Venting. Rude people sitting near you.- Page 2
Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
#25re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:29am
At Chitty the other night I got to sit next to two little boys who did not know how to behave in a theatre. The family had apparently not been able to get seats together so during the first act the father sat there with one son and traded at intermission with the mother and the other son. This I had no problem with, it was the talking through the entire first act, especially during the quiet songs (I'm still not sure what Hushabye Mountain actually sounds like). When they switched at intermission I noticed that the other son appeared to be a little older than the other and hoped it would get better. It did not. The older boy was louder, kept bouncing around in his seat, kicked me about 5 times, and spent a good deal of the act leaning over the seats in front of him. On top of all that the mother did nothing to discourage him. The first time he leaned over the seats she told him to sit back, but after that she just ignored it and answered all of his questions about the show instead of asking him to be quiet.
The kids were horrible, but I was really angry at the parents, if the children can't be quiet and sit through the show, then don't bring them!
bostonbroadwayfan
Featured Actor Joined: 2/14/05
#26re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:30am
Interesting Mike,
I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was Providence. I didn't remember any rude behavior in Boston.
Although I got the impression that most of the people
were subcribers to the theaetr.
Too bad it took away from a wonderful show.
mikewood
Broadway Star Joined: 4/7/05
#27re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:38am
All that talk about homicide is somewhat funny... but who has confronted people and has it gotten ugly.
My biggest "rude" person pops up infrequently. Being of a ...ahem!.... certain size, every once in awhile I have to deal with prissy people. It's not so much the waist but the 52 inch shoulder span.
It's like I'm sorry...I'll shrink. I shower. I wear clean clothes. I'll twist myself into a pretzel until I have leg and back spasms so not to violate your space. Don't hate me because I'm a big man.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
Lori
Featured Actor Joined: 9/8/03
#28re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:38am
We had the worst experience at the Opera House in Boston last weekend when we saw POTO. The two women in back of us insisted on explaining the plot to each other through the entire production; the woman next to my friend hummed along with the score; the man in front of me sang along; the man in back of my Mom wrestled with a bag of M&M's through most of the first Act and the woman next to my Mom left her cell phone on and then pretended to ignore it as it rang.
Worst of all, there was some woman wandering up and down the center isle trying to find her seat as Gary Mauer sang his climactic line at the end of the first act before sending the Chandelier crashing down. She was standing right in front of him.
It was dreadful, I can't believe that adults don't know how to behave in a theatre. I had just come back from a week in London...six straight days in the Theatre and did not have an experience anywhere near this one.
"Take Care! When I am thwarted I am very terrible!"
SorryGrateful
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/10/05
#29re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:42amThe theatre is my church. And you NEVER talk through the sermon. Or I will smite you.
You promised me poems. ~Tricky
mikewood
Broadway Star Joined: 4/7/05
#30re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:43amThe worst thing is...this is not going to be fixed. The state of the economy and the state of theater attendance being what it is, they are not going to risk alienating warm bodies in seats.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
#31re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:54amHanna, I can't imagine sitting there and not turning around and telling him to shut his piehole...........
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
Madame X
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/13/03
#32re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:16pm
I had this experience at Miss Saigon a few years ago. There was a mother and daughter sitting behind me, both Asian. The mother apparently spoke no English and the daughter translated the entire first act for her. The. Entire. Act.
Again, I've had numerous horrible audience stories, but this story reminds me of when I saw La Cage and a French couple was sitting next to me. She started translating the whole story for him. 'Til I SHHHHHHH'd them and shot them a look. Did they think the story would be told in French? It was funny though b/c at one point someone said a French word, which the man recognized, and then he exclaimed(!) - *whatever the word was*. Kinda funny. They did shush up once I shushed them though which doesn't always happen.
"Some of us have it worse, you know, Dana. Some of us are dating lesbian men. Okay? C'mon."
#33re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:59pm
Elphaba, you know I WANTED to . . . . I even started responding to some of the questions that he was asking prior to the show to the person with him REALLY LOUDLY hoping he would get the point, but he just didn't get it. My partner didn't want me to make a scene. It really was amazing . . . at intermission, he even had the nerve to say to the person with him, "did you catch everything that took place in the first act? I know it wasn't really that involved, but did you understand everything?" I mean, what about Chitty would be so complex that someone wouldn't GET IT???? If I would have been with him I would have smacked him for treating me like a total idiot. I can't believe SHE didn't tell him to stop flapping his yap because everything he said was idiotic!!!
". . . POP . . ."
Updated On: 5/13/05 at 12:59 PM
taperina
Understudy Joined: 11/11/03
#34re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 1:09pmWhen I saw the Wicked Tour in Toronto at the end of March, I was seated 3rd row center with three friends. The streamers that were shot into the audience right at the beginning landed on pretty much everyone around us. This old lady sitting next to my friend had a bunch of streamers in her hand and kept krinkling them...I wanted to beat her with a stick! Everytime she did it the four of us would turn our heads and GLARE at her hoping she would get it. Alas she did not, so we finally had to ask her to stop it. Then just as that fiasco ended, the lady behind us started krinkling the streamers that had landed on her. However, when we tured around and glared at her she got the hint and stopped it. Note to people at Wicked...if streamers land on you, put them on the floor! Please! That is my rant...cheers!
#35re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 1:44pm
I think one of the worst offenders is candy. People try to be courteous and open the candy really slow so they "do not" make noise. That drives me nuts - open the wrapper fast and annoy me for 3 seconds instead of 30 seconds of crinkling noise.
Some simple rules:
1 Turn the phone OFF! (OFF means not ON, for those who do not understand, no power!)
2 Do not drink too much before the show (that way you will not have to go to the bathroom during acts)
3 Do not talk/sing (even a whisper is annoying, I do not care how "into" the show you are!)
4 Sleep the night before (a theater is not for snoring!)
5 Leave early from home/hotel/dinner (that way you get to the show on time and seated!)
6 Unwrap candy before the show starts, buy M&Ms - they will not melt in your hands)
7 If you really do not want to see the show - do not show up and waste everyone elses time!
"there are people in our lives who change us in a way that nobody else can, and it's not necessarily the people you expect," Menzel
Updated On: 5/13/05 at 01:44 PM
bostonbroadwayfan
Featured Actor Joined: 2/14/05
#36re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 1:59pmYeah the food thing was a bit anoying also, several people were eating those soft pretzels or candy and drinking soda like it was Fenway Park.
#37re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 2:12pmOnce when I was at the theatre someone was eating McDonald's french fries cause you could smell them!
"I'm learning to dig deep down inside and find the truth within myself and put that out. I think what we identify with in popular music more than anything else is when someone just shares a truth that we can relate to. That's what I'm searching for in my music." - Ron Bohmer
"I broke the boundaries. It wasn't cool to be in plays- especially if you were in sports & I was in both." - Ashton Kutcher
"I broke the boundaries. It wasn't cool to be in plays- especially if you were in sports & I was in both." - Ashton Kutcher
#38re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 2:17pm
Picture this:
Kids Night on Broadway.
Wicked.
AHHHHHHHH!!!!
#39re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 4:07pm
Ok, here on the West Coast, the worst I've endured regarding food is the candy unwrapping and people sneaking in other candy type items. I've attended a lot of theater in SF though, and have yet to witness anyone bringing in "meals". Is this a NY or East Coast thing?
It can't be a theater seating level thing either, as I've sat in Orchestra, Mezz, Balcony and nosebleed and never experienced the "crack out the steak and potatoes, honey" thing.
"My dreams, watching me said, one to the other...this life has let us down."
#41re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 6:54pm
Arghh..I hate hate hate rude people in the theatre...what I hate is rude people at community theatre--just beacause they didn't pay tons o' money for the tickets and because their friends and family are in the show, they think that gives them the right to talk, and yell and eat through the show. ARGH!
Was that a fat joke?
LouW95
Leading Actor Joined: 9/27/03
#42re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 7:17pmThe answer is quite simple. Ushers and house managers must observe and monitor rude behavior. At just about every Bway show I have attended during the last 2 years, I have witnessed or encountered either a seat kicker, talker, cell phone pest or loud candy eater. The ushers disappear once the curtain goes up. Perhaps they need to be stationed at the sides of the theaters until people realize rudeness will not be tolerated. Disturbing audience behavior has become a common event.
justthefacts2
Broadway Star Joined: 4/24/05
#43re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:45pm
The Shush Lady. My friend and I went to Frogs last summer and had seats on the aisle probably third row from the top - I was next to an older lady who was there with her husband. I was laughing at one of the lines in the first act - the whole theater was laughing - when I heard a sharp "SHHHH!" hissed next to me. I thought "Nah, couldn't be." A few laugh lines later - again, everybody was laughing - I hear SHHH! again. I glanced over at her. She didn't look directly at me, but she had a prissy look on her face. I was a little stunned. I whispered to my friend, "I think that lady shushed me." Then it happened a third time. I thought - I hoped - maybe she was shushing at her husband. I turned and looked at her, but she looked at her husband and rolled her eyes towards me with a kind of sneer and shake of the head, as if to say "These PEOPLE!" I don't have weird laugh or a guffaw or anything - I sing so my voice carries sometimes, and perhaps she didn't like it. But I laugh when everyone else is laughing and shut up when they do. I'm respectful towards older people, which is the only reason I didn't tell her off. I actually sat quietly through the rest of the jokes in the first act, because I was afraid if she shushed me again Nathan Lane was going to witness the launch of the Shush Lady from the heights of the nosebleed seats into the orchestra pit.
I can't remember if she shushed again in the second act or if I was laughing at all. I think I was trying to be philosophical about it and not be bothered. Then, in the scene where Shaw and Shakespeare are debating, the crux of the play, during a beautifully rendered soliloquy on death, when you could hear a pin drop in the audience, the Shush Lady chooses this moment to s-l-o-w-l-y open a zippered pouch she had tucked inside her pocketbook, as if drawing the action out slowly would make it quieter instead of needlessly prolonging the annoyance. I couldn't hear the actor. A couple of people in front of us looked back at her, frowning. She just kept unzipping and ruined the speech for me. Could she not have chosen a different part of the play to do that - say, when I was laughing?
To this day I can't believe I never said anything to that creature, even then.
Salmon leap from the womb of the white sea you look on; they are calves, they are lambs of good color, in peace without slaughter.
justthefacts2
Broadway Star Joined: 4/24/05
#44re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 9:55pmMetoog, I just read your slow candy wrapper comment. Yes!! That is exactly what I experienced with the Shush Lady and her zipper.
Salmon leap from the womb of the white sea you look on; they are calves, they are lambs of good color, in peace without slaughter.
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#45re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 10:05pmHere's a gem: I went to see La Cage for my birthday with my friend and we were sitting in front of a row of younger teenagers. They sat through the first act COMPARING IT TO THE MOVIE! And when the plot of the show strayed from the plot of the movie (as it often does, it came first...) they became irritated. It was annoying at the time but kind of funny in retrospect.
#46re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/13/05 at 10:38pmHere's a particularly irking experience, I was at a local theatre watching one of their season's productions and things were going great when this tween girl (who was sitting next to me) rings/vibrates. And the vibrate was one of those ones that you can hear BZZZZZZing while it shook the whole row practically. Anyways, so most people would reach down quickly and shut the thing off but her? She answers the thing in the middle of the theatre and scene and then loudly gets up telling her friend she'll be right back and goes out to talk in the lobby. Then she comes back and sits down and starts twittering with her friend about the conversation she just had. I was ready to lean over and smack her. Although many many people were giving her death glares so there you go. Yeah sorry, had to rant a bit there, that just pissed me off because it was a great show but that whole thing made it so hard to concentrate, not only for the audience but for the actors too I'm sure. (it was a very small theatre that has globe seating so something like that happens and EVERYONE hears/sees it.)
I wanted to get something that an "ex"-junkie like him would really appreciate and cherish....it's a brick of heroin shaped like a heart.
-Scrubs
DefyGravity23
Stand-by Joined: 3/28/05
#47re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/14/05 at 12:06am
Okay, I was wondering about this whole food/drink thing - when has it been okay to take food into a theatre? Maybe I'm out of the loop, but every theatre I've been to (mostly local I'll admit) you're not able to take any food/drink in whatsoever. So, are these stories about candy wrappers and french fries from smugglers? Or do major theatres allow it in an attempt to up concession sales? Like I said, I'm really out of the loop. I guess it's because I've never felt the need to eat during a show.
Whatever the rules are, I don't think food and drink should ever be allowed. It creates annoyances as so many stories on here have shown. The crinkling, the smells, and most of all the MESS. We should not treat these beautiful theatres as movie theatres with sticky floors and popcorn spilled everywhere. It also adds to the feeling of a casual atmosphere. People feel they can eat, talk, get up for a bathroom break, sing along, or do whatever they would do in their own living rooms. I say that purses/bags should be searched to prevent smuggling as well. If people get something at intermission, they eat it, and then throw it away. Really, if people can't go through just one act without eating or drinking something, then that's just pathetic.
#48re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/14/05 at 12:53am
DefyGravity23
I think I've got it. Theaters should have "food sniffing dogs" I know I can't get anything by my dog.
"I would rather be with the people of this town than with the finest people in the world."--Fred Willard as Mayor Deebs in Roxanne
bostonbroadwayfan
Featured Actor Joined: 2/14/05
#49re: Venting. Rude people sitting near you.
Posted: 5/14/05 at 2:33am
The theater I went to in Providence last night lets food in the theater.
During one of the more dramatic songs where you just hear a piano, someone dropped a cup and you cold hear it roll down. I'm sure the performers heard it.
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