Worst Broadway Audience Ever? — Page 4

I went to see hairspray last wednesday and my friends sat in front of these stuck up obnoxious girls who were hitting on our councelor during the show and were calling us nasty things. They also were SCREAMING so loud after every number. I hate people who cant act politely at the theater.

A few years ago i want to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and this kid kept on making ridiculously loud noises so he got kicked out

Oh yea, after we were walking out of the ACL theatre when it was over there was trash ALL over the place! I was shocked! I mean I can see at a movie theatre, but a Broadway theatre? No. That made me mad. And if you have ever been to that theatre (don't remember which one) it's beautiful inside! The seats and carpet was a beautiful red, and people just leave their candy wrappers and soda cups on the floor. Man, doesn't anyone RESPECT the theatres anymore? To me that also means you are disrespecting the show and actors. I'm sure that happens all the time, but it just shouldn't.

Sometimes people just piss me off. It's a BROADWAY show!! Be honored and excited to get to see it. And most importantly RESPECT EVERYONES HARD WORK!! Grrr!

~Darci

Not at a Broadway show, but once at a local show, a 13 year old boy saw that there were no more seats left in that row. However, his obnoxious friend was sitting beside me, and this boy refused to sit anywhere else. So instead of politely asking me to move to the row in front, which had plenty of empty seats in it, what does this prepubescent child do? He sat down IN MY LAP.
I was like "What the hell are you doing? Get off of me!!" My sister was there too, and was just shocked. I literally had to push him off and tell him to find another seat, but he wouldn't listen. Instead, he just tried to shove me out of bed.

Then once at another show, two women with respiratory problems decided to sit next to me, and proceeded to wheeze, gasp, and have coughing fits through the entire performance. I could not even hear half of the play, because the woman sitting closest to me was literally choking and gagging right in my ear. They also talked incredibly loudly about the most ridiculous things!! In incredibly loud southern accent voices, they began an in-depth conversation about the one woman's motor home, and the other woman's 4th husband and pregnant 15 year old daughter, in the middle of the show!!!! I had to tell them to quiet down about 6 times.

Updated On: 8/2/07 at 12:50 AM

I don't think it's possible to top the story about the dead cat or being thrown up on, but here is my anecdote...

Back in the summer of 2000, I was in London seeing Starlight Express (thankfully, that was not the reason for being in London). The show was so ridiculously awful that literally the only thing I remember is the people behind us having a full-fledged conversation out loud during the second act and that no one cared. It was more entertaining to listen to ANYTHING besides what was happening onstage. Sometimes those audience interruptions can be a blessing.

Besides that, it seems that every show I see on Broadway there is that one person who has a bag that they decide that they need to rustle around in for a while like they are making a sandwich or something.

I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway last night. The ticket I was one of those "obstructed view" tickets and I was sitting behind a pole. Not a big one or anything, just a regular pole and it was in my face so I kept looking over at the seats on the ends and no one was sitting there so I moved during intermission. Some 12-13 year old girls had the same idea and they sat down in the row in front of me. Well there were some empty seats in front of them so they kept moving during the 2nd act. They were climbing over the seats. I wanted to bitch slap them.

I feel that almost every audience of every show is the worst one. It seems to be getting worse. My biggest pet peeve is when people get up and leave during the curtain call to try and beat the crowd. I feel it is a slap in the face to every performer on that stage, whether or not you liked the show. They have just spent 2 hours + trying to entertain you and the least a person can do is wait 2 minutes before leaving.

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At DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS with Jonathan Pryce as Lawrence at the Wednesday matinee over February break, about 10 cell phones rang. Finally Pryce turned to the audience and said "OH! It must be my agent! ...and if its not, then its not important."

My worst audience experience was in Chicago (the city, this isn't Broadway, obviously). Well, I was seeing Wicked, and as soon as the show started, some guy behind me whispered to the like four others he was with "do you want some chips??". The idiot had mother f**king DORITOS!! He ate them throughout the entire first act. Oh, and then some little kid CRIED when Dee rose up during Defying Gravity!

*Intermission*
I stepped on the bag of Doritos. The idiots had slid them under my seat because they left to go to the bathroom or whatever, well, I stood up to go talk to my friends who were two rows ahead of me. Because the bag was jumbo, I stepped on it and crushed half the Doritos.

*Act II*
During Act I, I sat next to this woman, who was really polite, etc. During the second half, I sat next to her husband. He was rather large. He kept making groaning noises saying things like "I'd rather be at the library." or "Let's leave." or my personal favorite "What in the hell does this have to do with the mother f**king Wizard of Oz?!". Well, the show ends. Is this the end of it? Heck no. The guy stood up for curtain call, and STOOD ON MY FOOT! I thought it was gonna break! I eventually got up, and then he like shifted over, and his foot was pressing on my jeans, so my pants are sliding down, I'm trying to stand up straight for curtain call. It was a MESS!! But, all in all the show was great. The audience in GENERAL was fine, but it was just those few people.

I also had a thing when I saw The Lion King in St. Louis. People kept taking flash photographs and talking LOUDLY.

Also, I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in St. Louis this past March. You'd think the older crowd would know how to behave in a theatre? Hell no. This lady in front of me, complained EVERYTIME they said something even REMOTELY inappropriate. She was like "I will pray for them." IT'S THEATRE.

And, my rant is over.

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EVERYTIME they said something even REMOTELY inappropriate. She was like "I will pray for them."

FinalDestination, This just made my day!!

Oh God....I have way too many stories about awful audience members to fit onto just one message board...It's not Broadway, but I worked Front of House at Second Stage for two years. So I had these kinds of problems about once a week at the very least.

There was the woman who showed up late and as she was being seated, strange barking sounds started coming out of nowhere and only then did anyone realize that she brought her dog to the theater. Naturally, she was shocked to hear she couldn't keep it in her purse...and that the box office would not do-gsit for her.

The older couple that was 20 minutes late for a show and in the process of trying to late seat them, they started yelling at me (loudly enough for the entire building to wonder what was going on) and then the man punched me on the arm. Don't worry, it didn't hurt, he was very old.

The droves of groupies (of all ages) that would show up to the theater to stalk Taye Diggs. I had to throw myself in between him and a pack of 40-something year old women to prevent them from jumping on his back. We also all had to sit through the high school girl screaming every time he walked onstage. One day, it was so bad that he had to break the fourth wall and gesture for them to settle down.

The packs of people who came to see The Scene, but only because they were OBSESSED with Tony Schaloub and Patricia Heaton. The play was not appropriate for children in any way, but they would cart their kids in and brush off warnings with excuses like "Oh but he loves Monk!" And then it would take hours and extra security to get the stars out of the building safely and the lobby clear after the show.

The woman who had to use the restroom in the middle of the show, but somehow managed to walk right past the bathrooms and find a darkened corner by our concessions to squat and pee in.

People with food (pound cakes wrapped in foil, fried chicken dinners, hamburgers, bottles of whisky, you name it) or cell phones (you still can't use it in the theater, even at intermission, walk the ten feet to the lobby if it's that important).

The woman whose Access-A-Ride showed up half an hour early. I asked him not to call your phone, as you were in the theater. He didn't listen. He called, your phone rang, you answered, you had a conversation. And then you walked slowly and loudly out of the theater.

The men who were late and pissed they couldn't get their seats that came out from fighting with the House Manager and decided to scream at me for "smirking" as I'm standing in the lobby with a dozen bloody towels wrapped around my hand, trying to figure out if I can stop the bleeding without leaving work. Yes, clearly I was thinking of you at that moment.

And finally, a special shoutout to anyone who ever felt the need to put on a big display about how much you disliked a show. Your opinion does matter, and it is my job to report back but throwing your coffee all over the lobby, or taking five minutes to rip up your tickets and sprinkle the shards all over the place, or giving me a 10-minute long, expletive-filled diatribe is not the way to communicate with me.

The woman who had to use the restroom in the middle of the show, but somehow managed to walk right past the bathrooms and find a darkened corner by our concessions to squat and pee in.

:O
I think that wins the thread.

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I have so many but here are a few of my favorite.
To start this off I have o say that I hate eating in the theater. Get your drinks and M&M's before the show or during intermission. I have no patience for the candy wrappers and crap like that. So this summer I took my mom to see A Chorus Line. There was a family sitting behind us and as soon as the show started the mom pulled out SUBWAY yeah FREAKING SUBWAY she starts loudly asking her children what kind of chips they ordered, so they got the chips all passed out and then came the subs, the mother was opening up all the subs trying to figure out which sub belonged to which person. So they get everything figured out about 10 minutes into the show. They then proceed to eat their subs during the first act loudly crinkling the paper subway wrappers. Oh I also forgot to mention that they had cans of coke that they were drinking throughout the performance.

I have many more but I think this was the worst for me.

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