Worst Broadway Audience Ever? — Page 7

Norah ~ As has been discussed on here before, applause can be cultural. There are some cultures where applauding during the performance is considered rude. Obviously you're not likely to have an entire audience made up of that type of person, but to assume that all people who don't applaud in the middle of a performance are "obviously aloof and disrespectful" is itself disrespectful.

---

Darling Norah ~ Actually I've attended plenty of shows and I do know what you mean about the energy. However, I was just pointing out that to brand EVERYONE who doesn't applaud like crazy rude or disrespectful isn't fair since you don't know everything about them. It could be for any number of reasons. I have been to plenty of shows, some where there is more applause than others. And sometimes it's OBVIOUSLY because the performers started things off, well, OFF. Yes, dear, even your beloved performers can have off nights, even with the BEST, MOST ATTENTIVE audience there is.

As for your assumption, no I do not "take from the performers throughout the entire show, without giving anything in return" as you say, but I am not quick to give a standing ovation. The performers have to earn that by doing more than just showing up. Even shows I have despised (*cough*The Seafarer*cough*) got applause ~ but not enthusiastic applause. It didn't move me and there was no connection. Ergo, I'm sorry, I'm not standing up. THAT is fraud and a lie.

eta ~ Have I ever had the occasion to be in a theatre where apparently everyone but me didn't want to be there? No. I'm sorry you apparently have had so many times. Have I been there where there are SOME people who obviously don't? Yeah ~ but I don't let it bother me unless they're making overly distracting noise. I don't let their lack of enjoyment (or attitude) affect my enjoyment of the show.

---

Updated On: 2/10/08 at 10:59 PM

Most of the audiences that I've been a part have have been good except for the random candy bar wrapper rustling or coughing(which I have to confess I had a coughing fit myself) but during Wicked there was a Spanish couple in back of me that were talking the whole time. During another Wicked performance there was a French couple in back of me talking the whole time. During another time of Wicked the man aside of me was sleeping and snoring almost the whole show. During Morrible's WICKED WITCH speech in Defying Gravity he almost jumped out of his skin when Carole Shelly said the WICKED WITCH part loudly. His wife hit him and said loudly "STAY AWAKE" It was kind of amusing and kind of annoying at the same time. LoL The best audience was The Little Mermaid in Jan of this year. The audience was mostly youngsters and they were the best behaved crowd I ever saw.

---

I sat in the grand circle (way upper balcony) when I saw Billy Elliot in London a few months ago, and the seats are admittedly quite cramped. Anyways, there was a couple sitting next to us and the girl was completely trashed. Throughout the entire show she was sucking on her boyfriend's neck, making inappropriate gushy comments the entire theater could hear, taking her shoes off. The thing that pissed me off the most though was when she put her bare, nasty feet on the top of the seat of the person in front of her. She decided to stick her feet in some stranger's ear for the entire second act because the seats were a little tight. The poor person couldn't even get up and complain to an usher during intermission. It was ridiculous.

I saw August: Osage County a few weeks ago, and sat next to a couple of these older women who loved the sound of their own voices. They talked through the entire show, loud enough so that I'm sure even the actors could hear them. Anyways, during curtain call, a group of people directly in front of me (and the two I was sitting next to) stood up early to give their favorite actor an ovation. The people next to me flipped out and told them to "sit down, they couldn't see, they're being rude," and it gave me immense pleasure to see everyone in that group ignore those two obnoxious ladies. One of the crazy ladies even reached out to the other patron and tried to grabbed her to get her to pay attention. I wanted to say something but thought it better to mind my own business.

---

You know the audience members that I hate, the ones who are uptight and think they have to police everything everyone does. I've seen them, they stop kids on the line to the bathroom ('You should really dress better for the theater') or if someone has candy from the bar ('I hope you don't plan on crinkling that all through the second act at your seat') I call them pre-emptive strikers. Well, I call them something else too, but...

I heard about once Terrence Mann in Rocky Horror had to tell a man "SHUT THE F*CK UP" when he was singing along with him.

---

rocky horror put downs are always good - david bedella was evil and brilliant on the UK tour recently.

and the Blue Man group also do a big latecomers song and dance thing, which I thought was genius.

for me, I think its just one more indication that large portions of society don't care about other people any more. from the singing along to the KFC munching and all the annoyances in between. Its not even so much not being used to being in a theatre - I'm sure they're the same people who behave badly on public transport, in the cinema, in restaurants...

i don't know - i think the cultural diversity thing is all well and good, but there's bringing a different perspective, and just being rude and ignorant. I think we all see the difference between someone coming to the theatre for the first time and getting little things 'wrong', and someone who doesn't give a crap.

Man do I hate tourists. There was a 'Why are you bashing tourists' thread a couple of months ago, and I had defended tourists and said that locals are worse but I take that back completely. Regular local theatre-goers are usually respectful.

Today at TLM, someone was rattling a plastic wrapper or bag through the entire Act 1 and most of Act 2. I couldn't see who it was. During intermission I went up to the usher, and she was nice but she didn't do anything about it. It was distracting as hell.

A phone went off.

People were trying to talk over the overture and entr'acte.

People kept getting up and going to the bathroom.

The talking kids was the least of the problems. In fact it didn't bug me at all. I found the little girl next to me endearing, but the rattling I could not handle. I don't know how they could allow all that noise and disruption. The worst audience I had ever witnessed in the 60 times I've been to the theatre this past year.

At that Cirque show Winterlust...or whatever it was called...last year I had the worst experience ever.

There was this four-year old Asian girl directly behind me and her family next to her. As soon as the event started the kicking began. Not just little tiny I'm-adjusting-in-my-seat kicking, kicking that literally thrust me forward in my seat. I turned around and asked her politely to stop it, and then realized she didn't speak English when she giggled and pointed at me.

The kicking didn't stop.

I finally turned around and said "Stop. It." in a manner that I was certain would break the cultural barrier. It did, and the girl immediately started crying loudly, and she refused to stop.

Her parents began to yell at her in Japanese, and when I say yell I mean at full volume, for at least three minutes, and every time someone else around them tried to "shush" them they would snap back in Japanese. At some point the father reached over and was about to put his hand over the girl's face, but she fought back and hit his drink out of his hand and spilled it all over my back.

Well, the girl snapped over from bawling to laughing and pointing at me in less than five seconds. The parents sat back, apparently thinking the laughing and pointing was less intrusive than her screaming and crying.

I finally lost it, got up and excused myself through twelve people (my seat was at the center of a section) because I could not take it anymore and demanded that something be done about them immediately. The ushers followed me back to my seat, only to find the father of the child threatening one of the surrounding people (who had obviously tried to shush the girl).

They were pulled out of the theater, the girl screaming aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back.

Has any-one ever experiences a slow clap?

---

This is a little embarrassing because it is a story about my own family being disrespectful in the theatre.

We went to see In The Heights last month, but first we had dinner at Angus. I was with my mother and my second cousin once removed (whom I'm very close to for such a distant relative). So, at dinner they decided to order a whole bottle of wine to split and towards the end of dinner my mom decided she didn't want to waste it, so they finished it off pretty quickly. By the time we got to the theatre they were pretty damn smashed. They were able to find their seats and what not, but the moment my mother got a look at the stage she turned to me and at full volume said "OH MY GOD! LOOK AT THE SET!" I then started having a conversation with a stranger in front of me. Somehow that happens every time I go to the theatre... But anyway, once the lights had actually gone down and just as Seth Stewart is heading out on stage, my mother turns to her cousin and says at full volume again "DID YOU SEE THE SET?!? LOOK AT THE SET!" I had to shove her and tell her in a very frustrated whisper that the show had started and she needed to shut up.

She stayed pretty quiet during the first act, occasionally turning to me and whispering "This is awesome" but not loud enough to really be disruptive.

Then, during intermission her cousin starts telling her some story about a canary she had once that her step son accidentally starved to death, and once the lights went down and act two started... she kept telling the story at a normal volume! There must have been ten people that shushed her before she finally quieted down. It was completely embarrassing.

---