Worst Broadway Audience Ever?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 3:34pm

I've only seen one Broadway show in my life (Only been to New York once) and the audience was great, to my memory (I was nine, after all...). However, have you ever had a truly terrible audience? Like people talking loudly or a screaming kid or something?

SPIIIIILL!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 3:38pm

Disney audiences tend to include mostly tourists with cameras and kids and babies. They take pictures before, during and after the show inside the theatre, and the house staff does nothing about it. I had the same experience at GREASE this past week. Plus, the kids shuffle around, and the parents talk loudly to the kids, which is frustrating.

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 03:38 PM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 3:56pm

Have you ever been in a show where the actors had to break character to tell the person to be quiet?

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 3:57pm

I sat next to some huge B!T@H from Long Island for Thoroughly Modern Millie- she was talking during the ENTIRE first act. During "Forget About the Boy" she asked her friend "What's the name of this show again?" to which i turned to her and told her to shut up....that pretty much did the trick.:)

On the other side of that spectrum...I saw a matinee of Chicago a few years ago and the house was about 40% full and sat on their hands the whole show. It was a big downer and I couldn't wait to leave the theatre. Bad experience of a great show.

[TapTapTapioca]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:01pm

When I saw The History Boys Richard Griffith told a man to turn of his cell.

[BroadwayDream1012]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:08pm

Not a Broadway audience but...
in February, one of the times I saw Wicked in Chicago, the audience didn't seem to be happy AT ALL! Their applause was extremeley quite, and after Loathing my mom screamed because she loves when Erin & Dee sing it, (don't ask, I can't figure it out), but everyone in her row looked at her. Anyway, as far as I remember, I think at curtain call, half the audience was standing and the other half were still in their seats.

[Producer2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:24pm

The first class trip I ever took with my class was to see Annie with Nell Carter. Besides the show being awful, the audience was horrible. I know they had trouble with keeping the audience's attention early in the run which is why they cut the "Herbert Hoover" number and the snipit in the overture to make the show shorter. My class was perfectly behaved and quiet- I'm not just saying that- I had fifteen private school children all dressed up and absolutely presentable. I had given them the being a good audience speech before hand as well as a lecture on how they are representing our school and how their behavior was a reflection of me.
The young and old audience during the show was rowdy and noisy and the sound that you heard more than anything was the unwrapping of candy, chocolate bars, popcorn eating and soda slurping which was available in the lobby. When Daddy Warbucks and Annie broke into "Something Was Missing," I said to myself, they've completely lost the audience. What a mess! What chaos. Nell was horrible and so was the song they wrote for her. Conrad Schuck was Daddy yet his performance at MSG this year was much better! Thank goodness I didn't pay for my ticket! I wish some of my students had a better first Broadway experience after all my hype.

[srgr8]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:28pm

Foster,
I have had a similar experience. When I saw Mary Poppins, I had a kid sitting behind me kicking my seat throughout the entire first act. He kept asking his parents questions in the middle of the show at a regular voice level. His parents responded in the same manner, and he sang along to Bert's Chim-Chim-Cheree like nobody's business

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:38pm

What really upsets me is audience discrimination. I remember during 70 Girls, 70 at Encores, the second my friend and I sat down, these very old women in front of us began scowling. Noticeably. The show began, and after one number, DURING the applause, I turned to my friend and spoke for the first time during the performance, quietly whispering just, "Omigosh, that was amazing." Two of the women turned out and SCREAMED very nastily, "Can you PLEASE keep it down, CHILDREN?!" It was horrifying and really upset me since I was very excited to see the show, and was not being disrespectful in any way. (Also, I am sure a college student is not a child.)

One of the worst examples of bad audience behavior I've experienced was during a performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, when a man answered his cell phone and spoke on it loudly, four separate times.

[marilynrita]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:06pm

I hate going to shows with groupies. It really puts me off to have people screaming in my ear. or even better when i saw taboo the people in the front row (in their homemade taboo tshirts and crazy makeup) were TALKING to the people onstage. "you rock, raul. whoooo!!!" "yes euan you are awesome!!" it really makes people NOT enjoy the show when people are SCREAMING after every song.

[srgr8]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:08pm

marilynrita - i know what you mean. i'm not sure of your interest (or lack thereof) in GREASE, but if you ever see it just know that the screaming after every song (and with every entrance of max and laura) is there. That was an interesting audience experience to say the least...

[HeidiPuck]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:09pm

I was at 'an oak tree' when someone's cell phone rang...and kept ringing. Tim Crouch (actor, writer, director of the play) stopped, stared right at the woman and said "It's okay, we can wait". I've never seen anybody quite so mortified before in my life - it was fantastic.

[Anakela]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:20pm

Has anyone ever been at a show where someone's been kicked out? Or 'gently escorted out of the building,' or whatever?

I haven't, but I am sure it has happened before, and what with all of the people continuing to let their cell phones ring, people talking back to those onstage, actors having to stop the show, etc. and those audience members being allowed to just sit on through, I was just wondering what someone would have to do in order to actually get kicked out of a show?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:25pm

yes, my high school. i was in anything goes and right before billy was about to sing "all though the night", someone shouted "F*CK YOU, N***A!" the music director stopped the show and personally escorted him out.

[vfd88]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:26pm

I was at A Chorus Line, and for half of the show whenever the character Val spoke or her name was called, this group of about 10 girls in the mezz would scream "Ya Val!" and cheer. I can understand this during applause, but in the middle of a song, it's distracting.

[BwayBoy25]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 5:27pm

people coming right off the street with shopping bags into an evening performance of 'The Lion King'

[Over the Moon]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 6:42pm

Not Broadway but when i saw the tour of Chicago in Chicago 2 years ago with Paige Davis...Roxie has a line before the song "Roxie" were she holds up a paper and says "Roxie Rocks Chicago!" and she looks back expecting something from the audience and they sat there so i "wooted" and she smiled and said they love me and then the audiunce laughed >_< after the show when i met her we had a laugh about it

[Rotel1026]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:09pm

I was just in NYC and saw 10 shows in 7 days. I actually was surprised at how wellthe audiences are behaved considering some of the things I have read on here. I got through the whole week without any phones ringing. There were people at Beauty and the Beast taking pictures usinga camera phone, also the kid behind us kept talking very loudly, which I can excuse but the fact that his grandmother kept talking back to him the whole time, never once whispering or even telling him to talk quietly was very aggravating. I made a comment but I don't think she heard it. Also, and I think this is more of an issue with jukebox musicals, but at Jersey Boys, there were a lot of people singing along to the songs. Also a good deal of talking and I have never seen so many people still getting to their seats after intermission is over. The only other show I've experienced so much singing along from the audience was at Mamma Mia.

[Yankgrl46]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:12pm

One of my worst experiences happened last month at Phantom. This French couple arrived about 15 minutes into the show. Then proceeded to snap their gum like a bunch of cows, while taking pictures several times during the first act. If that were not bad enough, the young lady kicked my seat the entire first act despite my dirty looks. During intermission, they both wanted to look and see the orchaestra the pit (which I completely understand) but instead of asking us nicely to let them through they trampled over everyone in the first row (including Yankees/Mets player Al Leiter), and even knocked over an elderly lady in the process. Finally my brother went off on the two of them and they limited ther 2nd Act activities to chomping on a bag of chips.

It wasn't the worst audience as a whole, but was personally my worst audience experience in my life.
Updated On: 7/29/07 at 07:12 PM

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:18pm

Cruel, in response to your "actor stopping the show" question, I saw Equus in London, and Richard Griffiths, just as he was wont to do here in New York during the History Boys, simply stopped speaking when someone's cell phone went off. It rang and rang, and he just refused to speak and stared at the offender for several minutes. When it stopped, he resumed speaking. Daniel Radcliffe didn't look out at the audience; he stayed in character.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:20pm

Cruel, I wasn't there, but at a show of Sweeney Todd, someone's cell phone kept ringing and Patti told them to "answer it already".

ETA: Here's the thread.

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 07:20 PM

[winston89]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:21pm

I have two good ones

While back I saw Rent. There was this group of people from the south and during intermission there was laughter from them talking about how Rent had too much "gay ****" and how it was what young people were into. They started to smoke and I tried to tell them ( only because they were loud and annoying otherwise I wouldn't be a dick about this) that they were breaking the law by smoking in the theatre. They couldn't care les about that and thought that I didn't know the rules because I was young ( I was sixteen at the time) Then during act two they arrive late and were forced to stand in the back for a bit. While they were standing one of the guys phones rings and he asnwers it loudly not caring where he was or who was around him. The ushers kicked him out of the theatre.

During the same preformance I was in standing room and one guy during the middle of act two who was german asked me for the exit I pointed to where it was. Then also during intermisson these two french girls asked me where the bathroom was so I told them.

I felt that the preformacnes of Rent was like a meeting at the UN.

And, during a preformance of Croam Boy I was quitly looking through my playbill trying to figure out who on of the actors on stage was. This old guy turns to me in the process and yells at me " why are you doing this you can't read this in the theatre its too dark."

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:27pm

While ushering I've also had some real winners, between the people who try to walk out the emergency exit doors during the show (why would you go through that door when you didn't come in that way?) and the gentleman who photographed his family, and then, when I told him photography unfortunately wasn't allowed in the theatre, proceeded to heartily slap me on the back and condescendingly say, "Juuuuust takin' a picture of the family." Also had some awful women today - I was getting some more Playbills and told them that my fellow usher would help them in the meantime, and I was met with nasty looks and, "What, are you in charge of ANOTHER section?" I said, "No, I'm just telling you to see that gentlemen over there." They, of course, looked outraged. B*tches. God forbid they should wait an extra minute.

[vfd88]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:29pm

ShbrtAlley44 - In which theatre do you work?

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:35pm

Various.