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

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:29pm

"I thought Raul's talent shone through the material, but I don't see shows to watch people sing--I want those numbers PERFORMED"

Here's where we disagree. I thought Raul performed the HEll out of Petrified. In fact, I claim that to be the one performance that affected me the most on any stage. He can be seen performing that number in a video if anyone's interested.

[Here I Am]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:32pm

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

[LittlexFallxOfxRain]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:45pm

Uugh that really bothers me. Some people have no taste.

[singingshowgirl]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:45pm

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.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:49pm

If you don't like a show, the polite thing to do is to stay until the end of the first act and leave during intermission. Now if you were dumb enough to stay for the second act of a show you didn't like, then have the decency to stay until the end of the show.

I don't think people walking out of a show is limited to Sondheim. It applies more to people who go to see a show with a pre-conceived notion of what an evening at the theater is going to be like and have already made up their minds that they're not gonna have fun. Sure, there are those who do walk out of shows they don't get. Then again, my brother loved "Into The Woods" but left at the end of the first act because he thought it was over.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 6:57pm

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.

[bertandrew2]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 7:02pm

Why does everyone feel that EVERYONE has to love Sondheim?

Its the same way that everyone here feels the need to knock down Disney shows.

Whatever.

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

Its just potatoes.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 7:09pm

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

Its just potatoes.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!"

But they like French fries...

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 7:11pm

It's a matter of plain politeness.
So I'm all with Wildcard on that matter.

But obviously there are more than enough people who don't particularly care to treat the actors or their fellow members in the audience with too much respect, so what the ...

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 7:41pm

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.

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

[sondheimgeek]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 7:59pm

"I never invited my folks to stuff they'd hate...so they were spared OEDIPUS AT COLONUS, CYRANO and DARK OF THE MOON."

No matter how fantastic a play DARK OF THE MOON is. :P

As for this thread, Sondheim isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it is incredibly rude to get up and walk out during a performance. It not only disrupts the people they are walking out in front of, but it distracts other people who are all around them. I understand leaving during a show (although I never would unless it's an emergency), but people should leave during the applause or intermission.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 8:33pm

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.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 8:41pm

blaxx, I'm sorry you didn't my joke and chose to be rude.

I was merely playing on the lyrics. I know when the song FINISHING THE HAT appears in the show, as do most people posting in the thread.

Updated On: 3/14/08 at 08:41 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/14/08 at 8:23am

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.

[bk]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 5:32pm

I have seen the Doyle and the original Company - you apparently haven't, because the "rumblings under the surface" were much more fascinating in the original production, especially as the actors had a brilliant director and choreographer to help them find those "rumblings" and the added bonus of the actors actually being able to do their jobs and not have to play and lug around pointless instruments for the entire show. Rumblings indeed.

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 5:59pm

I hate stupid people.

[Kasie]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 6:10pm

Dido.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 6:29pm

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.

[nmartin]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 6:54pm

I've only walked out of two shows in my life. Unfortunately, I HAD to walk out of Bent during the first act because I was violently ill. I left Aida at intermission because it was making me violently ill.

[misschung]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:28pm

""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.

[Tom148502]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:36pm

Sidwich said:

"Many years ago, I was at a the old Rainbow Room which if you've never been there it was a very intimate setting, maybe 100 seats tops."

I think you mean Rainbow and Stars, not the Rainbow Room. Rainbow and Stars was a very smsll venue. The Rainbow Room, however, was very large. Both were on the same floor of what used to be the RCA Building.

[alterego]

Posted: 3/15/08 at 11:42pm

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.

[Broadwayj1]

Posted: 3/16/08 at 2:28pm

They had like 20 more mins to stick it out! Jesus people! If you don't like a show leave at intermission!

[thelastmidnight]

Posted: 3/16/08 at 6:16pm

"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