Wearing cologne/perfume in the theatre...

[jennafan]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 10:04pm

I saw a thread about cologne/perfume on the off-topic board and wanted to start something here.

I am highly sensative/allergic to both. Has anyone else had a problem with people at the theatre wearing too much perfume/cologne? I mean, I get light headed and have bad reactions with just the slight smell of it. That part is what I hate about any arranged seating (concert, theatre, etc...) you are stuck with whoever is sitting next to you.

Just wondering if there are others who have reactions to purfume/cologne. If so, what do you do at the theatre? So far, it has only happened to me a couple of times and the ushers are pretty good about letting me move. I worry what will happen if I go to something that is sold out and the person next to me is wearing purfume. I'd probably just have to leave.
Updated On: 1/2/09 at 10:04 PM

[into_the_woods2]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 10:13pm

It's funny...so many shows that I have been to have been empowered with crazy scents...some good and some bad. I am not allergic to them, but I am certainly sensitive. I just think in general, not just in the theatre, people should be sensitive to people's allergies when wearing strong scents.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 12:22am

Certainly some people wear a lot and the scent gets just a little annoying. I just try to deal with it. If you were allergic, tell an usher and maybe they'd try to find you a new seat.

[kover22]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:13am

I am like the OP, I am extremely allergic to scents. It gets very hard for me to do anything in public. Malls, concerts, movie theaters any place like that I am taking my life in my hands lol. I have been known to ask to move seats a time or two if its really bad.

[rjjn]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:15am

Well, it might be better than sitting next to a guy with strong BO...well, maybe not.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 10:07am

I do wear perfume to the theatre, but not a lot. I also take into consideration other people's allergies.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 10:14am

Christine Estabrook of SPRING AWAKENING is HIGHLY allergic to perfume/cologne and it is required of the onstage audience members that they not wear it.

I wear cologne to the theatre only if it's a night out or a date. Otherwise, I'm with a friend who doesn't care or I'm alone.

Also, just a cologne/perfume-related anecdote: I have always believed that the Gershwin Theatre smells like Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue. Weird.

[broadway122]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 12:43pm

I don't wear much colonge to the theatre, but now I won't wear any. I never really thought about people being alleric to smell goods. Thanks for bringing up this topic. I wouldn't want to kill the person next to me because I smell nice.

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:09pm

Believe me, if someone is THAT allergic to the smell of things they shouldn't go to the theatre anyways...how do they even go out of their house?! But it is a good rule not to wear a lot of perform/cologne when going to the theatre because sometimes people go overboard with it and you don't want to have to set next to someone who is wearing too much of something you don't like.

[Weez]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:14pm

Yeah, how dare you try and indulge a hobby if you've got an allergy? People with extreme nut allergies should be banned from grocery stores! People with cat allergies shouldn't be allowed outdoors ever! And people with hayfever should just be exiled to Siberia NOW dagnabbit!

Show some consideration; if not for the people who do have allergies to artificial scents, then for the people who don't want a wall of obnoxious scent smacking up against them when you get within ten feet of them. :P

I don't like FlyingMonkey. If I ended up sat next to him at the theatre one day, do you think the usher would be understanding and find me a different seat? Oh I do hope so!

Updated On: 1/3/09 at 02:14 PM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:54pm

I agree with you Weez. It actually is interesting, and a little scary to find out what are huge allergies now. It's just things we would never have thought of years ago.

My sister is one of those allergic to perfumes. Some, I can't tolerate, so I guess I'm just lucky. But, perfume is also just bad if you have asthma. I know someone who got sick on a bus trip because some girls were spraying perfume. At least if you are going to wear some, you don't need to cover your entire body with it. I even rub it in my skin, like you aren't supposed to do, because I know it won't last as long.

[enroutetothesky]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 3:17pm

I'm not allergic, per se, but I am sensitive to scents. Not just perfume or cologne but smoke and sometimes even food as well. I don't mind people who dab a little on their wrists or whatever but it's those people who practically bathe in it and you can smell them before you see then that gets me.

Oh! Kinda along the same lines: BO is so gross. Updated On: 1/3/09 at 03:17 PM

[Parsley]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 3:38pm

I would rather the rankest, cheapest perfume/cologne that sets me off sneezing than the much worse and downright skanky smell that comes from smokers. Do smokers not realise that they just reek. And it is never pleasant when sitting near them.

Also BO is hideous (and a smoker with BO is just the worst)

[proptart101]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 3:41pm

Several years ago I was on a flight from NYC to LA. A youngish woman sitting about three rows ahead of me started doing her nails once the seat belt lights were turned off. An elderly gentleman, sitting across the aisle from her asked her, very politely, to put the nail polish (or maybe it was remover, I couldn't see) away as he was allergic.

She ignored him.

He asked again.

Ignored again.

Stewardess was called, she asked the "lady" to put it away, lady starts yelling to the effect that she had paid good money for the ticket and that gave her the right to look presentable when she landed in LA.

Short version, we had to make an emergency landing in St. Louis to take the elderly gentleman to the hospital as his throat had swollen closed and he was suffocating. They removed the young lady from the plane. I never found out what happened to either of them.

Some people refuse to consider others when they do things in a public space.

sad....

[Weez]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 3:54pm

I sincerely hope that woman will never be able to fly with that airline ever again! What a heinous cow! D:

I would honestly take a BO smell over excessive perfume smell. Obviously there's limits; people who haven't washed in so long they smell like they're rotting is something I can't abide, but someone who showers more than once a month and has built up a sweat, I can cope with that. At least it's an organic smell that isn't going to put anyone in hospital.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 3:55pm

Some people, like "my" Rabbi (the Rabbi at the synagogue my family goes to and that I went to for years until I moved. Now, I don't belong to a synagogue, I just go to Chabad centres), claimed to be EXTREMELY allergic to flowers and perfumes/scents, so we were not allowed to wear them at synagogue (even though my mom is friends with this rabbi's doctor's wife and she says that she's making it up). I think it's okay, if the theatre doesn't prohibit it. You're not really doing anything wrong if you wear them, but some people might be really allergic to those scents.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 4:00pm

What really annoys me is people having Peanut Butter in the theatre, well actually the theatres selling Peanut products. I'm allergic to them, and well not servilely allergic the smell gets to me, and with all the people today allergic to peanuts, most worse off than me, I find it very inconsiderate.

Updated On: 1/3/09 at 04:00 PM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 6:19pm

Yeah, and unfortunately you can't be too careful with peanut allergies either today. The elementary school in my town now has 2 separate kindergarten classes, with one specifically is peanut free because of allergies. Well, that didn't even help with one incident. A little girl ended up being rushed to the hospital after she got off the school bus because she had an allergic reaction, and maybe a seizure too, I don't remember. It turned out the friend she was sitting with on the bus was in the other class, and she had peanut butter for lunch, and must have had some residue on her still.

[Spider Woman]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 10:06pm

I teach 6th graders....aka the age where boys discover Axe Body Spray and girls discover fruity smelling mists. Since they bathe in it,it's bad. but I consider it better than their awakening body odor and the stench they pick up from parents who smoke. They don't realize that it permeates everything...coats, bookbags, hair... everything. Theatre patrons are no different. They don't know that they stink of smoke of perfume/cologne. Maybe the invention of the smell-o-meter is they way to go ( I envision the old school fire type alarm going off, followed by a good car wash style dousing).

[logan0215]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 10:12pm

I wear cologne every day.

Like anything else, moderation is the key.

One should not be able to smell the scent of your cologne or perfume unless they are within intimate range of you.

If you have an allergy, it is your responsibility to distance yourself if you are having a reaction, not the person's to fore go feeling presentable while out for an evening at the theater.

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 10:25pm

"I would rather the rankest, cheapest perfume/cologne that sets me off sneezing than the much worse and downright skanky smell that comes from smokers."

You do have to remember that not everyone who smells like smoke is a smoker. Sometimes they have realtives who smoke (like me) or were just to close to someone who did. I don't condone smoke (I really wish my parents would stop!) but sometimes its not really their choice.

[Parsley]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 5:20am

yes one does have to remember that BUT on a smoker it is a FAR worse rank smell than on a passive smoker.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 8:49am

A friend of mine with whom I frequently go to the theatre has an allergy to perfumes. Still, only once has someone sitting near us caused him to be extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that time it really was extreme and he had to get up and watch most of the show standing at the back of the mezzanine.

I'm told that one problem that those who wear perfume and cologne on a daily basis have is that some of them get so used to the smell that when they put on an amount that once seemed sufficient to them, they don't smell it. So they put on more, thinking they haven't put on enough. And then they get used to that amount and it again starts to seem to them as if they haven't put on enough, and so on till they're putting on huge amounts.

[Celra]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 1:37pm

Can't stand the perfume or cologne. I hate it when people wear "Old Lady Perfume" to the theatre.

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 1:56pm

I'm fine with perfume or cologne. Or at least I have never experienced anything to strong. What bothers me is smoke smell. Not even in a theater but anytime I am near someone smoking.

Yesterday in August Osage County the onstage smoking REALLY bothered me and I was up in the Mezzanine. All the sudden this big cloud of smoke with fly past my face, it was disgusting.

Also yesterday some people behind my came in late and they obviously ran to the theater as they were panting but as they were running they were probably smoking so every time they would breathe in and out it would stink up the place.