Stop with the Cell phones already

Perhaps they could be checked at the door.

Checking at the door seems IMPOSSIBLE. It would take twice as long to get people in.

Actually, I know this isn't the same really, but at Celine's show in Vegas, they take all cameras and cell phones. You're given a number, just like coat check and are told to retrieve it at the end of the show. The coat check was crowded with people waiting for their belongings, but that's the price you pay for bringing something considered disruptive to a show. Something serious must be done here in New York. . .

Yes, but Celine's theatre has the room for long lines and people to wait. Not one Broadway house would be capable of a line consisting of 1,000+ people to get their cell phones.

Plus, I wouldn't want to give my cell phone up. It's a very expensive phone that I take good care of, and I wouldn't want t someone else's greasy hands all over it, throwing it in a box, dropping it, scratching it, or anything else that could possibly happen.

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Evicting people would definitely cause a disturbance, but it's a disturbance i'm sure many patrons would be willing to deal with. If enough people see people being evicted (with $100 down the drain), they will tell someone about it. That person will tell someone else. And so on. Word will spread, and people will absolutely start ensuring that their cell phones are off.

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I would!

If it were up to me, the offender would be taken to a dark room in the basement and beaten with a club.

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a less invasive/more legal way would be to build theaters such that reception inside is practically zero- whether that means building underground or thicker walls, i dunno but its always fun when your cell phone is on, in your hand and suddenly you have vioicemail when it didnt even ring.

I cannot talk to people when I'm at Target or any supermarket. I have to go outside to get a signal. So why must there be a signal at the theatre?

Munk, beaten in a dark room is mean...but not as mean as being beaten in a brightly lit room in front of a large mirror. Come on, the punishment should suit the crime!

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I always think of this whenever people talk about jamming signals. Now, normally my thinking doesn't sway that way, but it always does when the signal thing comes up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord-Ost

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Seriously. It saves YOU the embarrassment if you shut your phone off. People are seriously so stupid.

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I think evicting the slob is the way to go. It would only have to happen a couple of times and then people would definitely take it seriously.

Last week I worked a show at the Shakespeare theatre in DC that demanded NO cell phones. They were so adamant about it that patrons were told when they came through the ticket takers, told again when the announcement came that the auditorium was opening, and a third time by the ushers as they gave them their playbills. I was ushering and one man got really ticked off. He said "I don't need to hear this 3 times. It's annoying!" I told him it was a great deal more annoying if his cell phone went off after the play started. The decision had already been made that if one phone went off the show would stop and not continue. The production (The Persians) was very dramatic and only lasted one act - 95 minutes. They weren't going to completely destroy the time and place created by the actors by having a phone go off.

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Dame...did you really do that?!? wow that took guts!

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