When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a performance?- Page 4
When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a performance?
ejgirls89
Understudy Joined: 7/23/08
#75re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/10/08 at 9:48amWhen a UPS man comes on in a tight outfit and porno music is playing.
--jen--
#76re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/10/08 at 10:05am
Ordinary- I am completely on your side.
People can explain this away however they want... regardless of background, culture, upbringing or whatever, speaking, heckling, screaming or any kind of disruption is irritating, rude and unnecessary. I think it's patronising to talk about charismatic Christian roots to try and defend this kind of behaviour; I believe these people know when they're at church and when they're in a theatre and should know how to behave. I don't see anyone trying to make people understand why the maniacal Wicked fans scream like Bay City Rollers fans at whatever opens its mouth on stage.
I was disturbed and annoyed by a very noisy and annoying child at one show, and when I asked the mother to do something about it, she just glared at me. She caught up with me in the interval to tell me what an awful person I was for victimising an autistic shild. I told her I didn't give a sh*t about her daughter's condition. It wasn't just me the kid was annoying (although I think I was the only one having my hair pulled) and I think people were more bothered by how much money they'd spent to sit in a darkened room trying to watch a show with a child wailing and gagging right behind them. Stuff like this can have any kind of explanation or excuse, but it doesn't change the fact that people should remember where they are and should behave accordingly.
Phew!
#77re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/10/08 at 5:08pm
"Nobodyhome--at the Ancient Greek festivals peopel would bring tons of food, plan to go there all day, come and leave during a play, and talk. They may have been more behaved than the "groundlings" for Shakespeare--but not all that much I don't think."
Yes, looking in a theatre history book, I see that the audiences could be very . . . demonstrative. 
Or at least that's what it says in this book. I'd love to read the source documents.
In translation.
regnad kcin
Leading Actor Joined: 8/26/05
#78re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/10/08 at 7:59pmI don't see anything wrong with screaming IF it's not when music is playing, someone is talking or singing. Basically, during applause moments. It also depends on the show. I totally regressed 7 years when I saw Legally Blonde and screamed after So Much Better. NOT over the final note, but afterwards. I just don't really see how that's distrurbing.
rentheadca
Stand-by Joined: 10/20/08
#79re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/10/08 at 10:24pm
it annoyed me when people would scream over the last So Much Better note; I couldn't hear it...
I always feel like people think I'm a fangirl because I'm 14 and see shows more than once. I'm a fan of the show, but fangirls seem to be used in a negative connotation. I have never screamed during a performance; it annoys the heck out of me. Not all teenage girls who go to Broaway are fangirls, but I always feel like people think I am for some reason 
#80re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 1:23amSince American Idol.
MamasDoin'Fine
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/28/08
#81re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 1:30am
I saw the first hour of 'The little Mermaid' today and the audience were shocking. Im sure it was the first time that 99% of them had been to a theatre. From curtain up they behaved as if watching a movie at home!
I really felt for the company!
#82re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:38am
I saw WHITE CHRISTMAS last night. Did the lotto. To the creepy guy who was sitting next to me, all the way on the left, if you're reading the board:
SHUT. UP.
I paid to hear the actors sing, not you scream.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#83re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 4:04pm
Yelling a cast member's name should be grounds for everybody around the fangirl/fanboy to just start punching her/him in the back of your head
HaHaHa That is awesome. I don't know that I would condone punching, but perhaps throwing some sticky gum in their hair and other similar annoyances that would scar much longer than punching.
I still love Elaine Stritch's story about Merman leaving the stage, going down into the audience, and kicking the audience member out of the theatre. I don't know if it's true or not, but the image in my mind is fantastic.
Who would do that nowadays....besides LuPone.
"It's the little things; the details, that distinguish the Barbra Streisands from the Rosalyn Kinds."~Gilmore Girls~
yankeegal
Chorus Member Joined: 7/5/08
#84re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 4:35pm
I can't stand it when that happens, and it happens A LOT it seems. It's bad enough in a movie theater, but at a live show its not just incredibly rude to the other theatergoers but to those on stage... It does go back awhile though-- I remember seeing the original Dreamgirls and people started clapping and cheering before that last, great note of Jennifer Holliday's "And I am tellin' you..."
Frustrating and annoying!
duffny1
Understudy Joined: 9/20/08
#85re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:48pm
I agree with the Dreamgirls connection. I saw it a few days after it opened and Jennifer Holliday stopped singing completely and the orchestra kept playing the same few bars of music while the audience went crazy and gave her a standing ovation BEFORE the final note. When the cheering calmed a bit, she started where she left off and at the end of the note the Audience once again went crazy giving her the loudest ovation that I have ever heard in a theatre.
I couldn't believe how rude it was--till I realized I was screaming louder than everyone:) Of course I didn't hear a single word of the other Dreamettes that came on right after her, before the curtain closed.
Who me scream???--never
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#86re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:53pm
On the bootleg (what, me, a bootleg? never) of the final performance of the 1987 production of Follies, there is a ton of screaming for the pre-show announcment and for the entrances.
Nothing gets me more pumped then seeing Millicent Martin and Julia McKenzie enter a stage...?
But on a serious note, I think once shows and orchestras reached a rock-concert level musically and in terms of volume, people felt screaming was appropriate. I blame Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Tick Tock
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#87re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:06amFor those of us who find screaming and whistling an annoyance, let's petition producers to include theater etiquette as part of the opening announcement. Look, cell phones and wrappers have been added, perhaps it's time to realize that patrons need to be reminded that they are not in their living rooms.
Gary Indiana
Stand-by Joined: 6/18/08
#88re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:36amI saw Billy Elliot over the weekend, and the only person I could hear screaming was one of the women who sold merchandise for the show. She was standing in the back of the orchestra, and screamed at several points in the middle of songs. It really annoyed me because the audience was so well behaved and someone who works in the theater should understand theater etiquette.
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#89re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 11:36amWhy would you bring an autistic child to the theatre anyway?
KFTC!!!!!
#90re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:18pm
I agree with the first post 100%
I find the "wooing," very childish to say the least, and inappropriate for theatre in general. I'm in my early thirties and I don't even remember doing that when I was young.
Also, I don't think "wooing" in theatre, back in the day so to speak, was an appropriate show of appreciation. Simple applause, by all means, is enough of an expression for a performance.
And as far as children, please, parents, teach them behavioral manners and etiquette...it's not out of the ordinary to hear a child fuss every now and then. I personally don't mind that. But have a talk with them, for instance, before going to the show about how they should behave.
If you ask me, a lot of this is due to lack of discipline, since nowadays people are afraid to do so as parents. They either fear that others will take it the wrong way and possibly report them, which has become very extreme. Anything goes nowadays. You just don't know how to react to things anymore...Or, maybe, is it that parents just dont care anymore and the let the child be?
Updated On: 11/18/08 at 12:18 PM
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#91re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:43pm
Me in DOUBT:
"WOOOOO!!! CHER-REEEEEEE!!! WOOOOOWOWOWOWOOOOWOOO!!! GET THAT PRIEST, GIRL! YOU GO, CHAIR-CHAIR!!! WOOWOWOOOOOO!!!"
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#92re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:53pm
I'm personally trying to debate what's worse:
a) People screaming
b) a LITTLE CHILD that should not even be in there start a scream fest
c) Tourist/or people chatting throughout the show
d) Teenyboppers in SA telling their friend, who is seeing the show the first time like I was, what is GOING to happen!! Luckily, I moved to the mezz and got better seats the 2nd act anyways!
I once heard someone describe her (Ruthie Henshall) singing as sounding as though she's trying to swallow a whole meatball slightly larger than her windpipe. (The same person compared Michael Ball's singing to sounding as though he's sitting on a washing machine on spin cycle and Colm Wilkinson's to a man with a paralyzed lip trying to eat cottage cheese.) --- Schmerg_The_Impaler
ChecksintheMayo
Stand-by Joined: 10/26/06
#93re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 2:48pmAt the "Drowsy Chaperone," some mouthbreathing cow behind me apparently thought she was in "Rocky Horror" and began talking back to Jonathan Crombie. So obnoxious.
#94re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 3:13pm
When I saw Dirty Dancing last year, the screaming was out of control (even though I secretly felt like screaming/pulling my hair out at the lameness of the show)..I felt like the only one in the audience under the age of 50, and of course when he said, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" people lost it. Screams for like a full minute afterwards. I mean, they must have known it would be in the dialogue...
Either way, not such a fan of screaming myself.
"You see, I told you so! There's lots of things I know. 'Ponine, she knows her way around."
Born2bOnBroadway
Swing Joined: 12/16/05
#95re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 4:04pm
Here's the thing-
In no universe and by no TRUE theatre-goers moral compass is screaming acceptable OR appropriate during a performance.
In certain situations, ie: An actor's first or final show-in her (or his) first scene. Or a "celebrity", ie: Boy George in Taboo, Jeremy Piven in Speed-The-Plow....(maybe. ON OPENING NIGHT!) However, most of this can be held until curtain. Once the show is over, screaming is more appropriate, although roaring applause works just as nicely.
I for one am a huge fan of enthusiasm but there's a time and place for everything.
The problem stems from a lack of ettiquite- understanding and/or following through with it.
I find it's found more commmonly in kids (and I'm only 15.)
In '13' for example, friends of the performers scream when a nice note is hit. Then the audience misses an entire verse.
Let the singer know at the Stagedoor, applaud or "wooooo!" during blackout or at the PROPER TIME but please, don't spoil anyone elses experience, "by adding your own soundtrack." :]
-M-
twogaab2
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/03
#96re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 4:33pm
The last time I saw "Title of Show" I thought I was at an effing football game. I'm sure the actor's appreciated the enthusiasm but JESUS CHRIST, enough is enough!!! I'm glad you like the show but give the people who haven't seen it a chance to hear it.
Just my opinion, I may be wrong.
TWOGAAB
"A Class Act" will never die!
sleepyguy1717
Broadway Star Joined: 8/1/07
#97re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/18/08 at 7:39pm
I never scream during a show; mainly because I have a really loud laugh. So I'm sure that is annoying as it is during a show. I try not to scream period, but during curtain call, my excitement kind of gets the best of me.
This thread has made me nervous for Spring Awakening on Friday. Eeeks!
I want to apologize for some offensive messages posted on this board under my name. The night 0f 12-15-08 I did not have internet access, and someone had used my name to post something offensive. My avatar was also changed. I dont' know what else was posted, or if anyone recieved bad PMs, but I want to apologize for that. I've changed my password, and even though I was not the one posting these messages it still needed to be corrected.
taysa9
Swing Joined: 11/21/08
#98re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 6:31am
I am guilty of screaming (other than during normal applause) and that was when Rent the song started playing, and I had never seen it live but i've listened to the soundtrack and watched the movie so many times so you can imagine my excitement
I'm sorry if I bothered any of you with my unecessary screaming
"And when Idina Menzel is singing, I'm always slightly worried that her teeth are going to jump out of her mouth and chase me." - Schmerg_the_Impaler
Aryn007
Understudy Joined: 3/24/04
#99re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 8:21am
Maybe the real question is...when did it stop being appropriate to shout and yell during performances?
In the 18th Century, at least, shouting, screaming, etc. was the norm. Granted, it was a different brand of people then, but in the grand scheme of things, the theater etiquette we discuss, is a fairly recent development.
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