Posted: 10/4/16 at 10:11pm
Seen 186 different shows in my lifetime, the one I couldn't wait to walk from was Hamilton, Was sitting next to one of the Producers and his wife and they were just as rough as the show. Rather have Bamboo shoots stuck up my fingernails. JMO, Fluffies
Posted: 10/5/16 at 6:04pm
In 45 years of theatre going...
I ought to be in Pictures
Marie Christine
Woman in White
The Goodbye Girl
Leap of Faith
Posted: 10/5/16 at 7:02pm
This is from the point of view of being onstage watching someone walk out. This might help you if it ever happens to you.
It was a dark and stormy night in upstate New York. I was performing in a nightclub and had planned to sing a song that I knew was borderline risque, taste-wise. I debated in my head back and forth early in the show and decided what the heck, I'm going to sing it.
During the song I noticed two people who looked upset discussing something with their waitress. As soon as the song was over I saw them bolt for the door. Mentally I was kicking myself, assuming I had offended them with that off-color song. But I plowed on and didn't let it ruin the night.
When the show was over and the audience gone, I was sitting around with the staff just chatting, and I let them know I was sorry I sang a song that offended the two people who ran out right after I sang it.
"Oh no!" said their waitress. "That's not why they left!"
So I asked how did she know?
She said, "Remember how stormy it was during that part of the show? We got a call that their house was struck by lightning and was on fire. They didn't want to be a disruption in the middle of your song, so they waited for it to be over before they ran for the door.'
Now if anyone ever walks out of your show, tell yourself, "It's not me. Their house is on fire."
Posted: 10/5/16 at 10:23pm
I walked out of the cherry orchard last week. I wasn't annoyed or upset... I just acknowledged that it wasn't for me, and that I would enjoy going for a walk more than sitting there any longer.
Posted: 10/5/16 at 11:02pm
I REALLY wanted to walk out of Dee Sniders a Christmas tale. It was awfully bad. EVERYTHING about it was terrible from the set to the people in the audience. I hated it so much even though I got my tickets for free. I do feel the worst part was when one of the actors would do that thing where you lip other people's lines to remember when yours is up. It was absolutely horrendous.
I couldn't walk out though, because they didn't have an intermission. I still think those were the worst 100 minutes I've ever experienced viewing theatre.
Posted: 10/5/16 at 11:49pm
I couldn't walk out though, because they didn't have an intermission.
Actually, you could. You stand up, say "excuse me", and start walking.
Posted: 10/7/16 at 1:15pm
The only show I've actually walked out of was Love, Loss, and What I Wore with starcatchers. As she explained earlier, Brooke Shields was terrible and we had both seen the show before with far surperior casts. I turned to her and was like - Do you want to leave? And away we fled.
Shows I wanted to leave? I spent most of intermission of Bullets Over Broadway agonizing over whether I wanted to leave and clutched my backpack through the entire lead into Act Two. I also wanted to leave Leap of Faith, but curiosity got the best of me and I stayed. I'm sure there is more I can think of, but those are off the top of my head.
Posted: 10/7/16 at 4:12pm
I'm probably in the minority, but if someone isn't enjoying the show and can't make themselves wait until intermission or the end, I'd rather they go ahead and just leave rather than spend the rest of the act fidgeting, snoring, whispering to their companion, and/or looking at their phone.
Posted: 10/7/16 at 7:50pm
I've never walked out mid-show, but I have walked out during intermission -
Cats (US Tour was atrocious and cheap. Revival was 10x better)
Rock of Ages
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Posted: 10/9/16 at 8:00am
Pippin - broadwat revival. Too weird for me. Also, the sound didn't help. Couldn't understand a thing
Posted: 10/9/16 at 8:30am
I have never walked out of a show and never will. I have never seen anything that horrible that made me want to even think about leaving.
Posted: 10/9/16 at 5:52pm
It would take heaven and earth to make me walk out of a musical at intermission-- there's always something more up their sleeve in Act II whether it's a great set design or a swell dance number, that'll show me something new that I'll remember despite the rest of the evening's dreck.
No such mercy exists for plays, however. We bolted at intermission of the excruciatingly dull DEMOCRACY and we were so glad we did. We gave AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY two long acts to win us over. Failing to convince us it was anything more than a string of soap opera cliches, we bailed with one act to go. Watching the film years later, it seemed the screenwriter made pretty much the same choice, so we felt vindicated.
Posted: 10/9/16 at 7:41pm
Haven't, to date, but my wife and I got THISCLOSE to doing so at the Sheridan Smith Funny Girl in London a month ago.
Posted: 10/10/16 at 12:34pm
Haven't walked out of any, but was tempted once by "A Touch of the Poet" at Studio 54.
Posted: 10/10/16 at 10:29pm
I haven't walked out of a show yet, but I was pretty close with Amazing Grace. What an absolutely terrible show. The best part of it was the last 10 minutes when they sang the title number. Waste of a very talented cast too.
In the beginning of their run, I saw a lot of people walk out of Heathers during intermission.
Posted: 10/11/16 at 10:09am
I've also never walked out of a show, but my father and I were strongly considering it when we saw the tour of Memphis a few years ago. We decided to stay because we thought it would get better... we wasted that last hour and when it was over we wished we had left.
Posted: 10/12/16 at 7:28pm
For me ... It was that God Awful "Women On The Verge ...." Just A Load Of Crap! left at intermission. Sherie Renee' Scott was out the night I saw ... but I doubt she could have peaked any interest. Ms. Lupone was HORRIBLE!!! This was the worst show I saw on Broadway since " Is There Life After High School" all those years ago.
Oh...and the equally bad "Tarzan" on Broadway...left after the first number in the second act.
Posted: 10/12/16 at 7:38pm
"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 mentioned it in other threads but I had issues with the cast and the direction. It was the cast's combination of smugness and inability to sing (and maybe overact) that turned me off. The concept was clever but not clever enough to make me want to stay. I wasn't bored during the show but was more annoyed. I thought the set was beautiful though. I've seen other scaled-down productions of ITW that I enjoyed more.
Posted: 10/13/16 at 12:15am
Never done it mid show, but plenty at intermission. As I said in the Falsettos thread, I always go in rooting for a show and am ecstatic when I discover something like Bridges of Madison County, Gentlemen's Guide, American in Paris, First Daughters Suite or The Nance.
But like reading a book, if a show hasn't grabbed me by act 1 (or 100 pages in a book) I will often bail. Shows that I have lasted one act: On The Town revival last year; On the Twentieth Century; Disaster! (off Broadway), Noises Off revival, Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper. Wants to leave Once but was with work colleagues.
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