What is Worse Than an Audience Members Cell Phone

Never had that happen but outside of cell phones, talkers are the worst. After that, people digging in purses or bags during a show.

---

People walking in late & having to climb over people to get in. The same people feel it is necessary to stand & argue or discuss other things instead of taking their seats

---

Some people just come late for no reason

There are simply too many latecomers

Just an opinion. They should be seated at a break in the story or after a musical number. If you get there on time and pay $ 100 buck a pop, you deserve to see the show undisturbed.

---

Two people talking to people either side of you. It's part of the reason I only saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels once. Pity, coz I loved that show.

---

Gum...sapping and chewing of gum. Ruined my Les Mis experience. I asked the lady to please stop chewing it because it was distracting, and she said ok and continued chewing it throughout the entire show. It was so rude. I asked very nicely. Grhh!

Book the dang flight to get in early in the morning. There are a lot of people who simply cut it too close. Anything less than four hours before what you're scheduled to do is asking for trouble if you're flying.

---

Okay, I've told this story a couple times here, and granted it was a high school show (and it was an open dress rehersal, so it was free), but this one trumps all of yours, even if I was on-stage when it happened.

My sophomore year of high school, our spring show as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And every show, the school day before opening, we have an open dress rehersal that we invite some of the students from the high school, the local middle schools, and some parents during the school day. During that show, some high school guy was sitting near the back (but not THE back) next to his girlfriend, and I suppose they were "borad at some boring play," and she decided it was a good time to give her boyfriend a blo... "token of her love." And he "showed his gratitude" all over our new drywall (which we had litterally put up days before).

---

Let's see...

I once had people behind me eating Chinese food.

There was the guy who ate Skittles in the front row.

And there was the guy who hummed during "Bring Him Home". I gave him my bitchface.

I sh*t you not!

I have always said that ...Forum is a crowd pleaser!

---

I went to see the current touring production of Rent when it came to Chicago and I guess one of the ladies behind me was friends with the orchestra conductor. The orchestra got on stage like 10 minutes before the show started and the lady behind me called the conductor on his cell phone and he answered it and talked to her while he was on stage! Very un-professional!

---

"Latecomers should not be allowed to ruin the experience for the rest of us who arrive on time."

I Agree. And the argument that they also paid $100 doesn't fly with me. My $100 ticket and I planned carefully to make sure we had more than enough time so that things like traffic or missed trains wouldn't affect us.

If people are late because they miscalculated, or even because of things that happened to them beyond their control, what they have to realize is that these things happened to THEM and their $100 ticket, not ME and my $100 ticket. Why should I suffer the consequences of things that happened to them? Even if it wasn't their fault?

As far as cell phones go, I attended a performance of Our Town where a group of three couples were sitting behind us. One of the couples arrived just as the lights were going down and decided to run out to get drinks for everyone.

I was mildly annoyed by this because, being in the middle of the row, it was a guaranteed disturbance when the two returned carrying six drinks over our heads.

I soon found out that this would be the least of our worries. The woman had left her purse under her chair while she went for the drinks. The ushers decided not to let the couple back in until intermission. Apparently someone really needed to reach her because her phone went off eight times throughout the first act! Because it was in her purse under her seat, nobody could tell where the ringing was coming from and the whole audience kept looking around trying to find it. And of course by the time the ushers got there each time, it had stopped ringing.

We all thought it was probably some deaf old person that didn’t even hear the ringing. Until finally the couple came back in at intermission and it rang again. She pulled it out and was surprised to see that she had two messages. She went on and on about how embarrassed she was that it rang not once, but twice. Her friend tried to console her saying that it wasn't really that loud. At this point I felt compelled to turn around and inform her that in fact it was quite loud and disturbing and that she had received eight calls, not two. She looked at me like I was the rude one.

We left at intermission because the entire first act had been ruined.

---

Updated On: 6/6/07 at 08:21 AM

I went to see "Inherit the Wind" last weekend, and the woman behind me kept crinkling a bag through the whole first act. I turned around at intermission to see what she was doing, and it turned out that she had a Duane Reade bag full of candy and had been reaching into it throughout the show. I just can't understand people who find it impossible to make it through a 2-hour show without eating something. It's like people can't process something they're seeing if they're not constantly stuffing things in their mouths.
Anyway, I politely asked her if she would mind taking the candy out of the bag ahead of time as the crinkling was distracting, and she apologized and did so, so that worked out OK. Then I just had to worry about the gentleman on her other side (not part of her group) who talked in a normal speaking voice to his wife throughout the show. Grr! The audience was also very "coughy." Despite all of this, I was able to enjoy the show very much (except for Maggie Lacey.)

---