When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a performance?- Page 5
When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a performance?
#100re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 9:30am
"In the 18th Century, at least, shouting, screaming, etc. was the norm."
Bathing every day wasn't the norm either. Want to go back to that too?
I can't stand brain dead tweens who feel they can shreak and scream whenever they want ... including during dialog scenes, because they have seen the show thousands of times and know whats coming next.
I sat next to one during my one unfortunate trip to "Legally Bland" She never stopped screaming. I missed at least 25% of the show because of her and when I asked her nicely during intermission to maybe tone it down I was told in no uncertain terms that she was enjoying herself and was going to do what she wanted. I waited til curtain call and then turned towards her and got right next to her ear and let out everything I had in a scream. I left her in shock.
#101re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 4:38pm
Perhaps this is splitting hairs, but:
There *is* a difference between "woo"ing and screaming.
#102re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 5:27pmIt might have started with the Who's Tommy. When I saw it in '98, some 'fans' in the front row started screaming at the first chord of the overture. It was the first time I ever heard anyone do that.
This is Harvard, not a stripper bar...
CMU_bway_lover
Stand-by Joined: 3/20/08
#103re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/21/08 at 8:48pm
"Maybe the real question is...when did it stop being appropriate to shout and yell during performances?"
Good question. Remember, people are spending a fair amount of money on the theater and the whole point of theater is to suspend to disbelief so expecting a completely quite or polite theater is not going to happen. Unless you move to Japan.
It sucks, but hey, watching a live show always come with risks, like sitting next to someone who is irritating.
#104re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/22/08 at 12:28am
The only really bad audience experiences I've had was some a-hole beside me at Rent who kept singing. And at the most random parts too. It wasn't just like "Seasons of Love." It would be some obscure moment like one of the "Voice Mail"s.
It was bizarre.
#105re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/22/08 at 12:41am
Unfortunately, even our acting schools are not teaching their students theatre etiquette.
Last year I went to a production of "Reefer Madness" that a local university with a performing arts conservatory put on. I made the mistake of going on the last performance, a Sunday matinee. There was so much yelling and screaming going on in the audience that I was tempted to leave during the opening number. But I thought, "Well, they are basically kids and this is the last performance..."
This year I went to the same school's production of "Assassins" and, while it wasn't the noisefest that "Reefer Madness" was, there was still a lot of whooping going on during the show. I was sitting next to a girl who was in the conservatory and she whooped whenever one of her friends appeared in the show.
Having said that, I save any vocal demonstrations that I feel the need to give until the curtain calls.
When I saw "Wicked" on tour, I don't remember any whooping during the show itself. Though, at the end of "Defying Gravity" such a roar went up that I wondered if a Brazilian Soccer team had scored a goal somewhere in the theatre...
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#106re: When did it become acceptable for the audience to scream during a perfo
Posted: 11/22/08 at 5:16pm
I just don't think rock musicals are the same ballgame as the rest of musical theatre. They have a different energy, a different atmosphere than, say, "Gypsy."
RENT has always seemed to have an almost Rocky Horror Show quality where repeat viewers always cheered. The one time I've seen it with a really dull audience was just really depressing. Nobody even cheered for Angel when the pink lights came down during "Today 4 U" or anything. The whole performance felt dead, and I attribute that partially to the comatose audience.
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