The most abnormal question(s) about Broadway

I know this is a very weird and abnormal question, but It has always bothered me. Has anyone EVER fell from either Mezz. or Balcony sections inside a Theater?

What actually happens when one is caught recording or video-taping a show? (cause it is "supposedly" punishable by the fullest extent of the law)

Has there ever been an arrest inside a theater?
(excluding Studio 54 )

As much as it is illegal to audio record a show, has there ever been a time where you or someone you know recorded it for non sharing purposes ? I use a voice recorder during my college lectures that are as small as a pen. And camcorders and video recording devices are getting smaller and smaller

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Updated On: 1/13/09 at 07:36 PM

I know this is a very weird and abnormal question, but It has always bothered me. Has anyone EVER fell from either Mezz. or Balcony sections inside a Theater?
A guy named John Wilkes Booth once jumped from a box onto the stage during a performance and broke his leg. Does that count?

No, seriously, interesting question. Actually, I've wondered that, too. Whenever I'm in the front row of the mezzanine, my mom's always shrieking, "don't lean over! You'll fall out!'

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Well that's a no brainer^

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You CAN be kicked out, camera taken permanently and charged with copyright infringement

During an early rehearsal for, Runaway's, transition from The Public Theater to Broadway, the actors where given the opportunity to make a "spectacular entrance". One of the cast members thought it would be really cool to jump onto the stage from the mezzanine. Unfortunately, he finished the Off-Broadway run in a cast.

I don't think that they are allowed to confiscate your camera either. If we are talking about a digital camera then the things that are breaking the law are the video or picutre files on the camera. Not the camera itself.

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Guess it all depends on how the theatre wants to pursue things. If they want to press charges then I suspect the camera would be seized as evidence.

If it isn't high school then why do some feel the need to behave as if it were?

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I saw a guy in London get kicked out of Phantom for videoing it.

Lucky for me cause i had top balcony seats but it was empty so everone up there got bumped down to the dress circle, it was still pretty empty and i thought to myself, man if i had my video camera now. but this guy was hunkered down all the way to the side and in the middle of the first act 2 ushers swooped down on him and hauled him up and out, he did not return for the second act.

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I always wondered what happened in the days before digital cameras. I know it's easy to confiscate camera film, but can you imagine taking someone's film with all the pictures from their big trip to New York?

That is exactly what they would do. Remove the film from the camera and too bad for whatever else was on there. My dad remembers coming up here on a study tour when he was in high school. These kids were all from small-town northern Alabama, so they were pretty much in awe. They had all been told and told NO PICTURES IN THE THEATER, but when they were seeing Hello, Dolly! at the St. James (yes, I got to hear the story repeated and repeated when we saw Gypsy over the summer), one of them took a picture and was descended upon by ushers who removed the film from the camera, so all the pictures up to that point were gone.

I guess that would in theory make people think more seriously about taking pictures after being told not to ~ losing all your pictures on that film to that point vs. having to delete them. (Which, depending on the usher and how savvy they are could be possible to fake...I know whoever my parents catch in TPAC are probably pretty lucky as they try, but my parents are pretty technologically inept.)

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