Wednesday night Spongebob Audience — Page 2

I attend a lot of regional theater around the midwest. Without a doubt, the people that are the rudest audience members are the people that gab loudly about being in the "theatre" with their friends before the show. I'm not sure if they think they're better than the rest of us or, as suggested, need to be the center of attention and PERFORM being an audience member.

Obviously... tons and tons of awesome theater folk sit in total silence, rapt attention, and make the very best audience members. But. Then there's those other folk...

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I’m starting to think audience rudeness is par for the course. I made a decision during Spongebob today to never attend another weekend show. The last 3 shows I’ve seen were all weekend days and the audience was horrendous, no matter the age of the patrons, how expensive the seats were, or what show. Rude people are rude and come in all forms.
Today when Spongebob started there were 2 rows of 10 seats total completely empty in front of us. During the first song, trouncing in come 3 moms with 7 kids. All trying to get in their seats, taking off their coats, talking, standing on the seats. Finally they get settled and one of the moms gets up and starts passing candy around to all of them. The kids see the candy and start crawling all over each other to get to it.

I get it; this is a kid’s show, they are kids. But then the mom in front of me got out her IPAD, held it up, and starting taking pictures. I had to tell her to stop and luckily she did.

I’m done with weekend theater audiences. During the week is never a guarantee either but the chances of sitting next to somewhat respectable people have been much better.

If I got the reviews that OOTI got I'd be out screaming everywhere I went. Congrats to them!

I hear SB is papering a lot so they need the rooting. Go Spongee!!

I have noticed that some of the worst audience members can be actors in the business. Some of the best audience members can also be actors in the business. I think most actors are very respectful audience members.

I don't know if the badly behaved ones are like that because they can't stop performing, they think it's supporting the people on stage, they think the rules don't apply to them, or what. But they can be extremely annoying and I wish they would realize that.

No, it isn't. In fact, other than a stray cell phone ringing, I haven't witnessed any terrible audience behaviors in a while. And I'm at a b'way show nearly 2x a month.

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Which sucks, no doubt.

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greenifyme2 said: "I have been to 5 shows in the last month, 3 this weekend alone. I have had to ask someone to turn off their phone, stop talking, and/or stop taking pictures at all 5 shows.
"

I've been to 3 in the past week and a half, including SpongeBob and didn't have any of these issues.

Broadway Joe said: "greenifyme2 said: "I have been to 5 shows in the last month, 3 this weekend alone. I have had to ask someone to turn off their phone, stop talking, and/or stop taking pictures at all 5 shows.
"

I've been to 3 in the past week and a half, including SpongeBob and didn't have any of these issues."

Soo... that doesn’t negate what they experienced.

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so you are saying that adults that are in a children's show as their Adult job have friends that act like children with no manners?
Who would have thought.

Call_me_jorge said: "Broadway Joe said: "greenifyme2 said: "I have been to 5 shows in the last month, 3 this weekend alone. I have had to ask someone to turn off their phone, stop talking, and/or stop taking pictures at all 5 shows.
"

I've been to 3 in the past week and a half, including SpongeBob and didn't have any of these issues."

Soo... that doesn’t negate what they experienced."

The point was it doesn't happen every single show either.

adamgreer said: "Broadway Joe said: "Call_me_jorge said: "Broadway Joe said: "greenifyme2 said: "I have been to 5 shows in the last month, 3 this weekend alone. I have had to ask someone to turn off their phone, stop talking, and/or stop taking pictures at all 5 shows.
"

I've been to 3 in the past week and a half, including SpongeBob and didn't have any of these issues."

Soo... that doesn’t negate what they experienced."

The point was it doesn't happen every single show either."

I think everyone is aware of that, but that doesn’t change the original posters experience at the particular performance they attended. They should be able to enjoy the show (which they presumably paid some amount of money for, possibly a lot), without having to listen to the cast of Once On This Island tell “Yaassssss Queen!” all night."

I'm not disagreeing with that but someone above asked if this was becoming a regular occurrence at shows and that's what I was responding too.

adamgreer said: "They should be able to enjoy the show (which they presumably paid some amount of money for, possibly a lot), without having to listen to the cast of Once On This Island yell “Yaassssss Queen!” all night."

Okay, that's hilarious.

But seriously, I would've gone out to find the house manager and demanded a refund.

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Ok..I am reviving this thread!

I went to SpongeBob tonight (Tuesday 1/23) and I truly enjoyed what I saw on stage. It made me smile and laugh and gave such a great escape from the real world. The actors busted their butts for over 2 hours and that audience was down right embarrassing. Beyond embarrassing. I am just going to state the facts and not let this go into a therapy session, but something needs to be done about the audience.

Let me say I am 36 years old and my friend is 42 with 4 kids of her own (all under 10). I have an 8 year old nephew and I am glad when I can send him home back to my brother! So I love that kids get to go to the theater. My parents took me at an early age and I want that to continue, but it's THE DAMN PARENTS!!!!!

We were seated in the front row Center Mezz (AA 112-113). I would say it was 75% full. Kids screaming and running around, ok no problem, show hasn't begun. Once it started it took until the middle of the opening number to even begin for them to settle in. For the ENTIRE first act all you heard was loud voices asking questions (That had nothing to do with the show!). Leaving to go to the bathroom, get drinks, go for a walk, change seats..whatever. Anytime there was applause it would start off like regular applause then turn into screaming applause once the kids got involved. At points you could hear fathers, or older male voices hooting and hollering, like at a football game. In Act 2, when SpongeBob throws the device in the volcano and there is the dead silence, a few people in the orchestra screamed out "BOOM" and some other inaudible nonsense. From the look on the actor's faces you could clearly see the "this happens every damn night!'. During bows only 5 people in the mezzanine stood (besides us), that cast clearly deserved it. I looked down to the orchestra and no one in the first 5 rows were standing. It was just sad. We tried to make up for it, but it just wasn't right. Then at the "SpongeBob Title Song" once the Balls started going and the cannon started popping, kids started running everywhere to get stuff. I mean it was like the opening of Target on Black Friday. In the orchestra a young man tried to get on stage 3 times. Jon Rua had to actual move him back as a woman (whom I assume was his mother) was pushing to get a photo of him on stage with the cast. It was just beyond anything I have experienced in my time as a performer and a patron. There were 2 ushers "guarding" the front orchestra and they did nothing, it is a darn shame the actors had to get involved. Once they saw the kid keep trying they all got back on the stage. Just ruined the moment. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!!!

Sorry to rant! It was and still is a shock to me. I am surprised a producer or anyone connected to this show, who must watch it and report back, hasn't said anything. I know this behavior goes on quite frequently.

Thanks for putting up with me!