succeeded by the infinitely better-cast Shelley Winters.

---

Tacky and vulgar are subjective, but "suburban"? I think you'll find entrance applause is more of a New York City custom.

I think he means "suburban" as far as the audience is concerned, not the location. At least that's how I read it. Even here in New York, the only place you really see entrance applause is on Broadway, which garners a large suburban audience. Even with a big star involved, you're less likely to see entrance applause in an off-Broadway production (there was none for Cate Blanchett in VANYA or STREETCAR, for Gyllenhaal the night I saw his play, etc). There is almost never entrance applause at The Met, even when the biggest stars in the opera world are singing. It's mostly a Broadway phenomenon, and Broadway attracts the most suburban audience.

---

Um, guys, I've admitted many times that I left New York in 1985, so for that reason I'm tempted to bow to your experience. But the link that began this thread talks about OFF-BROADWAY entrance applause for David Schwimmer and, yes, Jake Gyllenhaal.

I'll grant you that the latter, at least, is the type of name more apt to draw suburbanites to off-Broadway, but I also know from experience that New Yorkers tend to exaggerate their own sophistication. Nobody on this side of the Hudson collapses into a pool of tears every time somebody sings a song about our home town.

I didn't read the original link, but from my personal experience...

There was no applause for Jake the night I went.
No applause at Detroit for either Schwimmer or Amy Ryan.
No applause for any other numerous movie stars (Blanchett, Weaving, Weaver, Roxburgh) at Uncle Vanya
No applause for Gary Cole at Heartless
No applause for Matthew Rhys in Look Back in Anger
No applause for Kevin Spacey at Richard III

And that's just for shows I've seen in the last couple of months, and these obviously only apply to performances I actually attended. There are anomalies that happen from show to show (more likely audience to audience), but I definitely have experienced entrance applause as a phenomenon concentrated primarily on Broadway.

---

Updated On: 10/1/12 at 02:18 PM

But I was presented with the argument that the lack of entrance applause off-Broadway was proof of your thesis. And yet it was precisely off-Broadway conventions that began this discussion.

Like I said, I didn't read the initial article. But I trust my own empirical experiences and would definitely say that I've found entrance applause to be more indicative of Broadway culture than Off-Broadway. (I'd say the same thing, though perhaps to a lesser extent, about stage-dooring too). Honestly, I can only remember about three or four times I've seen entrance applause in an Off-Broadway production that came anywhere close to what we see on Broadway.

---

Why does it have to become a litmus test for an individual's respect and/or love of theater?

I don't like entrance applause. I don't participate in it. I find that it takes me out of the moment of enjoying a piece of theatre, and that more often than not it's nothing more than a self-congratulatory effort on the audience's part. But I don't think it's a litmus test of any kind. I've certainly never shushed someone who applauded a star's entrance.

---

I always feel bad when one or two performers in the show get wild, crazy entrance applause and the others do not. When I saw Follies, of course, Bernadette got a HUGE reaction and I think Jan, Danny, and Elaine might have gotten some, but hardly anyone else. It just made me feel bad for them.

I did a one-night charity tribute to "A Very Potter Musical" at a university to raise money for children's literacy. Anticipating audience applause for the entrances of familiar characters (or, more accurately, caricatures), I staged the opening number building up to their entrances so that each one would get more and more applause until Dumbledore- and then subverted it by having his dramatic entrance comically marred by a rising screen that rose UNBEARABLY slowly, which not only got a huge laugh but allowed the applause to taper out so that he could begin singing immediately once the screen rose.

I always feel bad when one or two performers in the show get wild, crazy entrance applause and the others do not. When I saw Follies, of course, Bernadette got a HUGE reaction and I think Jan, Danny, and Elaine might have gotten some, but hardly anyone else. It just made me feel bad for them.

That evened out when Victoria Clark replaced Peters in LA. Especially by the end of the run, all five leads (including Elaine Paige) were getting warm entrance applause.

And FWIW, the show is actually set up so that the ladies get entrance applause TWICE: when they enter the party and when they do the parade to "Beautiful Girls."

And the matinee ladies went wild for the original cast when I first saw the show in May of 1971. Maybe the ladies were all from the suburbs (quite possible), but they were very experienced theatergoers, since they recognized even the minor members of the company.

Updated On: 10/1/12 at 02:56 PM

I'm in favor of it as a kind of "lifetime achievement award."

I also like when the curtain goes up and the audience applauds a set.

---

It really is more a matter of direction than any thing else. I've seen HUGE A list stars not get applause and unknown understudies or 45th replacements get them.

Bigley's entrance in the last How to Succeed was clearly designed to get applause for Larroquette (sure, his understudy was a sorta-familiar soap star but I saw him get entrance applause too). Elphaba in Wicked is meant to get applause, with the break in the crowd, her running straight down center, etc. In that case expecially they are applauding the character far more than the actress. In Gray Gardens the house parted to reveal Ebersole gloriously posed center stage mid note. Clearly an applause moment.

As already mentioned, Blanchett didn't get applause in Vanya (nore Gyllenhaal the night I attented) because the director had everyone enter at once from the very back of the stage she honestly blended in and by the time it registered with the audience "oh that's HER!" it was too late as dialogue was in full swing. You can plan action and dialogue around an entrance to (mostly) keep applause at bay. However, to my memory, in Blithe Spirit Angenla Lansbury came on mid action/speech but STILL got a major major prolonged ovation so sometimes as they say, things just happen.

I saw Follies once in DC and four times on broadway. Each time the who and how loud each actor got changed so much. In DC Bernadette and Page got it (with myself almost alone in clapping for Maxwell and Burnstein), and on Broadway it fluxated I guess depending on the crowd at the time.

One of the most curious ones to me (even thought it was a designed applause moment) was Desiree's entrance in the last Night Music revival. CZJ and Bernadette had already been on stage for the night waltz (though admittedly in very dim light) but stromed on down center stage in full lighting for opening vamp of Glamourous Life.

I'd say 85% of the time, big "name" actors have gotten entrance applause in shows I've seen. The big exception to that was Al Pacino's entrance in 'Merchant,' but I think that was because the audience didn't realize it was him until he'd already begun to speak.

I agree that entrance applause is distracting and should be discouraged in realistic dramas.

But as a rule, musicals and comedies depend on audible interaction between the cast and the audience, whether through applause or laughter. In such cases and when a star is of sufficient magnitude, entrance applause is simply a beginning of that audible interaction and is quite a good thing, imo.

That's not to say anyone is required to participate. But like the thread where posters complained about people applauding individual numbers in musicals, I think that misses the point of an interactive art form.

We've had threads here where posters expounded romantically on the wonders of "live performance". Well, if the audience doesn't participate in a way the cast can hear, then how "live" is that performance really going to be?