the EPITOME of tasteless audiences..... — Page 4

"They come here, they all come here. How do they find me?" That quote from the producers sums up my experiences at many shows, but three stick out more:

I went with my mom to see All Shook Up last wednesday, and the people next to me were obvious Elvis fans and during many of the songs especially Jailhouse Rock, they took it apon themselves to sing along with them. People pay money to here the people on stage sing, not audience members.

The one show that has constant audience rudeness is SPAMalot. I am a big Python fan, who has commited to memory many of their sketches and can say them off the top of my head, and when I first saw it, I held back the urge to recite the lines, but some jack@$$ took it apon himself to yell the lines when Curry, Azaria, Hyde-Pierce, or any one on the stage was holding a dramatic pause, which is just plain rude.

Then there was my first time seeing Wicked. I enjoyed myself during it and I laughed at Cheno's jokes and the jokes on the stage, but the guy next to me was laughing his @$$ at not really funny spots, so I just sat there thinking to myself what's so funny.

There's probably more but I can't think of anymore.
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"Where did you metriculate? Me-tric-u-late? It means where did you go to college?"
-Reefer Madness

Please don't take ragging on Texas away from us.

Of course rude behavior in the theater is not exclusive to Texans, we certainly know that. It just wasn't surprising that the aforementioned rude people were from there.

Texas deserves whatever it gets for giving us the likes of our moron president and his crony, Tom DeLay.

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Spamalot....I guess I was lucky on April 13.
I had feared going in that the 'Monty Pythoners' would be screaming all the words, etc.....but I do not remember one doing so.......in fact I think i was laughing so hard I annoyed people.
I've heard this can be a horrid show when the movie fans are there, but either they were not there that afternoon, or they behaved.

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you had me until "Texas deserves whatever it gets for giving us the likes of our moron president and his crony, Tom DeLay"

but if that is the critera...let's blow up arkansas too! :)

and TN for giving us Gore (i'm from there...so tread lightly...tee hee)

all in all, rude audience members are rude where ever they are from...and i say let's corral them in arkansas before we light the fuse.

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At Patti LuPone's "Matters of the Heart" in Seattle, a lot of people started leaving DURING ACT 1, while she was singing. If you don't like the show (and it actually was a wonderful show), at least have the decency to wait until intermission. It was amazing the number of people getting up and walking out in the middle of a song.

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Updated On: 4/26/05 at 02:18 PM

Oh, this one time I was at Gem of the Ocean and Phylicia Rashad was performing beautifully. Anyways there was this guy sitting next to me, 300+ pounds, unshaven, reeked of booze and his veins were obviously indications of his heroine addiction. Anyways he's sitting there and he takes out a cough drop with the cellophane wrapping.

Needless to say it was loud.

I suddenly saw Rashads ears perk up. Then out of nowhere her eyes glow bright red, her hair sets on fire and she flies to the 300 pound man, lifts him into the air, breaks his neck, he dies instantly then she eats the body right onstage!!!!!

We all were very relieved that she didn't break character during her ordeal.

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How does one properly reproach someone without becoming boorish?

I have tried the "I'm sorry but I can't hear the performance with you talking" line and it seems to work.

Point is, we shouldn't have to speak up like this.

I think the lyrics from Sondheim's "Instructions to the audience" ought to be reprinted in every theatre program.

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oh my, no wonder she and Rashad divorced......I mean life was easier for him catching passes from Dan Fouts at Oregon, lololol

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Agreed about audience members arriving late. When I saw HAIRSPRAY and CHICAGO people arrived at least 15 minutes late and were seated during numbers. I was incredulous - first that the ushers were seating people so late, and in the case of CHICAGO that the patrons couldn't manage to get to the theater by 8pm on a SATURDAY. (I could understand maybe on a weeknight with rush hour and unpredictable traffic).

When I worked for the opera, the ushers wouldn't seat latecomers until a scene change or during an intermission. We had upsset patrons, but hey at least they yelled in the lobby not the auditorium. They could either use standing room or watch in a closed circuit in the lounge.

Ha, props to you worrell for the quote from The Producers. Its so true!

So much about latecomers, so little about early leavers?!

I feel I needs must add my two cents.

I have been seated near some pretty rude people (first time I saw Phantom of the Opera, not only did the guy in front of me have a cell phone that rang during the performance, but he ANSWERED IT and started talking), but the thing that constantly plagues me and follows me to whatever theatre I go to is early leavers.

First of all, there are those who hate the show so much they leave in the middle. This was true to a large extent when I saw Rent in a very small community. That is extremely rude, and it annoys me a lot. But the ones that annoy me even more, are the ones who don't leave early b/c they don't like it...

There is this group of middle-aged to elderly people who's goal in life is to be the first ones to their cars. They find in their playbills the VERY LAST SONG, and the instant it starts they RUSH out of the theatre (or just leave during curtain call, 'cause its a good policy to take w/o giving back), so that they can have the satisfaction of knowing that they were out of there before everyone else was. OH MY GOD.

This happened during The Producers. A couple of people left during the show b/c they didn't like it, but most people stayed and it was a good crowd. The MINUTE Prisoners of Love came on, this whole row of people STAND UP and start exiting the theatre. It REALLY annoyed me.

I've seen this quite a few times in the theatre, it shocks me every time. You can't stay for the last 5 minutes?!?!?!?!?! How petty can you BE?!?!?! You WILL get home, and there's nothing so wonderful about being the first ones in your car! Plus, the actors have worked hard to put on a show for you!!!! You can't stay and clap for them?!?!?!

Possibly the worst time this happened though was during Sunset Boulevard. It was a round theatre. The actors use the aisles for all exits and entrances. Curtain call starts, and this couple got up when it started, and made everyone stand up so they could get past (not so much a problem, since there was actually a well-deserved standing ovation anyway, but obnoxious, nonetheless). They're making their way up the aisle to exit the theatre, just as the lead actor and actress are on stage receiving their deserved standing ovation. They turn around and they're all happy and everything 'cause they did a great show and got a standing ovation and everything and they're not looking and they're runnning down they're exit... and they slam right into the people using the same exit to leave early! Everyone was okay, and no one was hurt. But, if I were the actors I'd be EXTREMELY annoyed to say the LEAST, and if I were the people... I don't think I could ever recover from the embarrassment. However, the couple seemed very offended that the actors had the audacity to exit when they did (you know, if the actors ran out of the theatre in their costumes, THEY might beat them to their cars! :-O) and acted like it was the actors fault...

I hate those people who do that. *is ANNOYED*

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justme2...

It was Sonia, though I did offer to switch...brave woman that Sonia.

Do you remeber the rude woman at Tallulah with Kathleen Turner? We had box seats and this woman comes in and rearranges the chairs so she has most of the box to herself and then proceed to lean. Justme2 and I were relegated to a small back corner of the box. Luckily because of the way the box was situated we ended up having a slightly better view than the box hog. And Ms. Turner was amazing.

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ok, while I personally like to dress nice for the theater, there seems to be a flaw in the logic presented here: not everyone paid a hundred bucks to be there! discounts, student tickets, rush, standing room, rear mezz, front mezz... a good number of people will have paid 20, 25, 45 or 65 and black jeans will be perfectly aligned with the price they paid to be there. I dont think ive ever seen someone do standing room in a dress! Unless theyre wearing a giant hat or a particularly loud material I dont mind people dressing down. I do see the point that those who dress down might be more likely to do other rude things.

I dont think ive ever had a really terrible audience experience that would compare to ones mentioned here. Just expected things, like extra amounts of kids at Beauty & The Beast.