Unpleasant theater audiences — Page 3

Just saw the Six tour at the National Theatre in DC. Two women (who seemed like they were high) recorded several parts of the show, laughed obnoxiously, and talked loudly while the show was going on. They received a healthy dose of embarrassment when, at the end of Didi Romero's rendition of "All You Wanna Do," the two of them laughed. They were the only ones -- as anyone who's seen Six knows, the song has a pretty heartwrenching end. The women stopped being obnoxious after that.

Updated On: 7/9/22 at 04:27 PM

"The Phantom of the Opera," Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm 5th row center orchestra. The 3 seats in front of me are unoccupied, until "The Mirror," when a father and his two teenage daughters arrive and are seated late. (I don't think I'll ever understand why management would choose to seat latecomers that close to the stage, during the most important sequence of the show).

Of course it takes them all of the title song to settle in, remark to each other about how close they are, and fuss around with their phones. On top of that, the older daughter pulls out one of those folding paper hand fans, and proceeds to -very enthusiastically- fan herself throughout the entire performance.

Updated On: 7/10/22 at 07:08 PM

KathyNYC2 said: "Nolan LuPone said: "I’ve been watching a recording of Six on YouTube and I can’t get over how fricking obnoxious the crowd is. Lots of unnecessary whooping and screaming. I kinda wanted to see the show, but now maybe not. Is the audience at Six always like this?"

No, I’m an usher there. For the most part audience cheer at clap at appropriate times, and rarely in the middle of a song. I think matinees are a bit quieter but with more inappropriate noise and certainly more people getting up and down to use the rest room. And no I’m not blaming the kids. The kids at SIX have been very polite and engaged. Maybe the under 90 minutes show helps."

Great, thanks! I do believe the recording was from very early on in the run, which could have influenced how over the top the audience was.

Does anyone have any tips for *avoiding* unpleasant theatre audiences, other than just not going to the theatre? I usually try to get an aisle seat so I can either alert an usher or move if someone is being very disruptive, but today I went to see &Juliet in Toronto and I wasn’t able to get an aisle seat - I was mid orchestra in the centre and the audience in my immediate was one of the worst I’ve experienced, topped only by MJ in New York. The guy next to me was on his phone throughout the show, someone two rows in front was taking pictures during the first few songs until an usher came over and told her to stop, the people in front of me kept leaning over to give their running commentary to each other throughout the show, and the row behind me had two kids (maybe eight and ten - old enough to know better) who were singing at the top of their lungs along with the show.



I told the singing kids (politely) to stop singing and that it’s not appropriate in the theatre, since their parents weren’t saying anything to them, and then at intermission their mom started yelling at me and saying how rude I was and how “they’re kids, they don’t know better, no one told them they shouldn’t sing.” Gee, I wonder whose job it should have been to tell them that? Hint: not mine. The mom was like, “They’ve been stuck inside because of ****ing covid for two years, this is their first show since reopening,” which, yup, sounds like a good reason to have a talk with your kids about theatre etiquette *before* bringing them to the theatre, and if they seriously cannot help themselves from singing along, maybe they are not mature enough to see a show and need to wait a few years. When my sister was about three we took her to see a show and she got bored and was getting loud and disruptive as a result…we took her out of the theatre rather than letting her disrupt everyone else. Is this not just common sense with children? Were we really supposed to just let these two kids sing along to the entire show because “they’re kids and don’t know better”?



Anyway, any tips and tricks for avoiding these kinds of experiences (where to sit, which shows might be worse for this kind of behaviour, which days might be better or worse to go on) would be much appreciated.

Sorry about your experiences tonight. I guess I'm in the minority but singing has never bothered me and I've only ever heard it once in my entire theater going experience, I didn't care because I see it as joyful noise. Anyways, I used to be really uptight and anxious (like you seem to be) regarding other patrons. Like, everyone better BEHAVE themselves! Until I realized I can't control other people, I will report them to security/ushers if it gets ridiculous, and I'm just going to concentrate on the performance I've been looking forward to for weeks/months/years. In my aisle seat. Always an aisle.

My tips: Avoid theater when children are out of school if possible. So, June - August try to find other fun activities if you can. Also, try to avoid weekends all times of the year. Again, not super realistic for all but I've never seen a show on a weekend in all my years of theater. It's just not worth it to have children screaming or being super restless. The Disney shows I've seen I have gone mid-week during the school year. Those kids are usually teens at least so they know how to act appropriately. Other than that? Understand you cannot control other people and eventually it will drive you absolutely crazy trying to do so. People are going to do what they want, forever.

My worst experience:

THE PRODUCERS.

Lane and Broderick were terrific and I liked the show very much, but behind me was two MIDDLE-AGED LONG ISLAND COUPLES FROM HELL. And I love Long Island, so no disrespect intended there.

They'd either seen the show before, or had just watched the original film, because they JUST HAD TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THEY KNEW ALL THE DIALOGUE BEFORE IT WAS UTTERED ON STAGE (AND THAT THEY WERE FROM LONG ISLAND).

Mix that in with kicking the backs of our chairs, and screeching instead of laughing, and it was a pretty dismal experience. One of the banshee females kept caterwauling, "I LOVE THIS NEXT PART" to the point of madness.

Mass-shushing did nothing to silence them. They trotted out this old chestnut: "WE PAID FOR OUR TICKETS AND WE WILL ENJOY THE SHOW AS WE PLEASE."

No usher ever appeared. I don't blame them, really.

This was in the mezzanine, and it was a sold-out house, so we just suffered in silence. On the way out, my companion informed the couples "PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND BROADWAY SHOWS EVER AGAIN."

They glared but said nothing. My companion got applause. We left and laughed it off.

But what is wrong with people? STFU.

Jim shares his experience with audience morons:

"I went to see A Strange Loop on July 1st. It was my third time. Box seats are terrible and really are a good example of obstructed view. Ok. It was my third time. No problem. The show begins with the wonderful Usher Usher opening number. The young woman seated in front of me then decides to put her hair in a ponytail with her arms and elbows extended. I tell myself, “Let it go. Let it go”. The show continues. Then she decides to fuss with the sides of her hairdo, making the sides cute and wavy. Arms and elbows extended. I’ve never done this before. I’m 71 and have been going to Broadway since 1972. I leaned over and firmly and sternly said that her hair was fine. She looked back at me with a surprised and angry glare, but she never fussed with her hair for the rest of the show.
Thank God it was an intermissionless show, and they scooted out quickly when the show ended. I didn’t want a further confrontation. "

I feel your pain. Sounds like you handled it well. I don't understand why people like that attend theatre. She sounds so utterly charming, but you know, you can fix your hair in your house.

Speaking of the great ITW, there's a hilarious thread about the current revival's audiences, over at ATC aka All That Chat. If you are unaware of what that is like most people, ATC is a poorly maintained, laughably cultish Broadway chat room under the precious moniker of "Talkin' Broadway" where its would-be experts are (typically and always) trying to outdo each other on the topic of the day. This ITW thread is about current over-the-top theater audiences (not just ITW) attempting to outscream or whoopy themselves (perfect fodder for ATC, as they clearly know the process).

As is the norm over at this often malfunctioning website, this ITW thread is of their patented "I Love The Theater More Than YOU!" variety, the equivalent of clumsy mud wrestling, pathetic inwardly directed snark, tortured pop culture references (I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL TEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW DON'T CALL ME A SHOW QUEEN!), moth-balled sequins and stridently outdated diplomas, documents tantalizingly within grasp but not really relevant at this point in time.

But they're always good for a chuckle or two at ATC (or I'm sorry, "Talkin' Broadway" aka WE LOVE BROADWAY MORE THAN YOU POSSIBLY CAN, EVER!). I recommend it if you enjoy rants that eat their young.

Updated On: 7/24/22 at 04:21 PM

I have been avoiding MJ because of the horrible stories I've heard of audiences recording, screaming, and singing their way through the show. But, I finally did see the matinee of MJ this week and I was, mostly, pleasantly surprised. I was definitely worried; before the show started, that audience was acting like they had just drank a case of Red Bull and they were ready to party down. About 5 minutes before the show started, about 75-100 summer campers came in, some appeared to be 1st/2nd graders and a bunch more appeared to be high school age. They were all wearing the same shirts and those ushers deserve a Special Tony Award for getting them in their seats because they and their chaperones did not come to cooperate, I can tell you that much. They tried to sit anywhere and kept getting up and switching seats and jumping over rows etc. Luckily, I was in the front mezz and they were toward the back of the rear mezz, which is about 3 or 4 thousand feet away at the Neil Simon Theater. They definitely screamed quite a bit throughout the show, but the show itself was so loud that I didn't notice much--same for the singing along. The person next to me could have been singing at the top of their lungs and I wouldn't have noticed. The only truly bad part of the audience was a woman a few rows behind me who kept yelling to Myles Frost "You do you, Michael. You get it, Michael, Ok Michael! Yes Michael! I know that's right, Michael! Let's go, Michael!" After a while, it became part of the fabric of the show, but bless her heart, she just yelled out whatever and whenever she wanted from the top of the show to the bows.

At Phantom, I had issues with the ushers and a teenage girl one row up and across the aisle from me. Based on where we were sitting, she was in my line of sight as I looked at the stage (she was in the front row on the aisle) and I was right across one row back. For all of Act 1, she held her phone up, recorded a snap, posted it, then took some pictures, put them in a group text. Waited for responses. Responded to the responses. Then she took more pictures and videos and posted them to instagram. More snaps. More pictures. More texts. I could even see her friends texting her things like "are you at the show now? Cool!"

So I was partially mad at myself because I have been trying to convince myself to ignore rude audience members and just enjoy the show no matter what. There was a little boy behind me that asked his mom a steady stream of questions throughout the show and that didn't bother me in the least because I committed to ignoring it. But something about the way this girl was taking pictures and videos and sharing and posting and responding to people commenting on her posts.........

I went to an usher at intermission and told her what I saw. She let out a big sigh and said that if she tells her boss, it will be this whole big thing and maybe it would be better if I moved my seat from 2nd row center to the last row of the front orch in the corner. I said that wasn't a solution, and she said that she would really prefer to not tell her boss "because it will turn into this whole big thing". So I said "How about I tell your boss then, and I also tell her your response to me was that it's basically too hard to ask people to not take pictures?" She didn't say anything and just turned and walked away. Seconds later, the House Manager came barreling down the aisle and started yelling "listen! listen! Front row! We are getting a lot of complaints about people texting and taking pictures and videos down here! Who was it!" And the girl looked around as if to say "who on earth would do such a horrible thing!" And the house manager said the front row cannot take their phones out for Act 2 for any reason. Then...........as she turned and walked away, she patted me on the shoulder. The teenage girl proceeded to turn around throughout Act 2 and give me stankface and evil eye. That was awkward.

Then last night at Chicago, sitting in the front row, a guy a few seats down from me gets up and walks out on Roxie's monologue, right as she was saying "that's because none of us got enough love in our childhoods" so instead she said "Hey wait where you are going! He didn't get enough love in his childhood" That same guy held up his phone and recorded Hot Honey Rag. Based on what I see from theater tiktok, the growing consensus seems to be that Broadway is too expensive, nobody can get to New York City, so it should be free/cheap for anyone to see it anytime from anywhere, whether it is proshots or bootlegs. I know better than to get into an argument about bootlegs with this ultra-pro bootleg board, but man oh man I sure hope none you bootleggers are sitting next to me anymore. I can't even escape them in the 2nd and 1st row now!

During the recent revival of "Cats", I was in the upper mezzanine. There was a sow woman with tattoos videotaping the damn show with her iPad. During the intermission, I told an usher where that person was located. That sort of ruined the experience for me.

I've seriously had it with theater audiences. Things are definitely much worse than pre-pandemic. I just got back from an 8-show trip to NYC, and had half of those shows ruined by the people around me. What is so difficult about sitting to watch a show, silent, still, not eating or drinking??

Apparently, theaters are selling those cellophane bags of mini pretzels now. Man, those are noisy as you're digging to the bottom of the bag to get every crumb. Had that problem for long periods of time at two shows. The woman behind me at Moulin Rouge talked for the entire show, except when she was cheering, laughing and singing along to every song she recognized. We get it - you recognize these very popular hit songs. I was distracted from her behavior during the entire second act by the girl across the aisle who picked up her phone to check her messages every minute or so, sometimes responding to them. Wouldn't want to miss some life-or-death message...

The 20-something girl behind me at Into the Woods cheered and screamed at every star's entrance and at the end of every song. I'm talking ear-piercing, high-pitched shrieking, like in a horror movie, 8 inches from my ears. I started plugging my ears every time a song ended, rather than applauding. Then, during intermission, she did her own mini concert of songs from the show, to let everyone know she knew the show. Yeah, we all know the show, hun.

To add to the gripes about people at the end of the row who don't get up and move at the end of the show, how about the masses who are leaving the theatre, take one step out the door, then stop to chat or check their phones, apparently unaware that hundreds of people are behind them trying to exit the theatre as well? Move!

Off-Broadway seems to have much better behaved crowds. No problems at Between the Lines, Kinky Boots or Titanique. Off-Broadway seems to attract a more sophisticated group of more regular theatre goers.

After 40 years, I've begun to dread going to Broadway shows now.

Updated On: 8/1/22 at 10:32 PM

Matt Rogers said: "Believe the posts about the Harry Potter audiences. Never have I encountered such a disrespectful audience as this when I saw it the other night. Tons of parents with kids too young to understand or care what was going on in a show way too long for them, which resulted in tons of children talking in full voice all over the theatre, and more than one temper tantrum. The two women sitting behind me me didn’t seem to understand English or something and therefore spent the entire Act One talking in full voice voice before they thankfully fled during intermission. Kids running up and down the aisle. Many people loudly crunching on popcorn throughout the show (I blame the theatre for this), and a tourist trap lobby full of food and drink and merch areas became so shoulder to shoulder mobbed that it was like Times Square on New Years Eve. All in all, a completely ridiculous experience."

Yup, exactly my experience with the Harry Potter show from about two months ago. It was like being in a zoo. Ironic because I was so worried about seeing MJ because of the horrible stories and that audience ended up being great (at least for the show I was at).

Book Of Mormon audience was so drunk. South Park fans who were unpleasant