Why is leaving a show at intermission insulting? — Page 4

That feeling you get when, within the first ten minutes you realize the show is horrible and it's going to be a painful hour until intermission (Good Vibrations somehow comes to mind.)
Then intermission arrives and you push through the theater doors exclaiming "i'm free! i'm free!" Much like Michael Jackson leaving the courthouse yesterday.
But what do you do when you're held hostage by a show without an intermission?

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Updated On: 6/14/05 at 11:22 AM

I think it's rude to leave during the curtain call. I hate people who do that. I think it tells the performers that the last two hours of their sweat and effort meant nothing.

A lot of Tony voters leave shows at intermission. Some of them consider it a pain in their ass to have to see every show in a season even though they are seeing it for free.

Updated On: 6/14/05 at 01:01 PM

As an actor, it is disheartening to look out and see empty chairs in any event. To look out and see empty chairs where audience members once sat is heartbreaking. Is it my performance? Is it the show? Why are they leaving.....!??

Leaving at imtermission doesn't break any rules. It is not even bad etiquette, such as, say getting up and leaving during a show but it does play to an actor's natural insecurities.

But there are reasons an audience member may leave that have nothing to with the performance....family emergency, etc...

Last year, I had an hour and half or so to kill....I was in New York and needed to be in Richmond Virginia that night so I caught the first half of Patrick Stewart in The Caretaker. I didn't time to see the whole show, but I wanted to Stewart at least briefly. (and as for the first part of my post, I don't think Patrick Stewart gives a rat's posterior if I stay for his whole show, provided I sit down, shut up, turn my cell phone off and stay awake!)

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I forced myself to stay through "Aspects of Love" "Cats" and "Bedroom Farce" my 3 worst Broadway experiences. I do not think it is rude to leave at intermission, but surely it is rude to avoid curtin calls.

I only read the first few posts and HAD to say something.

I spent the money going in.
If I don't like what I see, I leave.
Intermission is the best time to do this.

It's NOT rude to the performers when you leave at intermission. It would be rude to sit there with your arms crossed throughout the entire second act.

No one is going backstage and telling the actors, "You suck, I'm leaving." THAT would be rude.

It's not rude to leave at intermission, it's rude to do it during the show in a manner that is disruptive.

I hate to say this, but all of you "touchy-feely" folks are never going to have a lasting career in show-biz if your feeling are hurt because someone walked out on a performance.

You can't ALWAYS be EVERYONE'S cup of tea.

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"I have yet to see a standing ovation on the continent (and these were productions of merit)"

I have seen standing ovations in the theatre in Germany, England, Scotland, Argentina and Spain.

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"common courtesy" doesn't work at an audition, and it's doesn't work here.


Thank you, NEXT

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It's just bad theatre edicate, think about it. If you were in a show that you worked really hard on for a long time. Would you really really want to come out for Act 2 and find half your audience. I wouldnt

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Apparently you didn't work hard enough on it, if half your audience leaves at intermission.

Proper etiquette is to suffer through the First Act even if you hate it ten minutes in, because it would be rude to leave before that and disturb other patrons and possibly the actors. Etiquette does NOT mean suffering through BOTH acts of a bad show, sitting there looking miserable and bored (if I were an actor, I'd prefer an empty seat to audience members giving me nasty looks).

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Updated On: 6/14/05 at 06:57 PM

It is rude no matter which way you look at it. Unfortunately, unless you are in the situation of being dumped half way through (theatre related or not), I can't express the feeling from experience.

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Speaking from the other side, from up on the stage, when someone leaves discreetly during an intermission, it isn't noticed. Believe it or not, when you are on the stage, you are not focusing one every memebr of the audience and taking ahead count. The idea that it insults the actors is inaccurate. We don't notice, unless of course, a mass exodus takes place at once.

I left at intermission of WE WILL ROCK YOU in London and never looked back.

I WISH I could have left during BROOKLYN, but that cursed intermission-free mess pained me until the end. Of course, the onstage clock on the wall, taunting me with it's painfully slow passage of the actual time, didn't help.

vb - I really wasn't delving, I was just responding to what you posted. That seems to be what's going on here - a discussion of the topic at hand. I didn't go any deeper than to respond to the thoughts you presented.