Very Un-Christlike Post Jesus Christ Superstar Assault! — Page 3

This is so upsetting and I'm glad you found an usher and a cop to help. But what do you do when an usher can't be bothered? A few weeks ago, at Evita, I was in row C mezz and someone in row A center mezz was texting the whole first act. At intermission, I told an usher and asked if she could talk to him and keep an eye out and she kind of nodded and walked away, and I said "Wait I didn't tell you where he was sitting!" And she kind of sighed and said "Ok where?" but wasn't really listening at all. And he still texted during Act 2. Annoying.

During the Ragtime revival I was seated next to an elderly couple. He had a hearing aid (that crackled the whole time) and he kept saying, at full speaking volume, "What did he say?" His wife would then explain, also in full speaking volume. Sometimes presciently. "They're gonna shoot the black guy!" "She's gonna marry the Jew!"

If you know exactly what seat the person was in you might be able to ask the theater for the record of who sat there.

Hearing aid problems don't excuse the couple talking at full volume. That's not okay no matter what.

All these stories just make me wish even more that there was more effective enforcement of rules against cell phones in the theatre. I wouldn't mind at all if ushers were 150% harsher about this.

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I didn't think there would be so much anger of cell phone jammers. It was a joke haha. Sometimes that's the only way you feel you can get the inconsiderate people to get off their phones.

Maybe if they made multiple announcements before the performance more people would turn them off and it would be nice if ushers would tell anyone they saw on their phone to turn it off without having to be asked by another patron.

Thegirlupstairs. If one is extremely hard of hearing or near deaf, it is very difficult for them to gage the volume of their voice. All of my relatives who rely on hearing aides can speak in a whisper when their aides are in place, when they are out their whispers become stage whispers. The volume goes up. They are unaware of it.

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3 Words: Concealed gun permit. She'd change her tune staring down a muzzle.

I'm with Kelly. If I were at a point in my life where I could not hear the show even with a hearing aid or assisted listening devices, sadly I think my theatre going days would be over. I'd never enjoy trying to grasp what is going on.

I feel badly that public behavior has gotten so poor. I sat behind a 40 something woman and her two daughters at Snow White who proceeded to talk like like they were in their godd@#%ned living room. "Oh I like that dress." "Whats she gonna do now".....

I asked them to be quiet, which in their minds was interpreted as just talk lower and less often.

Also, once I get to the place of having to ask someone to be quiet, they've really already ruined my experience for I am irritated, anxious and don't like conflict. So even if they are polite I'm unnerved.

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SNAFU, let me just add that I really make no distinction between able bodied/not able bodied in this regard. As evidenced by my initial post, my first "warning" to someone disrupting the show is always polite and quiet and honestly in my experience that is more than enough for about 75% of people. What it is that is causing them to be disruptive isn't of any particular interest to me, unless their disability or special need requires some kind of assistance to deal with, in which case I'd be happy to flag down an usher to deal with whatever it may be as quickly and quietly as possible.

I guess my question was more in the vein of that if things like hearing aids and varying degrees of hearing loss create a situation where talking during the performance feels somehow necessary to those affected, at what point do we say that is unacceptable? I've read a lot of people over time saying that allowances should be made and I just wonder at the expense of who else's experience and where should the line be drawn.

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So then Adam, when someones hearing aide which they took off if feed back how is one to explain it to them? Is it better to have the high pitched squealing? You nudge and point, but that doesn't always get the point across.

Oh wait yes, wait till intermission!

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Updated On: 6/8/12 at 02:24 AM