Terrible Audience Experience.

[TGIF]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:00am

I know we have had posts where people had annoying theatre goers around them, little kids, people who like to sing along with the show. But has anyone ever felt uncomfortable sitting next to the person to your left or right? These are people we don't ask to sit next too, but we have too.

Today I had one of these experiences. I posted it on my Spamalot review thread (link at the bottom), but was so disturbed by it I really feel the need to make a new thread.

(this is a copy and paste from my review)

" have never experienced worse audience etiquette then I did today. My first thought was: “Okay, these must be Monty Python fans and aren’t familiar with proper theatre behavior. However, after listening to an argument between the man and the woman if Patsy was supposed to be a guy with coconuts or an actual horse, I didn’t know what to think. I was seated in row D of Mezzanine and had a perfect view, surprisingly close. However, the man thought it wasn’t close enough so he whipped out his binoculars. (Now I know many people do this and its not a bad thing, but that is when you are last row balcony not front of the mezz).

Now in between passing the binoculars between himself and his wife/girlfriend/sister/whatever she was to him, I felt random taps on my head. It took me a couple seconds to realize what it was. It was his ARM. Yes. His arm. I found it around MY chair (Yes. My Chair.) every couple of minutes. This made me extremely uncomfortable. They also had a lively discussion to find out if that was “that guy from ‘The Birdcage’ ya know the one in the knights outfit” while wildly passing the binoculars back and forth."

What do you do in situations like this?
Review

Updated On: 3/3/05 at 12:00 AM

[ShuQ]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:06am

Well I think it's important to let him know kindly that your experience is being interuppted by him. You don't have to do this by being rude, just be very polite about it. For Instance...in Lion King, I kept stretching and I was unaware that I was blocking the view of the person behind me. During the second act, he asked me to stop very nicely and I was glad that he let me know instead of letting me ruin the show for him. So you don't have to be a jerk...just let them know.

[Racetrack]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:08am

I'm very sorry Tiff. That's horrible. I think you could have politely asked him to remove his arm I guess. I guess trying to ignore them wouldn't work because with those people well it would be quite hard. So I think the only solution is to politely ask him to take his arm off and if he refused...well...I honestly don't know.

Still very sorry about the experience, never fun.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:18am

awwww Sorry that happened. I hate when people just yell at you to stop doing somthing your doing. Me being so young it almost gives me a heart attack and I think about it for the rest of the show. If you ask nicley theyll stop. If they don't...fight fire with fire ( I think im kidding)

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:21am

Ouch. Okay, I can overlook the binoculars thing because, I mean, a closer view is a closer view. But knocking into you---that would drive me CRAZY.

[TGIF]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:42am

What was most distrubing was that his legs kept touching me, his arm constantly fell over the arm rest and leaned on me, and if it wasnt there it was it was around my chair.

The woman on the other side of him was with him. Why couldn't he lean that way?

I felt completely violated. Now I am very outspoken to people I know, but turning to someone in the theatre and asking someone to stop something is very hard - if not impossible - for me to do. I don't know their personalities and are afraid of their reaction.

Luckily the person sitting next to my friend moved their seat (I guess they found a closer one) or left at intermission. Either way there was an empty seat next to her. During the 3rd scene of the 2nd act we moved over.

[Racetrack]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:44am

Well luckily you moved. Still that situation suck. I know how you feel about saying things to people. I get uncomfortable too.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:53am

Tonight at SPAMALOT.

To my right, was an obscenely obese man. His leg fat was on my chair and his arm fat was flowing over onto my side. And he REEKED. Absolutely REEKED.

To my left, was a middle aged woman who, every 5 minutes, either blew her nose, went through her bag, or looked through her Playbill with a flashlight. Then, at the end of the show even before the curtain call she gathered up her stuff with her friend and ran out of the theatre - making everyone stand up in the row and everyone behind us couldn't see. She was such a vag wipe.

[TGIF]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:02am

"To my right, was an obscenely obese man. His leg fat was on my chair and his arm fat was flowing over onto my side."

Creepy guy came back for the night show?!?

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:07am

I just came back from a terrible audience experience, actually.

Tonight I caught a performance of DA KINK IN MY HAIR, a show of monologues about Black women in Toronto and their life experiences. Anyway, there's a really powerful monologue done by an actress playing a young Jamaican girl; it begins as comedy (you get a laugh from her girlishness in a Jamaican accent), but then it gets dark and disturbing as you find out she's being sexually abused by her stepfather.

Anyway, during this very serious part of the monologue, a few members in the back of the audience are still laughing wildly. Even when she starts describing -- in horrific detail -- how her stepfather forced her into sex, they were still in hysterics. Other members of the audience started shooshing these people and telling them, "Stop laughing, it's not funny"; at one point the actress even stopped and -- in full character -- asked, "Why are you laughing? Has this ever happened to you?" After which the audience burst into applause.

Kinda makes me question what sickos go to the theatre.

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:10am

BW, a lot of people laugh when they're extremely uncomfortable. That being said, if you can't handle a show with depth, please go see Good Vibrations.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:34am

About the obese man thing, I know it's not their fault, but it can be quite annoying. I sat next to one during Little Women a couple of weeks ago and I mean the guy was very nice but just given his..size and the small size of the chairs it was just nearly impossible for him to take up some of my little space I had. I wish there were some sort of solution, I mean space is little enough as it is.

[Ellie3]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 2:21am

Well sometimes it is their fault...once there was this hefty obeso sitting next to me, who wouldn't stop guzzling from his 2 gallon bottle of Doctor Pepper, his five lb. bag of popcorn, and his bag of mini pretzels. And munk, I empathize completely...the pong, my GOD, the pong!! Fat fatty, I hope he's dead now.

Posted: 3/3/05 at 2:31am

Some out of town theaters have larger bench type seats near wheelchair seating to allow their "larger" patrons to be more comfortable. Its basically the width of two regular seats.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 3:02am

How horrible. Do the theaters have people walking around the lobby to see if anyone is too fat so that they can banish them to the "fat bench"?

Or is it so you can specifically request larger seats to be more comfortable? Either way, I can't say they would be too popular in either instance, few people want to admit that they're big enough to need a larger seat.

Posted: 3/3/05 at 3:53am

Im actually not real sure on that, I just know an usher explained a strange lookin seat to me once ... it might be like an "im uncomfortable, can you do anything?" sort of deal.

[etoile]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 4:49am

Where to begin? Okay, how about starting with this, munk. please tell me that, "She was such a vag wipe." doesn't mean what I think it might means. Do you take pride in expressing yourself that way?

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 5:09am

One of the times I saw Little Women, a group of ladies kept making comments about what was going to happen in the story. Now I know it's a famous book, but not EVERYONE has read it. Pleas keep the events that will occur in the second act to yourself.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 10:51am

Blue Wizard: Bravo for that actress! Nothing ruins a powerful moment like some braying fool. She not only put them in their place, she did it in character. Now THAT'S a good actress.

[dapapabear2]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:38pm

Actually orangeskittles a lot of us doublewide folks would be happy to admit our size (kind of hard to hide!!) if there was an option for a bigger seat. I almost always buy aisle seats because I know that it would be hell for all involved if I tried to sit mid-row. Even then some theaters are just awful for larger people - the Plymouth I think tops that list though the theater "Boy From Oz" was at runs a close second. Twice I have had very nice ushers ask me if I would rather use a chair and in each case it made for a much better experience. Balcony seats seem to be smaller than orchestra also. It is too bad that some rude people can't think about those around them.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 12:44pm

I always end up next to the annoying people. At FIDDLER, the guy next to me apparently had some sort of sinus issue and kept closing one nostril with his finger and sniffing through the other one - loudly. Every couple of MINUTES. Aaaarggghh.

[Feathah]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:00pm

The Imperial theater is the worst as far as personal space. (Dapapa - that's where Boy From Oz was.) When I went to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels I was excruciatingly uncomfortable. I'm not heavy but not skinny. Only 5'3 and there is zero leg room and the seats were tiny! Then I remembered anytime I attended a performance of Les Miz there I requested an aisle seat! And the seats are as uncomfortable in the orchestra as they are in the mezz.

So as far as having someone heavyset sitting next to you in a theater it might be wise to show a little compassion. Body odor I cannot tolerate though. I'll agree with that one!

Updated On: 3/3/05 at 01:00 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:01pm

Yeah, the friend I usually see theater with has LOOOOONG legs, so if we do have aisle seats I always let her have the aisle. I'm short!

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:10pm

What the hell is wrong with the seats in theaters? I am not extremely tall, but there is never a place for me to put my legs when I go.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 1:17pm

Bad theatre audiences:

DRS 1/31: The guy that I'm sitting next to is OBESE (285 lbs. easily) and coughs every two seconds.