Wednesday night Spongebob Audience — Page 2

Weird, today's SpongeBob matinee was the worst behaved theater audience I've been in as well. Sat in the balcony and it everyone around me had no awareness of etiquette.

1) The kid next to me spent about 10 minutes crawling by my feet because she had dropped something.

2) Behind me were like 5 adults with one young girl (probably not even 3 years old) who yelled out or whined the entire time. All the adults with her were talking and commenting nonstop. A phone rang and it took a full conversation for them to turn it off. People in rows behind them kept shushing them until finally during the second act I turned around and asked them to stop talking. I wish I would've said something sooner.

3) The 6ish kids in front of me were leaning all the way forward in their seats making it practically impossible for anyone in my row to see the front half of the stage. They starting dancing and singing along during "Best Day Ever" and used their phones at some points. The one adult with them said nothing.

I don't understand the point of paying that much money to get in just to talk the entire time. Or bringing children too young to sit still or understand the show. Or not understanding how to act in a theater. It's unbelievably inconsiderate. I don't know if it's just SpongeBob or the holidays or weekend audiences or what. I saw SB in previews and Charlie last week (both on weekdays, both orchestra) and everyone was well-behaved. I don't know what happened today.

Updated On: 12/9/17 at 07:49 PM

I kind of get how you could rationalize it. Theme parks charge ridiculous prices these days. If you only take your kids to one or two Broadway shows a year (instead of trying to keep up with most of the season) then it's kind of like taking them to a theme park for the day and at theme park shows things are a lot looser.

Not that I'm at all condoning this behavior. Speaking of Once on This Island, aside from the very young children who might be frightened (and the hinting at sexytimes) it's relatively appropriate for young-ish children. But I'm glad I saw it earlier in the run with the blue hairs. Though the woman next to me also couldn't stop herself from commenting the whole time. It was like Bright Star all over again.

adamgreer said: "I’d much rather attend a performance with an audience full of children than an audience full of Broadway actors. From the talking loudly enough before the show and at intermission so that everyone knows they’re “in the business” and that they have friends in the cast to the inappropriate yelling out of a performers real name (i.e. “Yassssssssss—insert actors name-!!&rdquo- it’s all too much for me. And they feel they’re entitled to behave this way because they’re actors. "

Yeah they were so annoying, and they’re supposed to KNOW better. Completely unacceptable from the Once On This Island cast. They were so rude and inconsiderate.

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 yell “Yaassssss Queen!” all night.

Updated On: 12/11/17 at 08:11 AM

The audiences are terrible. Anastasia (my favorite show of all time) on friday night was a horrible audience. The little girl in front of me sang along to the music (cute, but not the place.), kept putting her coat on and off and lunging herself in front of me and her dad just sat there and laughed. I said something very respectfully, but it sucks.

Someone at OOTI literally fell asleep in the front row and was audibly snoring. No one said anything because they were across the stage. Someone woke them up soon after though.

And the miss saigon audience is always horrific for me.

UncleCharlie said: "Was the goat there? How was he behaved?"



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

There is really no excuse and it's the parent/adult's responsibility. I started taking my nephew to Broadway shows at 8 years old. We had a few discussions about theatre behavior before we went and I made it a very grown up activity, including dressing up a bit so that it was special and "different". I kept it positive but he knew I meant business and this was a privilege.

His first show was the CATS revival (gateway drug) and we sat in the front row aisle. I discussed with him beforehand that the actors would be able to see him, so he needed to be respectful of their talent and hard work, in addition to the other audience members. I made damn sure I modeled good theatre etiquette too.

He was incredibly well behaved and he has gone to several shows since. He would be horrified by the behavior you described, not because he can't be a total kid spaz (he can break into fake karate for no reason whatsoever), but because that's not how you act at the theatre. Parents need to teach their kids but they are often the problem.

Ladies and Gentleman and Children of all Ages- No matter the age or the venue, my fellow broadway followers, what you are witnessing is the current state of life. It is not restricted to the theater or to restaurants, or to the roadway, or to the Senate or Presidency. It is here. Recognize it. It is not going away.

As I operate by appointment time in my employment, it is obvious that the values of our society have degraded beyond belief. People don’t call to cancel, they cancel at the last minute, not giving any consideration to anyone else but themselves. In the 1970’s Pepsi came out with a commercial for their beverage and called this time the “Me Generation”. Well I call today’s times “The Only -Me Generation.” The caring about one another is gone ( even about oneself as I see it). Not to riddle this post with philosophical observations, but for those that lived in the 1960’s and 1970’s we all realize that we are not going to get back what we once had. But instead of realizing who we are and where we are going- as we have all the technology to attain high standards- we have degraded ourselves to a more barbaric state of life witnessed by not just the theater goers posted here, but in all walks of life itself. This is just a microcosm of what you and I see everyday.

And when one of you ask someone to shut off their IPAD or phone during a performance, or to restrain their child from annoying behavior, or ask a person nicely to sit down when they are blocking your view of a sporting event when they are standing in front of you blocking your view - you have to be careful because life itself isn’t the same. They might do something nasty. We shouldn’t have to say anything. They shouldn’t do it in the first place. We know that. But life is now only about “me” and not about “us “. Do we need an ethic’s police. I think so. But it’s not going to happen as witnessed by all of us. Good luck to the still-good-ones out there who continue to really care and share about all of us.