Why are audiences so poorly behaved these days?- Page 7

[TheatrekidForGood]

Posted: 3/24/26 at 6:48am

I went with my school choir and band to see Phantom of the Ipera, and it was an amazing show with a cast that portrayed the characters amazing. 

During the first act I look to my left at the boys sitting next to me and they are sleeping. Now that's fine because he isn't disturbing me or anything.

Intermission starts and they go to the bathroom or get concessions or something.

When act 2 starts they watch half of Madcerade(the act 2 opening) Then takes out their phones and starts playing games. I was trying to watch the show but their phones were so distracting.

For the choir concert we sang Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again and girls were singing with her. The actor who played Cristines voice was so pretty, but I couldn't hear because people around me were singing.

As a theatre kid who loves seeing and being in productions this made me mad.

Just because we are really far from the stage and on 3rd balcony it doesn't give you the right to not follow theatre etiquette.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/24/26 at 8:59am

I've seen some of the best behaved audiences in the last 18 months or so, and can't quite find the common denominator that might tease out these productions they were attending, other than a certain intellectual profile in the content of the productions, but not exclusively: John Proctor, Liberation, Oedipus, and - wait for it - Bat Boy, oddly enough (but I've found the City Center audiences consistently well-behaved). I was also with an out-of-town guest in a rowdy tourist house for Moulin Rouge, but the audience wasn't so much poorly-behaved as ill-informed about protocols.

I have complained bitterly over the years about the misuse of devices - at the LCT King and I on Easter Sunday, the audience simply refused to put away phones, the palpable sense of entitlement overrode any announced restrictions. And I always come back to that: a percentage of people feel the high prices and the "event" status of performances entitle them to seek real time souvenirs.

As armchair sociologist, I'll just opine that some corrupted more in the culture has anointed these phones we covet with supremacy over foundational etiquette. I've heard people explain why a phone left on and face down in a lap - checked every 10-minutes, that flash of light ever annoying - is perfectly acceptable because dire news is expected. Everyone has a "good" reason, from "my geriatric father is traveling alone by plane" to "I'm awaiting biopsy results." When you remind these privileged folks that connections can be made at intermission, they haughtily insist that won't do. I think of Carrie Fisher's famous line, "instant gratification isn't fast enough." To me, it sums up this egregious dependence on alerts arriving in our dark laps

Updated On: 3/24/26 at 08:59 AM

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 3/24/26 at 10:53am

Auggie27 said: "I've seen some of the best behaved audiences in the last 18 months or so, and can't quite find the common denominator that might tease out these productions they were attending, other than a certain intellectual profile in the content of the productions, but not exclusively:John Proctor, Liberation, Oedipus, and - wait for it -Bat Boy, oddly enough (but I've found the City Center audiences consistently well-behaved). I was also with an out-of-town guest in a rowdy tourist house for Moulin Rouge, but the audience wasn't so much poorly-behaved as ill-informed about protocols.

I have complained bitterly over the years about the misuse of devices - at the LCTKing and I on Easter Sunday, the audience simply refused to put away phones, the palpable sense of entitlement overrode any announced restrictions. And I always come back to that: a percentage of people feel the high prices and the "event" status of performances entitle them to seek real time souvenirs.

As armchair sociologist, I'll just opine thatsome corrupted morein the culture has anointed these phones we covet with supremacy over foundational etiquette. I've heard people explain why a phone left on and face down in a lap - checked every 10-minutes, that flash of light ever annoying - is perfectly acceptable because dire news is expected. Everyone has a "good" reason, from "my geriatric father is traveling alone by plane" to "I'm awaiting biopsy results." When you remind these privileged folks that connections can be made at intermission, they haughtily insist that won't do. I think of Carrie Fisher's famous line, "instant gratification isn't fast enough." To me, it sums up this egregious dependence on alerts arriving in our dark laps"

Excellent post and I will make a couple of comments. First, people should try and understand it is better to actually enjoy the moment instead of worrying about recording the moment. If you are really worried about your elderly father traveling alone, maybe you should not be at a Broadway show and be with him. If medical results are that important maybe you should have waited for another time to see a show.

There are plenty of entertainment events that you can take pictures and record them. Sporting events don't care about you taking pictures as long as you are not bringing in a professional camera with big lens. Most concerts don't care about this either, there is a reason there is all those youtube clips of concerts. If a concert is in a pretty small venue than an artist may have a no camera policy. My point is there are times you can record things so if a Broadway show tells you not to do it, buck it up and obey the rules.

[witchoftheeast2]

Posted: 3/26/26 at 11:51am

This article about getting involved at the theater does not help at all. It seems to encourage audience participation and no where does it mention also behaving when not in a theater that would encourage it. 

Is audience behavior just up to individuals now and if you're not yelling or calling back at actors, you're a "dead" audience and not enjoying it appropriately? I'm tired. 

Updated On: 3/26/26 at 11:51 AM

[99pandas]

Posted: 3/26/26 at 1:04pm

witchoftheeast2 said: "This articleabout getting involved at the theaterdoes not help at all. It seems to encourage audience participation and no where does it mention also behaving when not in a theater that would encourage it.

Is audience behavior just up to individuals now and if you're not yelling or calling back at actors, you're a "dead" audience and not enjoying it appropriately? I'm tired."

Jumping over from the Dog Day Afternoon preview thread where I was questioning if there are audience plants to get the Attica chant going  --- it got me thinking that yes, perhaps, productions that call for and encourage audience participation may be muddling the waters and ultimately doing a disservice to other shows and productions where these call outs would be looked down upon. 

[carlisle14]

Posted: 3/26/26 at 2:57pm

Unclear if it was accidental or a focused step in noise reduction from the crowd, but they moved away from noisy bags of popcorn to the quieter thin cardboard boxes.  Likewise, they added soft pretzels to the offerings, which is much more quiet than the bags of chips that seems to be constantly crackling at the start of Act 2 at most shows.  It still amazes me that the audience can't hold off from housing 3,000 calories over the course of a 120 min show, but it is what it is ... and the theaters love selling those 25 cent pretzels for $9.99 plus tip. 

I might pay extra for a NO DISTRACTIONS seating zone.... food, drink, talking, phones, and small kids are banned from an area where an usher is there to really zone in on defense.  I'd pay a few bucks more to NOT have to hear Uncle Stewie chomping on handfuls of popcorn like a horse chowing on the farmer's hay.  

[witchoftheeast2]

Posted: 3/26/26 at 3:22pm

99pandas said: "witchoftheeast2 said: "This articleabout getting involved at the theaterdoes not help at all. It seems to encourage audience participation and no where does it mention also behaving when not in a theater that would encourage it.

Is audience behavior just up to individuals now and if you're not yelling or calling back at actors, you're a "dead" audience and not enjoying it appropriately? I'm tired."

Jumping over from the Dog Day Afternoon preview thread where I was questioning if there are audience plants to get theAttica chant going --- it got me thinking that yes, perhaps, productions that call for and encourage audience participation may be muddling the waters and ultimately doing a disservice to other shows and productions where these call outs would be looked down upon."

It's certainly not helpful in any way. They need to be more strict about enforcing decorum- to a certain extent, it may be difficult at Rocky Horror to tell people to control themselves. But other productions are not Rocky and people need to know that. They need an insert in the playbill, an announcement over the god mic before the show, a notice before you buy tickets about how to behave at the theater

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/30/26 at 9:13pm

If I had been playing Bad Audience Bingo at tonight’s THE FEAR OF 13, I would’ve struck gold. 
 
Cell phones ringing. Cell phones vibrating. Alarms going off. Hearing aid feedback. People talking to each other. People talking to the stage. People on their Apple Watches. People checking their phones. Someone front row center getting up mid show. Late arrivals. Drinks spilling. Candy wrappers. People fanning themselves with their Playbills. Bags unzipping. Coats being taken on and off. Coughing fits. Sneezing fits. 

At a certain point, I literally just had to laugh it off, but that was an all-timer experience for me. 

Updated On: 5/1/26 at 09:13 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/30/26 at 10:04pm

That is very weird to hear because the night I went in previews, the ushers and their flashlights were stationed like snipers in the boxes ready to pounce. (I was in a box next to one)

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 9:36am

quizking101 said: "That is very weird to hear because the night I went in previews, the ushers and their flashlights were stationed like snipers in the boxes ready to pounce. (I was in a box next to one)"

Oh, they were there - just not doing much.  I saw one of them finally get up after the woman next to me messed with her phone and watch (both on full brightness) for at least two minutes, but by time they got to my area, she had put the phone away.

It was so bad that I couldn't even say anything to the audience member(s) myself - I would've been speaking to the ENTIRE swath of people around me like a crazy person. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 10:32am

Horrible! Did you have any of those people who flip through the Playbill every five minutes during the show?

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 11:14am

WiCkEDrOcKS said: "Coughing fits. Sneezing fits."

Your experience sounds awful, and you shouldn't have had to put up with that! That being said, do these last two really constitute bad behavior? Sometimes coughing and sneezing happens - sometimes a lot of it, sometimes out of the blue - and it's beyond your control. If you were at a party or a restaurant you might excuse yourself and work it out in a restroom, but in a theater the incident would probably be over before you got there, and in the meantime you would have created an even bigger disturbance.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 11:30am

Totally realize sneezing/coughing fits are generally out of the audience members' control.  It was just my 13th reason in this specific scenario LOL.

And yep, TotallyEffed. Tons of rifling through Playbills too. 

[merle57]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 2:26pm

Broadway musical audiences have devolved into rock concert audiences in terms of behavior -- cell phones, eating snacks with wrappers, talking loudly, singing along, bouncing around to the beat. We live in different times where listening and concentrating are no longer valued skills except at plays like Salesman, or Good Night Good Luck or Othello .... movie audiences are no better. 

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 4:43pm

The other night at a show, I arrive to my seat to find a woman sitting in it.  No big deal, folks make mistakes all the time.  When the usher moved her to the next seat, her correct seat, I smiled a friendly hello and then this woman gave me daggers with her eyes. Okay fine, she wasn't friendly.   Then, in then maybe 20 min she whips out her phone and starts filming it.  I was SO annoyed that one she would do that (especially when there was an announcement made at the start of the show - and it's just so rude).  When she whipped out her phone again, in the second row, I was like is this woman just nuts or rude or what?   There was a blackout for a scene change and I said loudly "you might want to put that phone away or they'll kick you out". At the end of the play, she once again whipped out her phone.  My impulse was to grab the phone from her but obviously can't do that so I was secretly hoping an usher or cast member might say something. 

What would you do in this case?  

[joevitus]

Posted: 5/1/26 at 5:36pm

VernonGersch said: "The other night at a show, I arrive to my seat to find a woman sitting in it. No big deal, folks make mistakes all the time. When the usher moved her to the next seat, her correct seat, I smiled a friendly hello and then this woman gave me daggers with her eyes. Okay fine, she wasn't friendly. Then, in then maybe 20 min she whips out her phone and starts filming it. I was SO annoyed that one she would do that (especially when there was an announcement made at the start of the show - and it's just so rude). When she whipped out her phone again, in the second row, I was like is this woman just nuts or rude or what? There was a blackout for a scene change and I said loudly "you might want to put that phone away or they'll kick you out". At the end of the play, she once again whipped out her phone. My impulse was to grab the phone from her but obviously can't do that so I was secretly hoping an usher or cast member might say something.

What would you do in this case?"

While I simply can't find it in me to condem people for filming shows, no matter how wrong it is (I get to see a sizable chunk of Follies, all of the original Nine and key moments of other shows because someone once illegally filmed them), if I were looking for a way to respond to this, I have a fantasy of putting my hand out between the phone and the stage so she couldn't film anything other than my palm. I'd move my hand everytime she moved her camera, and hope this would be so visible throughout the audience that she was either shamed into stopping (because everyone could see what she was doing) or it caught the attention of the ushers. I would not actually touch her physical property.