Worst Theatre Experience

What was your worst theatre experience (Dont just say "the show was horrible", Have more reasons) My example..

One(of the many times I saw it) Time during the 7 PM sunday show of Avenue Q my experience happend.
Two men (in there 20's or so) walked into the show about 10 or so minutes after it began. Im 99% sure they just came from a ending Yankee game as they had jerseys, hats, and were drunk.
So one of the men was seated right behind me and he felt it nessecary for the entire first act to complain about how stupid that show was and make comments about it. The worst was during "everyones a little bit racist" when princetons says "mexican bus boys should learn god damn english" the man shouted out "ITS TRUE" and then went on to tell his friend how its america not mexico.. But the whole show he kept (loudly) saying "You spent 70 dollars on this??"

At Intermission I look to the right of me (I dont use the arm rest so I didnt notice) the man had his foot on MY arm rest (I was in the aisle seat) and he was wearing a flip flop..I turn around to say somthing and notice him RIGHT behind me with his head leaning on my chair. I didnt know what to do so I pushed his foot off of my arm rest. That I guess startled him and woke him up. He then continued to talk to his friend about how stupid the show was.

Act 2 started and during "there is life outside your apartment" I guess he finally "had enough" of the show and stood up and told his friend he was leaving. He stood in the middle of the aisle and asked his friend if he was coming and the 2 just walked out.

It completly ruined the show for me that day and I was glad I had seen it other times before that because that would have turned me off the show completly.

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In the early 2000's when cell phones first started to really take off, I was at Miss Saigon when this woman's cell phone went off. So the show begins the overture starts and this woman is talking loudly on her phone, "yeah, I'm at some show on Broadway." I don't know how the people with her weren't annoyed. I walked over to her and asked her to get off her phone. She ignored me. I got an usher. He walked backed with me to speak to this woman. Before getting off the phone, the woman sighed and said, "I have to go. Someone (rhymes with) witch just got me into trouble." She turned around and glared at me the entire first act off and on. During intermission she then left. It was the most annoying experience that I have ever had.

I agree, there are mezzanines/balconies (New Amsterdam, for example) that if a person is leaning forward you can't see anything, they block your view completely.

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People who lean forward are the devil. I mean, you may be having trouble seeing, but it shows no consideration whatsoever for the people behind you if you put your comfort and ability to see above those of EVERYONE BEHIND YOU. I was in a restricted view seat once. Could only see about half the stage. The woman in front of me, also in restricted view, leaned forward, and lo! I couldn't see ANYTHING, and she got really pissy when I asked her to lean back. Luckily, the ushers were kind enough not to notice when I reassigned myself a decent seat at the interval, and I saw the second half just fine. I hope the nasty leany woman continued to not enjoy her rubbish view.

You're only allowed to lean if there's no one behind you. If there's anyone behind you and you lean, you're a disgusting selfish person. And 6'2" fella, y'ever heard of slouching? No one wants you to sit up straight and tall, they just want to be able to see, and leaning isn't any more helpful to them than sitting up straight and tall. If you're THAT TALL that you know you will ALWAYS block someone else's view, then don't you think it's your responsibility to consider that when booking your ticket? There's back rows, boxes, aisle seats, all sorts of places where being tall doesn't have to inhibit the enjoyment of those around you. If there's someone significantly shorter than me sitting behind me, I always make the effort to slouch as much as will enable us both to see as much of the stage as possible (first because it's the polite thing to do, and second because I don't want some irate mother coming at me in the interval for blocking precious Snotleigh's view XD). It's really not rocket science, and if I'm not comfortable, I can always get up and walk around at the interval. Sitting uncomfortably for a couple of hours probably isn't going to cripple you.

Sorry, but leaners REALLY bug me. I'm rather more sympathetic towards tall people, because of course they can't really help it, but leaners CAN.

EDIT: it occurred to me that a great chunk of Broadway theatres only have the orchestra and the mezzanine. In the UK, a great majority of theatres have at least three levels, and quite a lot have four. For Broadway theatre-goers, it's only the mezzanine leaners that are problematic, and the mezzanine is no more than half the theatre. For West End theatre-goers, it's the same in that the leaners in the upper parts are the only really problematic ones, but completely different in that the upper parts comprise up to three-quarters of the theatre. More often than not, I'm up in the ramparts, and we have a lot more in the way of ramparts than you guys, so if you think I'm getting needlessly cross about this, please bear the maths in mind. My fury is not groundless or unnecessary, it comes from a LOT of bitter - I say BITTER - experience. ^_^

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Updated On: 9/19/09 at 04:37 AM

Spring Awakening-

-a young couple leaning into each other the whole show blocking my view and also making out, which was, uhm, distracting.

-two older ladies sitting next to me who had no idea what the show was about.

Need I say more?

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I'm tall, and a sloucher. Yea it's usually hell on my knees and back, but I figure it's just easier than being told to move alot.

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Worst recent experience was seating during West Side Story.

Ushers seat late comers (which are plentiful) at the start of each musical number. This meant feet clamoring through the theater and folks having to get up from the seats for the first 45 minutes at the start of every song right through Maria, Tonight and America.

When folks complained to the box office, we were told that since the show is sold out and there is no standing room at the Palace, that they have no recourse but to seat everyone no matter when they arrive.

I've got to side with everyone else who hates leaners. If you like to (or claim you have to) sit leaning forward, get a seat in the last row of the mezzanine or balcony. Then you can lean as much as you want. If you're sitting closer in the mezzanine and choose to lean forward, you're plain and simple rude and should expect to be told to sit back in your seat. Repeatedly if necessary. When I saw Equus, there was a guy in front of me who had been enough times the house staff all recognized him (this happened to be opening night, so I shudder to think how often he'd been during previews), yet he insisted on leaning forward constantly. I asked him to sit back. The person next to me asked him to sit back. Over and over. At intermission, I moved to a different seat where I didn't have to deal with him and overheard him complaining to an usher that he was being disturbed by people asking him to change positions and did actually hear the usher tell him that he needed to sit back in his seat because it did block the view of the people behind him (obviously she wasn't around to see him doing it during act 1 sadly). He didn't return to his seat after intermission, so I'm not sure where he went. Probably ruining someone else's experience of the play in another section where the usher was more lean-friendly. At least I was away from him.

As for the 6ft 2 guy, most mezzanines are raked enough that unless you have a small child behind you, the odds of you totally blocking the person behind you's view is very slim.

It really urks me when some people dont applaude after numbers.
Once during Wicked I sat next to a woman who did not clap ONCE during the entire show. After every number and applause she just sat there. As soon as curtain call started she walked out (We were in row cc which is extremly close to the stage). I can understand if you dont like a show but atleast have and show some respect to its performers who give their all every night.

Btw I feel the cort theatre has the WORST Mezzanine. When I saw your welcome america. I did not see a single thing unless Will went to the very back of the stage.

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Worst audience I have ever had to deal with was probably at a Saturday matinee of Coram Boy...I was towards the back of the orchestra and my two friends and I were probably the best-behaved people there and we were at least 3-4 decades younger than everybody else. The ladies behind us decided it would be a good idea to start having a loud conversation about 15 minutes before the end of the show and it was seriously the most annoying thing ever.

Also the last time I saw Next to Normal was Aaron's first back and there was a group of 4 people behind me in the mezz who hardly spoke English and kept asking each other what was going on, and it was nearly always during the quieter moments of the show. I shot them some dirty looks, and they were quieter during the 2nd act but it was really irritating.

You should have told the little girl the character's name was Mumu. That would've killed two birds with one stone.

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Just wait until people start claiming that the audience at The Color Purple, The Wiz and Raisin in the Sun were the "worst behaved ever"...

And we've been over the leaning issue multiple times with RentBoy and he ignores it every time. As long as he's comfortable, he doesn't care if he's creating a worst theatre experience for everyone else.

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It's not the entire audiences in those shows...


Just the loud folks.


I think TCP brought out a bunch of people who were used to sitting in front of their TV's and could yell whatever they wanted.

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