Shows you've walked out of — Page 3

trpguyy said: "I kept trying to walk out of Good Vibrations but they would have fired me if I did."

This was far too funny for it to be ignored.

Wildcard, can you tell me what you so disliked about the Fiasco Into the Woods? I thought the general consensus was that it was a good production, albeit with some weaker vocalists...

I've never walked out of a show but I greatly considered it at both the first and second intermission of Gore Vidal's "The Best Man".

I found it incredibly boring. First intermission I thought "maybe it will get better" so I sat through it. Second intermission I thought "well it didn't get better but the third act isn't terribly long" so stuck it out. In my opinion, it didn't get better and I wish I had left but the cast was stellar.

I've never actually walked out on a show. However, suffering through the touring company of "Dirty Dancing" changed my mind. However, the friend I went with did not want to leave.....so sadly for me, I stayed. I'm pretty sure it was my worst theater going experience ever.

Modern dress is always a problem with me and I now think twice about seeing shows that are so.I left at intermission at The Crucible because I couldn't stand the production and recently I suffered through The Cherry Orchard. I wanted to leave but I was at a matinee and had booked an evening show. So I stayed.

I left at intermission for THE LAST SHIP...loved some of the music, but I could have written the second act myself, so obvious was the trajectory, that I saved myself having to sit through it.

My best "leaving at intermission" story was attending a preview of MOOSE MURDERS with my friend actress Lee DeLong. We were both very young, newly arrived in NYC, full of theatrical aspirations and love of the art! After the first full act of astonishments (in the way a horrific auto accident is astonishing), Lee stood up and shouted loudly "This is an OUTRAGE to the theater!" She stormed up the aisle - I followed and tried to get her to come back for Act 2, but she said she could take no more of the carnage (especially distressing watching Holland Taylor struggle to make something of the part Eve Arden had had the sense to escape from!). She met me in a nearby bar after the show. But I have to see Act 2 to see if it could actually be worse than Act 1...IT WAS!!! No other bad show has ever topped it in my book... :)

As for regional productions and tours, I've walked out of several. Most recently, the national tour of Newsies. I'm a fan of the film and the score, but I found almost nothing likable in the stage production.

Broadway: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. What made the film so brilliant was the juxtaposition of the drag queens against the bleak backdrop of the outback, which crossed over to the characters they encountered along the way. When you remove that backdrop and make everything on stage the same level of the color and camp as the drag queens, the contrast is gone and it's just all bright, loud and gawdy all the time. Left at intermission with a pounding headache.

West End: In a Forest Dark and Deep (preview). There was no intermission and no aisles, so about 20-30 minutes into the show, I climbed over people unwilling to let me out and when I passed Neil LaBute at the end of the row (who was also the director), I told him it was a steaming pile of sh*t. It was two detestable characters hinting at a "shocking" reveal that you could see coming from a mile away, basically behaving like LaBute characters, bolstered with cliched foreshadowing as subtle as a sledgehammer. Admittedly, I was already in a REALLY bad mood and was hoping the play would serve as escapist entertainment, but it just made the world so much WORSE.

I usually manage to find even the slightest redeeming value of any productions, so out of respect to everyone performing, I never walk out of any productions during intermission. EXCEPT a single performance, SF Opera's "La Traviata" in 2014. The production was dull beyond belief, the singers was barely audible, the music dragged, and I was tired and not feeling well. The singers subsequently go to my black-list.

trpguyy said: "I kept trying to walk out of Good Vibrations but they would have fired me if I did.

The best[funny] response-love it.

I was so close to walking out of A Doll's Life, but I was enjoying observing Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Hal Prince arguing with each other throughout the show as they sat directly in front of me.

I recall when I watched Book of Mormon back in 2011, I saw at least 10 people not return to their seats after intermission. I'm guessing they were real Mormons who felt disrespected by the show?

Anyway, as for me, the only show where I walked out during intermission was the play "The Invention of Love." I loved the first half but unfortunately I didn't realize how long the show was and had I stayed to the very end, I would have missed the last bus out of Port Authority by 5 minutes. I know that was a silly excuse but back at that time it seemed like the right decision.

"The Look of Love" @Intermission

"The Herbal Bed" @ Intermission

"Metro" - Before Intermission.



Lucky for me all these tickets were comps. If I recall an review in the Village Voice called 'The Herbal Bed" about as enjoyable as a case of Gonorrhea.