"The mother got nasty and claimed the daughter "did nothing wrong; it was an accident that her phone went off,"
Surely the girl heard the announcement to turn off all phones. I assume most broadway theatres have that. The twit.
I once saw Ralph Fiennes in a play when a phone went off in the audience. He broke character and shouted at the offender. The audience broke into applause, the offender went red and the play continued.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I've had this happen to me while on stage also, and it is unbelievably distracting. No matter how in the moment you are, when a glaring light pops on in the see of darkness your eyes will automatically go to it and it will pull you right out of your character.
I was a Top Girls last weekend, in the mezzanine, and there were some teenage girls sitting a two rows in front of me texting, I was ready to clobber them over the head. Fortunately I did not have to as at intermission an usher told them they had to turn the devices off because the cast had complained that they could see the phones and it was distracting.
We were up in the mezzanine and the actors complained!
If you cannot, or choose not to, follow the rules you deserved to be thrown out.
"You just can't win. Ever. Look at the bright side, at least you are not stuck in First Wives Club: The Musical. That would really suck. "
--Sueleen Gay
" If Patti wasn't able to do her craft because of the texting, like another poster said, shouldn't she have been trying to focus even more on the role and her performance than obsessing over one particular audience member?
I totally agree. It is, however, sad how common courtesy in this country has all but disappeared. The decline of manners will continue with or without the intervention of Ms. LuPone.
If you are desperate to text, don't go to the theater and especially don't sit in the front row. I hope this girl and her mother were terribly embarrassed - maybe embarrassed enough to NOT do this ever again.
It's disrespectful to go to the theater and text. Imagine if you were the performer? While singing your heart out, would you want someone texting? It's completely disrespectful. If I was Patti, I would have done the exact same thing.
"Those You've Known And Lost Still Walk Behind You"-Spring Awakening
Well hip hip hooray-GOOD FOR PATTI! It drives me crazy when the little blueish light comes on. It's so distracting and I'm automatically pissed off, which I did not pay for. RUDE AND TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS BEHAVIOR. Texters distracted me at In the Heights and Catered Affair this year, but at Affair I somewhat welcomed the intrusion...anger tops boredom in my book.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
Adding my kudos for Ms. Lupone. These folks wouldn't be texting in church...well, on second thought they probably would. Oh, well. It's annoying and disrespectful.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
i dont understand why you would be looking down at your phone while patti is performing right in front of you..when I go I don't take my eyes off the stage.
Unless a close family member is close to dying in the hospital -- in which case you should be with them and not at a theater ANYWAY -- there is NO EXCUSE for a cell phone to be on or in use during a theatrical performance. None. Zero tolerance.
And don't forget ... Hepburn did it first. During the run of COCO, an eager fan took a flash photo of Hepburn upon her entrance, about ten minutes into the show.
Hepburn stopped the show dead, ordered the ushers to find the perpetrator, berated the man in front of the audience and then announced they would start the show again ... FROM THE BEGINNING. The audience cheered wildly.
She walked off stage, the curtain came down and the orchestra started again at the overture. Needless to say, no flash photography ever happened during COCO again. Updated On: 7/3/08 at 09:19 AM
There are SPECIFIC rules that are announced at the beginning of the show and ANYONE who doesn't follow them should be IMMEDIATELY thrown out. Period. How difficult is it to turn your phone off before coming into the theatre? If you need to use it, go outside the theatre! Camera . . . leave it in your bag the entire time you are in the theatre. Period. No pics are allowed inside the theatre. Not of the curtain prior to the show starting, not of you and your friends in your seats, not of the curtain call, not of the star singing her seven o'clock number. NONE!!
SOME PEOPLE, however, think they are above the rules and, more importantly, think they are the center of the universe. Personally, I think many cell phone users are disrespectful to people around them. If you are in a crowd (e.g., on a train, standing in line in a store, etc.) and you need to use your phone, don't scream at the top of your lungs. It's disrespectful. Don't just gab on for hours because you are bored. Handle important business quickly and quietly and get off the phone. It's the polite thing to do. I have the feeling these 2 people that got thrown out probably get yelled at in a LOT of situations for being VERY self-centered.
Amaaazing...supposedly there are "wrong facts" in this retelling, but cell phone girl's version makes it sound even worse, ("I was kinda bored anyway..."), if possible? BWW is just mean, y'all
I just got a brand new phone the day before, so I really didn't knwo what it could do.
She didn't know it was possible to turn it off?
All this said, theatre management is just as much to blame for the state audiences are in as the audiences themselves and at this point, I don't know what can be done.
And the performers aside, it's rude to her fellow audience members--more so, in fact.
Frankly I would have happily shoved the phone up her fundament, called her from the corner, and left a message with her colon saying what a great show she was missing.
That reminds me of one of the classic moments from my favourite TV show. Go to the Tubes of You and enter "thick of it jolson" as a search item. Watch the first video. Good luck with the Glaswegian accent. ^_^
(EDIT: and don't watch if you're offended by foul language! Sorry, should've mentioned that sooner. XD)