She stopped the show during Rose's Turn! — Page 4

lj889: I'm not saying it isn't so, but can you give any examples of Ethel Merman being greatly disliked? By whom? Why? Caused by what on Merman's part?

In GYPSY, she is known to have disliked Sandra Church and I guess the feeling was mutual. However, she got along very well with Jack Klugman. And during rehearsals, Stephen Sondheim said that she was very cooperative. In the recent biography by Brian Kellow, there was no mention of such dislike except toward the end of her life when she was ill and got to be very difficult. Once a diva, always a diva.

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It is the ushers' job to deal with audience behavior. Not Ms. LuPone's.


IF THE USHERS WOULD DO THEIR GOD DAMNED JOBS PATTI WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO IT FOR THEM.

I have NEVER ONCE seen an usher remove someone from a theatre for using a phone, or taking pictures, or being disruptive. Ushers these days are a bunch of useless pussies who refuse to take any action. I APPLAUD PATTI FOR STANDING UP FOR HERSELF AND EVERY SINGLE PERFORMER OUT THERE. WHAT THESE PEOPLE DID IS DANGEROUS AND DISRESPECTFUL TO THE PERFORMERS.

You guys are all ridiculous. Are you aware of that?

She gave the usher three chances to do something. They didn't. Flashes are DANGEROUS. They're distracting and an actor can lose their footing, their process, etc. She had every right to stop if the ushers weren't going to.

I know the woman is a bit dramatic, and sometimes over-reacts, but she wasn't in the wrong here. And frankly, I would've stood up and applauded her for doing what she did had I been there.

Recording of any kind is illegal. The performers and the compers and the creative team lose money because of recordings. It is, I say it again, ILLEGAL.

She was right, guys. Period. And I still love her.

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Just because the audience member was wrong, doesn't make her reaction right. If I had been there I would have demanded my money back.

I find it interesting that some of the people who defend her actions against the illegal picture-taker are also the ones who are craving the equally illegal audio clip.

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So now people are going to the theatre to see an actress scream and yell at the audience and not for the play or hear the score?
I dislike falshes in the theatre as much as the next, but to say they danger the performer is ridiculous, name one time an actor was rushed to the hospital due to camera flash accident???

Let me say first off that I feel bad for the people who paid big bucks to see a full performance last night.

I don't think they are to blame here for being upset for having dished out a lot of money and feeling cheated.

I also don't, however, feel that Ms. LuPone is to blame, either.

I see a lot of Broadway theatre regularly, and this distracting audience behavior is constant.

The house staffs, in general, are incompetent, and they either have not been instructed how to do their jobs properly, or they just don't have the balls to do what they feel, and is, a very difficult task, and that is stopping audience members during a show from using cameras and cell phones that distract the other audience members and the cast.

I blame the house manager and the ushers in this situation. The same goes for the situation where Billy Crystal stopped his show a few years ago after the third cell phone went off.

This isn't just Patti. So don't blame her. She's just an easy target on this board, so when this situation happens with her, all the vultures come immediately out.

House managers and ushers need to be trained and instructed to do their jobs, and stop this behavior immediately, when these situations arise during shows, the FIRST time it happens, so that the actors don't have to do their jobs for them.

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Like I said: they're doing something wrong. Wow, you even quoted the bit that shows we agree while trying to argue with me.

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Its a LOT easier for the person ON STAGE to spot the camera then it is the usher from behind. They can't just stalk the aisle because then OTHER patrons' views will be blocked.

And I've been the theater plenty of times when ushers have YELLED and TOLD patrons to put away phones, cameras and even LAPTOP computers! (Not kidding, at Boeing,Boening Christmas weekend, a man NEXT to me pulled out his laptop during intermission and fired it up and proceeded to work.

To try to defend the ushers a bit, DURING the show it IS rather difficult for them to do that aspect of their job: FINDING the "perp", communicating to them, REMOVING them and all without bothering the other audience members. Really a no win situation.

The part I find most irritating, is how long it takes folks to actually comply.

Perhaps they need to do more than the "pleasant" announcement at the beginging. You know, like at the movies, they play the vid to be quiet and throw away your garbage. Maybe they should start showing the video of Patti going off as a warning for all!!!

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I totally understand that flash photography can be dangerous to the people on stage. But I don't think that it was a reason to stop the show. It's not like she fell or something.

Ms. Lupone is an actress, not an usher. It may not be exactly the same, but I don't see any ushers stopping a show because a performer is doing a poor job.

I think the ushers should be equipped with Tasers.

But this post and the one on All That Chat were probably both started by the same poster who started the previous thread here: The "Patti Stopped the Show" Troll.

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Updated On: 1/12/09 at 09:30 AM

If she felt that flashes going off in her eyes were a distraction and she felt it was hurting her performance or might cause her problems if it happened again then she had every right to stop the performance and throw the offending party out.

Good for her. You don't think if one camera went off and nothing happened that a few other people might have joined in too? Some of the stupid comments in this thread really astound me - but Elke, yours beats them all.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA good for her. I hate flashes when on stage and when I come out the door at the end of a show I find them and yell at them and get them to promise they will never do it agian. This happened in a Community theater show