so rude....and this is why sondheim shows don't do well :-((( — Page 3

You are SO right singingshow girl.... that post just made me so angry! How can people do that??!

to clarify exactly what i meant....i agree with everyone that sondheim is NOT for everyone. i happen to be a big sondheim fan, but i know that his shows can be difficult to sit through and understand sometimes because they are so obscure and the lyrics are fast and complicated...it's an opinion. everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so while i might think someone is crazy for not liking "Sunday..." someone else might think i'm crazy for not liking Rent (which i do not like).

but i feel that there is no secret about this, so people in a sense know what they are getting themselves involved in by buying tickets to one of these shows...or hopefully they do...and if it is your first time seeing or hearing one of these shows, you are going to need to think and pay closer attention than you might with some other light and fluffy musicals (and granted, sometimes you need those light and fluffy ones. i was in a light and fluffy show a couple of months ago at my college and people enjoyed it because you didn't have to think and it was just fun..those shows are good too!!)....so if someone presumably knows that going into a show, but then isn't willing to put the effort into it, then ugh them! i think sondheim shows don't do well because a lot of times people do not want to think and pay such close attention. they just want to be entertained....and i understand that because sometimes you just don't have the mental energy....

but regardless if the show is amazing or terrible, it's extremely rude to leave in the middle of a song.

Oh there is a plethora of reasons people leave a show and it's futile to try to guess why.

For instance, the people in question on this thread may have paid all the close attention that they wanted to pay, and yet still didn't like the show.

Perhaps someone in the party didn't feel well suddenly.

Perhaps someone's phone vibrated and there was an emergency causing them to leave. In that case, it is NOT necessary to wait until the song was over.

I've left shows before they ended.

Big deal-I don't know why people leaving a show bothers anyone as much as I'm reading in this thread.

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"Nobody goes around saying "Geeze, they like mashed potatoes? They dont like Baked potatoes?"

Its just potatoes.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!"

But they like French fries...

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I do agree that it was rude of them to walk out during the show in the middle of the song.

But I don't like the fact that you and others state that they weren't even giving the show a chance, they have no taste, they weren't trying to think, etc. Sondheim isn't everyone's cup of tea, and that is their business if they were bored.

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Updated On: 3/13/08 at 07:41 PM

In my life, I have only walked out of 1 live theatrical performance, and it was a horrible high school production of "It's A Wonderful Life", a play version. I would never walk out of a Broadway show, even if I hated it from the opening number, because I don't want to miss out on what could be my next favorite show. To tell the truth, I didn't like "The Drowsy Chaperone" in the first couple minutes of it, but now I LOVE IT, and if I had walked out on "Drowsy", I would've missed a great Broadway experience.

I walked out of the revivals of Sweeney, Company and Sunday. Not because I don't like the shows, but because I didn't like the productions. I saw all these shows in their original incarnations and loved each of them. The revivals left me cold.


This is a problem for those who saw the originals. There is now a feeling that these shows HAVE to be done exactly as before.

NONSENSE.

New productions can highlight different subtexts. COMPANY was a revelation in terms of acting. Sondheim always says the “rumblings under the surface” fascinate him and you could not ask for a better exploration of that than the one offered by Esparza and company.

The new SUNDAY indeed looks and sounds different, but the text is the same and everything that made the original so wonderful is there as well.

If you want a copy of the original, get the DVD.

Personally, I love to see new interpretations of the classics. When they work they place the older shows in a bold new light.

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I hate stupid people.

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When I saw Rent back in 2004, this old guy got up during "I'll Cover You" yelled "F-ing Fags" and stormed up the aisle. I giggled.

OT:
I didn't see the original Company, but I hated Doyle's version on so many levels.

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""I doubt there will be any sort of epiphany in the second act. Let's go.""

Good thing it wasn't Company.

"When I saw Rent back in 2004, this old guy got up during "I'll Cover You" yelled "F-ing Fags" and stormed up the aisle. I giggled."

That IS kind of funny.

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While I think they could have timed it better I really don't blame those people for leaving. I've never thought of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE as "electrifying, highly entertaining and moving" - and I like Sondheim's work.

"and it wasn't bad.....they just weren't willing to think.

and if you're not willing to think and put in that effort, go see the lion king....sondheim requires you to think and it bothers me because it's people like this who make sondheim shows not do well"

"Noone in their right mind should walk out of a Sondheim show. Not just out of respect, but out of stupidity."

OH NOEZ!!1 Someone hates Sondheim shows! PURE BLASPHEMY! KILL THEM! *eyeroll*

People have different reasons for going to the theatre or not liking Sondheim. Maybe they don't want to "think" and are just looking for a fun night out, and if so, what's wrong with that? Maybe they do like "brilliant shows" where you have to think, but Sondheim's simply doesn't appeal to their tastes. Or maybe they have seen other Sondheim shows and liked them enough to try Sunday, and then found out that it really wasn't their cup of tea.

With that out of the way and returning to the original topic... yes, I agree it is disruptive to leave in the middle of a song.

Updated On: 3/16/08 at 06:16 PM