Sweeney Todd yesterday...cell phones and Patti LuPone — Page 2

Tasteless? Good Lord. The moment was already broken the second the phone started to ring. A STFU from Patti might actually make that clod think the next time he/she can't take two seconds to hit a button as to not ruin the show for 300+ other people. I'll bet you if you polled the audience, 90 percent or more would have said, "Way to go."

Updated On: 4/13/06 at 11:27 AM

Yes i understand people are stupid and don't turn there cell phones off but you have no right as a person to cut someone down for a mistake they made and degrade them as a human. ( Yes i do consider ordering someone around degrading)

What?! Good lord, it's not asking that much to have people turn off their cell phones so that they don't completely ruin a night of theatre with distractions, both for the sake of the other audience members who are paying a lot of money to be there and the performers who pour their hearts into the show on stage. There is an announcement made at the beginning of every performance to turn off cell phones, and the people who don't listen to it deserve whatever comes to them. Publicly embarass them, if that's what it takes. I don't blame Patti for calling the person out--unfortunately, they probably aren't as embarassed as they should be.

Updated On: 4/13/06 at 11:29 AM

And since you brought up how "degrading" it must have been for the anonymous audience member, how about how degrading it was for the actors onstage to have their performance completely interrupted twice by a cell phone?

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Thats actually a great comment. During the insane assulym part, I noticed for the first time how crazy Patti acts. She was trying to give people in the front row a pack of lifesavers. She was like "la la la? la la???" It was insane to say the least!

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It was freaken awesome. I was like, "if she offers, I'm taking". I kid I kid. At one point, she offered it to a violin on a chair. I was ready to burst out laughing.

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honey, if merman were alive, she'd come down off the stage and drag the offender into the street. those were the days.

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When the current revival of CHICAGO was new, a cellphone went off and Ann Reinking stopped the show and said, "Go ahead, take the call. We'll wait"

Laurence Fishburn, in A LION IN WINTER, told a cellphone user to "Shut that ****Ing thing off"

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I'd throw something at them. Maybe a heavy, easily-replacable prop. I'd just want to nail them in the face.

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Good for Patti. It's annoying enough to have to sit through an announcement, telling you to turn everything off. But when you don't, that's just irritating and ignorant.

Last season, when I ushered "Journey's End" at Shaw Festival, a cell phone went off. I was supposed to find the source and tell the person to either turn it off or take the call outside. Now if anyone has been to NOTL, the Court House Theatre is a small 300 seat thrust stage. Finding a cell phone in the middle of that crowd was awful and the show in particular is quiet and intense from start to finish. The phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing until the two actors on stage, Patrick Galligan and Evan Buliung (now Aragorn in LOTR) just stopped and stared at each other, waiting for the cell to turn off...and it didn't. Finally, the woman ran out with her cell phone. It was the longest 3 minutes of my life.

So, again. Good for you Patti.

That person should've been dragged out of the theater and banned from the show. Cell phones ringing during a performance is simply unacceptable.

I find this very hilarious and go patti! I myself as an audience member and performer think it was wonderful what she did. It's very distracting as an actor to be in the middle of dialogue or a song and have a freakin' cell phone go off... As an audience member going to a Broadway show I don't pay $80.00 to 100.00 or more to hear someone's cell phone go off! ;-( That just how I feel about it...

I do kind of see where the argument is, though. When an actress turns to an audience, obviously irritated, and scolds the audience in a general fashion, it can make the audience uncomfortable. Yes, one person is to blame, but the whole audience got crap for it.