Rude People in Theatres — Page 3

Damn, double post

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Updated On: 3/8/06 at 10:28 AM

I agree. It's presumptuous to think that you are entitled to the seats and that the people behind you were rude. I would be annoyed too. If you didn't pay for those seats, why should you sit there (empty or not) ?

Well I'm short so if I see an empty seat in front of me I'm thrilled because I can actually see everything on stage.
What really bugs me are the people who hog two armrests and won't give an inch. Sometimes I have to resort to elbowing them just so I can get part of an armrest.

Scenario - What if, after intermission, a big very very large smelly man from the balcony came to sit next to the open seat next to you. Would you be annoyed or complain? What if, in addition, you paid for that seat and your freind couldn't come?

Ouch! If we're all not careful, this thread is going to be renamed as Rude People on the Boards. Let's not make personal attacks on people's character and upbringing just because they do/don't agree on this issue.

The big smelly man might be seated next to you anyway--what can you do? You live in NYC and have too deal with stinky people all the time.

Avigdor, nobody on the board is trying to prove anything. I don't want to sit next to the migrating hillbillies either. Nor do I want to be near the pseudo-intellectual who feels the need to pontificate before, during or after the show. Being obnoxious is not the domain of the ill-bred or the financially disadvantaged.

Of course people aren't entitled to empty seats, but during the intermission, what difference does it make to you? And you can't say that you've paid more for your tickets, because you don't know that. So long as the curtain is down, its fine. if people move during the show, not fine, but that comes more under the heading of disturbing your fellow audience members and less to do with changing seats.

And there are several points of etiquette that aren't in dispute: cell phones, gum wrappers, and talking. The announcement made before the show reiterates these rules.

If a big smelly man came and sat in a seat I had paid for, I would tell him to move his carcass---generally, if I have a ticket that goes unused, I keep the ticket with me, and put my purse and jacket/sweater/coat on that seat.
Of course, I've been known to trade seats with someone in the balcony (I did that at a David Byrne concert---my friend could't go, I had great seats, so I went up to the balcony at intermission, found a couple I had talked to before the show started, and switched seats with them!)

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Magdalene , that's a good point. If the people actually bought the tickets to the empty seats (for a better view, for more elbow room, whatever), they have every right in the world to complain, because they technically bought those empty seats. If the patron that bought the tickets for the seats didn't bother to show up to the theater, it's their own loss, and the people that just happened to get lucky with no one in front of them during the first act shouldn't complain. Hell, the person that bought the tickets may be 6'8" and love wearing tall hats, so the other people are probably better off with you there.

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All i have to say is how did that family bring in a huge paper brown bag with food in it?

And I'm lucky, I haven't encountered anything bad. And when I know the show and want to sing along to it, I just mouth is and try not to mouth that loudly (cause I have HEARD people mouthing songs. Not heard the words but how their lips move and such). and with the changing seats, whatever. i guess the best thing to do is ask the usher.

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I know what you meant, I wouldn't tell him to move if he was sitting in a vacant seat next to me (though if he was really smelly I might mention it to the usher) I was making a point that sometimes an empty seat isn't really empty!

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Of course you are encouraged to fill empty seats that are closer to the front than your original seats. If you were the actors, wouldn't you rather see people in seats? They can't see all that far back, and if they see empty seats that close to the front, it doesn't exactly give them a good feeling.

I say if the seats are legitimately empty, first come, first served.

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I love this thread as I thought I was the only person who get tetchy during a show!! I have travelled to NYC every year (sometimes several times a year) to catch up on the theatre. What always strikes me is how so many of the audience think they are sitting in their home watching a video. This is especially true of the "big" shows like Phantom etc. which attract the out-of-towners (God knows I see the irony since no one is as far out of town as me!!). So they chat and comment and laugh even when it is not funny!

It is purgatory following the intermission when the ladies make their slow and weary way back from the powder room. Ten minutes into the second act........ and still they come!

Bus parties are a hoot in the UK e.g. the bus is planned to pick up the group of pensioners at 10.00 o'clock so the old codgers check their watches, alert their friends, get up and make their way along the row with 10 minutes of the show still to go. The sound of spectacle cases snapping shut and walking sticks being dropped is deafening!

People who break wind can also be very annoying. I should know as it is usually me!!!!!!!!!!

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You would think that at a "highbrow" show like The Pillowman would filter out the riff-raff but you would be wrong.

I had the old lady with the CRANKED UP headset

the man eating candy wrapped in what must have been triple-ply aluminum foil

the john simon wannabe who left at intermission and made nasty comments all through Act 1

the lady who didn't want to wait for curtain call and left when the house went out, stepping over me as I was trying to applaud...


I helped her over...

I also am reminded of my friend Blake's experience with the OC of Passion...

A man in the (I call it the Dangerous Liaisons box) DL box says, "wow...I can see her crack" referring to the first scene with Giorgio and Clara in bed...that's New York sophistication for you!