Police Called at Fiddler Last Night- Page 2

[trpguyy]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 5:08pm

Mr Roxy said: "When nonsense like this happens, the actors have a right & a duty to all those who paid good money to make sure they see the show as it supposed to be presented. Just because you have the modern day version of trailer park trash attending & acting up is no reason for the rest of the audience to suffer."

That responsibility belongs only to Stage Management, actors can and are reported to Equity if they take matters into their own hands. 

[helvizz]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 5:15pm

_IrisTInkerbell said: "Oh my goodness. That's the kinda thing that makes me agree with Laura Benanti stopping the show the other day. If such a large part of the audience (in this case I'll say at least 1/3 of the orch and some of the mezz from description), what's the point of keeping the show going? It would be better for everyone to stop, deal with the situation and then continue, much like in case of the technical stop."

If you don't mind my asking, what happened at She Loves Me?

 

[Cupid Boy2]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 5:25pm

When I saw Fiddler, the woman next to me sang, talked, texted, and recorded the show during the first act. Stories like this are why I'm so hesitant to call people like that out and why I usually ask to be reseated at intermission if possible. It's terrible that your experience had to be compromised like that.

Updated On: 5/15/16 at 05:25 PM

[playbill-love]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 6:22pm

This is horrific. Why do these people even come to the theatre if they're going to behave this way? If they were fighting with each other the whole time they obviously weren't even enjoying it themselves. I am glad you were able to get your friend's ticket post dated and I hope that house staff learns from this experience and acts more quickly if another situation like this comes up again. 

[_IrisTInkerbell]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 6:30pm

helvizz said: "If you don't mind my asking, what happened at She Loves Me?"

There's a whole separate topic about that incident, but basically a phone was ringing several times in the front orchestra during a very quiet and tender moment of the show, taking Laura and a large part of the audience completely out of the moment (I wasn't there but people have said they could hear it in the mezz even), and Laura said something like "I'll wait... We'll all wait" very calmly and the continued once the phone had stopped. She has since said she would have handled it different in a different scene, but this was such a raw emotional moment, and also very quiet, so the ringing was very obvious and distracting...

Look for the topic if you're interested in more details.

[Comden Green]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 7:10pm

LuminousBeing said: "

When the Cosaks appeared, everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace.

"

Am I the only one who loves this sentence?   I submit it for comment of the year    There is so much about it that is beyond wonderful.   

Is it possible that the whole incident was created just so that sentence could be written?  

Luckily no one needed to say:

"STOP THE DISRUPTION SO WE CAN ENJOY THE POGROM IN PEACE!"

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 7:46pm

Thank you! Truly, thanks for commenting: I intended to relate the story in a way that would entertain and delight rather than just complain about the incident. That's my favorite sentence of the tale, too. :)

Many thanks also to those expressing sympathy for the ruination of my Act I experience. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was a Jew from the Russian Pale. He had bred horses and was a learned man, and the Tsar sized his land, and had used his horses as Pogrom cavalry. He escaped to America and got a job in a shoe factory, sending for his wife and children when he could. My own grandmother was born here several years later. My great-grandfather on my father's side was also from the Russian Pale; his family escaped to Germany, which didn't work out as a long-term solution for obvious reasons. His son later escaped Germany and came to America, where he met my grandmother, and a gemeration later I was born. So this show isn't just a show to me: it's a way for me to connect to my family history and anchor my memory to it despite the fact that all my grandparents are now gone (and many would-be extended family members whose would-be children were never born were murdered by the Nazis). For me to go into THIS show and have it ruined by a prolonged asinine fight over a cell phone was truly wrenching. So sincerely to all of you, thank you for the sympathy and camaraderie as Theater people.

[quizking101]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 7:53pm

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Retweet. Comment of the effin' year!
 

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 8:15pm

Thank you! (And of course, my best comment ever has an autocorrect misspelling. :-P)

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 5/15/16 at 8:46pm

Nothing worse than unexceptable behavior when attending a Broadway show.

[Comden Green]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 5:10am

OP   What an incredible family history and important that you know as much as you do.  Fiddler is an important show in that respect for those historical and human connections.  It is powerful.   How many have learned of these horrible situations because of this musical?   

That being said, without a doubt, the weakest part of this show is the pogrom.   While impossible to portray the horror on stage, many may be left with the idea that a Pogrom wasn't so bad - a few overturned tables.  There's the advantage of the filmed version which of course came closer to the reality.  

So much of the rest of the show is pretty close to perfect.  

[_IrisTInkerbell]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 5:14am

Maybe they should add another sentence to the pre-show announcement. "If you experience disruptive behavior such as cell phone use by the people around you, please don't hesitate to inform the ushers."

Because I think many people wouldn't even consider that an option, or be very hesitant to do so, and that's why it takes so long until finally someone will seek out an usher which is probably viewed as a last resort kinda option. If people were told "it's okay" maybe they would do so more readily and hence situations like this would be dealt with more quickly.

 

That being said, it's very hard for people to actually find an usher during the show! If you're sitting in the middle of a row, first of all you can't get out unless you make a lot of people stand up and cause more disruption... and the offender might sit between you the aisle. And then you don't know where they are, especially if they are outside in the lobby.

So that's an issue if audience members need to tell the ushers about something disruptive happening...

 

Install buttons on every seat like on a airplane to call the usher? Yea, that seems a bit out of proportion...

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 9:11am

Comden Green said: "OP   What an incredible family history and important that you know as much as you do.  Fiddler is an important show in that respect for those historical and human connections.  It is powerful.   How many have learned of these horrible situations because of this musical?   

That being said, without a doubt, the weakest part of this show is the pogrom.   While impossible to portray the horror on stage, many may be left with the idea that a Pogrom wasn't so bad - a few overturned tables.  There's the advantage of the filmed version which of course came closer to the reality.  

So much of the rest of the show is pretty close to perfect.  

 

"

Thank you so much for being respectful and kind about my family history. I wss hesitant to share it here: you've made me glad I did.

Have you seen this production? For me, the last 20 minutes or so are thrilling. I absolutely agree with you that the Pogrom is handled with kid gloves in  other productions, but I think Sher and this cast really epitomize the heartbreak of the rending of families caused by the Pogroms, and the price Jews today are still paying for it.

Updated On: 5/16/16 at 09:11 AM

[TNick926]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 9:47am

I agree this is terrible...I hate having a show disrupted by thoughtless (at best) fellow audience members.  When I saw Fiddler on Thursday night, a woman behind me sang along with EVERY SINGLE LYRIC...I turned halfway through and was going to shush her, but I saw tears were streaming down her face and she was having some deep experience...she was weeping out loud during the wedding sequence.  So I chalked it up to catharsis, or whatever...  The thing that we can think about to comfort ourselves in these situations is what it must have been like seeing Shakespeare at The Globe and having to duck to avoid thrown rotten vegetables, or catcalls, or extreme vocal responses to villians, etc.  For those who bemoan Broadway audiences getting "worse and worse", in light of the "groundlings" behavior in the past, cell phones, etc. seem a minor annoyance by comparison! :)

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 10:33am

"No, nonononono. The actors should NOT stop the show even if they are being distracted. There should have been at least one usher within earshot of the argument. This was a shortcoming of the house staff, there's no excuse for that to be going on longer than 60 seconds."

"60 seconds"? Are you serious? It's not about the actors being distracted, it's about the audience. If, as the OP says, a significant part of the audience is being distracted for more than 10 minutes, an actor should have stopped the show. I would prefer that 100 times over having my focus pulled by a bunch of jerks in the audience. Also, lay off house staff. See PThespian's post upthread.

"That responsibility belongs only to Stage Management, actors can and are reported to Equity if they take matters into their own hands"

So, which is it? House staff or stage management, trpguyy? I don't doubt that Equity has such a rule, but can you cite even ONE example in which an actor has been reported? If you can, what was their punishment? I can't imagine in this case that an actor would be penalized for stopping the show. I have been at many performances when an actor has stopped the show, briefly broken character, or responded in character to a disruption. It has, in my anecdotal experience, been universally met with audience approval (vocally and with applause). 

eta:

"Maybe they did not stop the show due to the union overtime rules. Do not know if this covered in their contract"

Love ya, Roxy, but you do tend to union bash. Here's the deal with unions and stopping shows. They don't care if a show is stopped. That said, if the show is supposed to end at 10:50 and ends instead at 11:01, it has "broken the hour" and a significant amount of people will get paid for the extra hour.

 

Updated On: 5/16/16 at 10:33 AM

[rebeccmam31]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:16am

LuminousBeing said: "Comden Green said: "OP   What an incredible family history and important that you know as much as you do.  Fiddler is an important show in that respect for those historical and human connections.  It is powerful.   How many have learned of these horrible situations because of this musical?   

That being said, without a doubt, the weakest part of this show is the pogrom.   While impossible to portray the horror on stage, many may be left with the idea that a Pogrom wasn't so bad - a few overturned tables.  There's the advantage of the filmed version which of course came closer to the reality.  

So much of the rest of the show is pretty close to perfect.  

 

"

Thank you so much for being respectful and kind about my family history. I wss hesitant to share it here: you've made me glad I did.

Have you seen this production? For me, the last 20 minutes or so are thrilling. I absolutely agree with you that the Pogrom is handled with kid gloves in  other productions, but I think Sher and this cast really epitomize the heartbreak of the rending of families caused by the Pogroms, and the price Jews today are still paying for it."

 

I saw this Saturday (afternoon, thankfully ), and I was so moved.  I haven't seen a production of Fiddler for a very long time, and I just loved the show so much.  I had two 14-year-old girls with me, and they cried through the ending.  It spurred some really great conversation about the arbitrary reasons people decide to hate other people and the consequences of that hate.  I really, really loved the show.

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:29am

That's wonderful, Rebeccmam31! Indeed, it's a timely moment in history to have THIS production of "Fiddler" on Broadway. I'm so glad you and the girls loved the show and that it spurred some important and salient conversation for you all.

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:33am

PThespian: I understand there is no place in this theater for an usher to be keeping tabs on the audience, but how about a few cameras (looking for cell phone lights) and a few microphones to hear if there is a disturbance?

I've gone to the lobby a couple of times during shows with disturbances, but I fear that may make me a target, plus I have to inconvenience others in my row with me going out and coming back in.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:44am

A poster above said I was union bashing. Why does it always come down to victimization? I just made a statement barely mentioning a union at all. Years ago, at the big Nathan's in Times Square, the workers set up a picket line. A young woman crossed it with a kid screaming for a hot dog. Those on the line cursed both of them,name called and spit at them.If you have to this for your cause it is pretty sad.

Updated On: 5/16/16 at 11:44 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:50am

The central issue with having house staff police is the audience is... how, without causing or adding to a disruption? It's a dark room full of hundreds and hundreds of people packed together with the presumed intent of focusing on one spot. It doesn't matter if there's surveillance on the audience, it's a question of how do you get there? A person using their phone may distract a couple people immediately around them, but an usher going over to reprimand them may end up disrupting multiple rows.

And good 'ol Roxy: "I'm not bashing unions! Here is an anecdote about how terrible a union was once." Updated On: 5/16/16 at 11:50 AM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:55am

"A poster above said I was union bashing. Why does it always come down to victimization? I just made a statement not mentioning a union at all."

My name is ghostlight2, Mr Roxy. You didn't mention a specific union, but you mentioned unions, and you definitely have a history of bashing them. I have walked on many a picket line (lately, it's Verizon), and the bad behavior goes both ways. I have been shouted at and spat upon. 

I hope I answered your question regarding theater unions' stance(s) on stopping shows. 

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:59am

PThespian said: "

The mics barely pick up the actors. I'm not sure why. In any event it would be next to impossible to hear anything in the last few rows using them. 

 "

Yes.  Add cameras and mics in the auditorium facing the audience where the house can listen/watch in from an office and deal with any issues.

 

[Kad]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 11:59am

House staff are really put in a no-win situation here.

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 12:00pm

Ushers certainly don't have easy jobs these days.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 12:02pm

I say things and do not worry who they might offend. If you say anything , however slight, someone takes offense as we have become incredibly thin skinned.

 

For the record, my father was a life long teamster and yet he sometimes questioned union tactics like violence and other strong armed tactics. Was my father , longtime union member, an anti union guy in disguise? Thinking in lockstep on anything can be very dangerous.