Why do theaters sell twizzlers and other noisy snacks- Page 2

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 6:14pm

Coco Peru shares our sentiments. This should be played before curtain at every theatre. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3B15nNtyFg

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 8:08pm

Bettyboy72 said: "Coco Peru shares our sentiments. This should be played before curtain at every theatre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3B15nNtyFg"

Wow!  This truly brought tears towards the end.  What a beautiful addressing of the issue of theater etiquette.  LuPone would post this on social media if she could.  She’s always vocal about the exact same things mentioned on this video and on this thread.  

 

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 10:34pm

As someone who has been sick the past month and have a terrible cough from it I open my cough drops in my pocket if I need one during the show. I also like having a bottle of water too in case I start coughing. If I need to eat something I will do so at intermission.

[jagman1062]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 10:35pm

I agree with many of the posters in this thread.  I also grew up at a time when eating or drinking in the theater was non-existent, except for the bar in the lounge during intermission or pre- or post-show.  The eating of snacks and drinking during a performance cheapens the theater experience for me.  It's annoying, especially as matinees are performed after lunch time (eat a good meal!) and evening shows are performed after dinner (eat a meal!).  I realize that people coming in NYC from the suburbs are more challenged on weeknights as many shows moved up the performance times from 8 pm to 7 pm, giving people coming from work and fighting traffic or relying on mass transit less time to grab a bite before show time, so I suppose that's a factor to consider these days.  The people who bring snacks to the theater are super annoying. A took my nephew to see the revival of Grease in 2008 and a family with small children, who were a bit young for the themes of the show, broke out the Ritz crackers and passed the sleeves back and forth among them.  I was in theater hell.  Even my young nephew said it was annoying.  When Broadway became a tourist attraction and lost the snob factor once associated it, we've become open to all types of behaviors that make attending the theater less enjoyable.  It's the world we live in today - sadly.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 11:00pm

1 word. MONEY

[primadonnagirl]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:36am

I mostly agree. The live theater is NOT the same as a movie, and shouldn't be treated as such. But, when I saw Mean Girls I was pretty sick, and I to lean on my friend the whole show to keep from passing out. If I hadn't gotten a drink during intermission I probably would have passed out. Snacks definitely shouldn't be sold, but I think non-iced drinks are fine. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:49am

I am HAPPY for theatre to lose its snob factor — theatregoers are more than happy to wrap their gatekeeping into all sorts of artificial rules — but I'm also happy when producers don't feel they need to sell concessions to keep people occupied.

[BroadwayMarley]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:52am

Agreed!  I have no problem with drinks without ice and water in cups rather than noisy plastic bottles.  Also, quiet snacks are fine - especially unwrapped cough drops since coughing can be as annoying as snack noise.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 12:23pm

What's the point of them telling us at the start of the show to open any cough drop wrappers when it takes approximately 30 minutes after intermission to eat one small package of M&M's? What I don't get is down the street in any direction of a theatre there's a CVS or Duane Reade they have candy in small boxes which would make so much more sense. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 12:31pm

Also, cheaper.

What seems to be hard to follow is: Unwrap your candies/cough drops and hold them in your hand in act 1. Don't eat anything in act 2. (Finish it at intermission!)

Or just open all your M&Ms and put them in your pocket. One that isn't going to be heated enough to make a mess.

[Mark Waltz]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 12:34pm

People aren't just buying food at the snack bar. They are sneaking it in. I went to see "Greater Clements" at the Mitzi Newhouse where they literally checked your bags very thoroughly, and somehow, a young female got a paper bag of Fried Chicken through. In the second of the very long three acts, she pulled it out, making the smell obvious throughout the theater, and then crunched down on the coating not too discretely. I had dealt with the twizzler plastic bag cruncher behind me in the first act, and now had to deal with this. It seems every show I go to, there is one person either next to me or behind or in front doing similar things. I had heard Harvey Fierstein talking about a large party passing around a roasted chicken in the front row of one of his shows, but never thought I would experience something so tacky. I posted this a few weeks ago on the "Bad Behavior" thread, but it is worth repeating.

 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 12:47pm

mailhandler777 said: "As someone who has been sick the past month and have a terrible cough from it I open my cough drops in my pocket if I need one during the show. I also like having a bottle of water too in case I start coughing. If I need to eat something I will do so at intermission."

Here's a wacky idea -- if you're sick to the point of hacking up a lung, then maybe DON'T GO to the theatre until you're well??  Not only is your coughing annoying to everyone, you're also spreading your germs around. 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 2:08pm

All this annoying audience noise has been going on for YEARS before the theatres started selling overpriced snack and sippy cups.  All the yesteryear nostalgia of how life in the GOLDEN AGE was perfection and all the complaining about the theatres' policies and practices won't change a thing.  Theatres can ban all food and beverage from inside the theatre and it will still happen.  The problem is the self-centered ignorant morons in the audience who either 1) don't realize how annoying they are because they are dumb as rocks or 2) they do not care because they are borderline sociopaths.  If it's not food, it's cell phones.  If it's not cell phones, it's talking.  If it is distracting you, do something about it (say something to the offender or get an usher).  If you don't do something about it, then learn to live with it.  It's never ever going to change.  The person who breaks out an entire chicken dinner in their seat and chows down?  It's not because they learned it was acceptable by looking around and seeing everyone else do it.  They wanted to do it and they learned that nobody will stop them from doing so.

[magictodo123]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 3:50pm

Mark Waltz said: "People aren't just buying food at the snack bar. They are sneaking it in. I went to see "Greater Clements" at the Mitzi Newhouse where they literally checked your bags very thoroughly, and somehow, a young female got a paper bag of Fried Chicken through. In the second of the very long three acts, she pulled it out, making the smell obvious throughout the theater, and then crunched down on the coating not too discretely. I had dealt with the twizzler plastic bag cruncher behind me in the first act, and now had to deal with this. It seems every show I go to, there is one person either next to me or behind or in front doing similar things. I had heard Harvey Fierstein talking about a large party passing around a roasted chicken in the front row of one of his shows, but never thought I would experience something so tacky. I posted this a few weeks ago on the "Bad Behavior" thread, but it is worth repeating.

"

CHICKEN???! What...I just....I'm speechless.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 5:17pm

Mr. Matt nailed it -lol

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 6:02pm

yankeefan7 said: "Mr. Matt nailed it -lol"


Yes but it starts from the top down. I’m sure the Golden Age wasn’t perfect, but you were more in the minority if you were engaging in annoying behavior. Now it’s as if you’re in the wrong if you expect unbroken silence during a show. This is now a pipe dream. I’ve actually lowered my expectations of others in a theatre in order to decrease my blood pressure. Many people are so ignorant and self centered  

It’s clear there’s a faction of people that feel like Jeremy O Harris and believe theatre should be like a club show-texting, conversation, singing, making noises when the spirit moves you. Younger folks it seems, but some older folks too.

However, contrary to what Mister Matt said speaking up doesn’t always do anything. Ignorant people are 
reticent to feel they have done anything wrong. I’ve asked people to quiet down and had expletives hurled at me and been threatened. I asked a woman to quiet her children talking at full volume and she told an usher I was harassing her. Luckily another audience member spoke up. 
 

I told an usher that the woman next to me was eating Chinese food from a styrofoam container during a play and when confronted she pointed to the people eating chips, popcorn and candy and said “but they’re eating.” The ushers left her to consume her take out. She won. 
 

I don’t want everyone to adhere to theatre rules made by old white people but I would like people to think about how they impact others. I’d never eat takeout next to someone in a theatre, on a plane, etc. it’s gross. I’d never pull out a lighted phone in a dark performance space because I know lights pull the eyes of other audience members and actors. It’s imposing a distraction on others. 
 

If you’re in an empty theatre or in your own row I don’t care as much what you do. 
 

Nothing will change unless a theatre decides to enforce it. There are movie theatres (mostly indie film chains) and some live theatres that take it seriously and have a zero tolerance for nonsense. 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 6:24pm

How do Twizzlers make noise?

Rice Lrispies make noise, but Twizzlers?

Updated On: 12/9/19 at 06:24 PM

[markypoo]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 8:15pm

Call_me_jorge said: "I was in a show once where during intermission they sold pop rocks, and well... you can see where this goes.
I will say I’m not, not guilty of this. I get really anxious really quick and sitting down for two hours boils up my nerves and if I didn’t get some kind of snack I would be bouncing off the walls. It just gives me something to do and helps me stay focused. I try to be quiet about, though"

You poor little thing.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/9/19 at 9:09pm

Dollypop said: "How do Twizzlers make noise?

Rice Lrispies make noise, but Twizzlers?"

The packaging

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 7:34am

JSquared2 said: "mailhandler777 said: "As someone who has been sick the past month and have a terrible cough from it I open my cough drops in my pocket if I need one during the show. I also like having a bottle of water too in case I start coughing. If I need to eat something I will do so at intermission."

Here's a wacky idea -- if you're sick to the point of hacking up a lung, then maybe DON'T GO to the theatre until you're well?? Not only is your coughing annoying to everyone, you're also spreading your germs around."

Maybe I bought tickets months in advance. I bought my Jagged Little Pill tickets back in May. I had no clue I would be sick in Nov/Dec when the show opened. Also I'm not hacking up a lung. 

[markypoo]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 11:06am

Mark Waltz said: "People aren't just buying food at the snack bar. They are sneaking it in. I went to see "Greater Clements" at the Mitzi Newhouse where they literally checked your bags very thoroughly, and somehow, a young female got a paper bag of Fried Chicken through. In the second of the very long three acts, she pulled it out, making the smell obvious throughout the theater, and then crunched down on the coating not too discretely. I had dealt with the twizzler plastic bag cruncher behind me in the first act, and now had to deal with this. It seems every show I go to, there is one person either next to me or behind or in front doing similar things. I had heard Harvey Fierstein talking about a large party passing around a roasted chicken in the front row of one of his shows, but never thought I would experience something so tacky. I posted this a few weeks ago on the "Bad Behavior" thread, but it is worth repeating.

"There's another way of looking at it.

Which would you rather experience: the smell of fried chicken, or someone's repulsive fart?

 

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 4:02pm

I tend to attract those 'crinkling' their empty water bottles....

 

SMDH - how hard is it to just leave it alone!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 4:06pm

Or bring your own hard-sided bottle.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 4:42pm

I think Mr Matt summed it up pretty well.  What i don't get it that -- at least for stuff sold in the theatre -- the theatre owners do not even think about the majority of the audience when they sell these things.  When I was at the Marquis to see Tootsie, I was positively shocked to see that they were selling bags of potato chips.  Is it humanly possible to eat potato chips out of a bag and not make a lot of noise?

I can almost ignore it in a musical, but when it happens in a serious play, it takes you right out of the zone.

I guess I am going to come across as an elitist, but I believe this owes its origins to the number of people in the audience these days who are not really theatergoers, but who have become more prevalent with the increase of tourism, Disnification, and advent of shows that run decades and essentially become tourist attractions.  They do not have a clue what represents appropriate theatre decorum.  The problem is that those things also contribute to the general health of the theatre, no two ways about it.  So, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess we are going to have to put up with a lot of it.  (Note: I have to admit to kicking seats in front of me or within leg's reach when those people are exhibiting bad theatre behavior, turning around and staring people down, then shushing them, talking to managers at intermission, etc.  I shouldn't have to, however; and, particularly with intermission complaints, half the show is already over).  

One other thing...after seeing a pattern, I will only buy tickets for Monday -- Thursday performances.  I really do think they are a little saner...I think they tend to have a higher percentage of regular theatregoers than week-end performances.

 

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 12/10/19 at 5:33pm

Jarethan said: "I guess I am going to come across as an elitist, but I believe this owes its origins to the number of people in the audience these days who are not really theatergoers, but who have become more prevalent with the increase of tourism, Disnification, and advent of shows that run decades and essentially become tourist attractions. They do not have a clue what represents appropriate theatre decorum. The problem is that those things also contribute to the general health of the theatre, no two ways about it. So, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess we are going to have to put up with a lot of it. (Note: I have to admit to kicking seats in front ofme or within leg's reach when those people are exhibiting bad theatre behavior, turning around and staring people down, then shushing them, talking to managers at intermission, etc. I shouldn't have to, however; and, particularly with intermission complaints, half the show is already over).

 

Despite your shockingly disgusting comments about theater-goers, I don't think you're coming across as an "elitist".  A run-of-the mill jerk, yes, but not an elitist.