ushers gone bad: les miz 3/28 broadhurst theatre — Page 2

Any of you guys (or other members) work as house ushers at a theatre now or in the past? Just wondering.

Almost every job I've ever had has been assisting, helping, or serving people.

From waitoring to sales to customer service to bartending, etc. etc. (you name it, I've done it) - I was ALWAYS more than pleasant. I do respect the ushers, but when some people are just rude for no reason, they should be called out on it.

Just because they're in a tough field doesn't mean they're allowed to behave like skanks. Being stern about cameras is one thing. Standing in the back of the theatre and talking is QUITE another.

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I was an usher off bway / at tom sawyer on bway for a LITTLE bit when I was 17.. I was always kind to people. There is no excuse to treat patrons bad. Especially when they pay so much to see the show.

My parents are ushers at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville, and the stories I hear from them about patrons... Most people are fine, but during things like "Dora" or "The Wiggles" and other children's shows, the stories about how the parents behave is hellacious.

They had some interesting stories about TLK's run there too. Including a couple who came from...I forget where...but they had a ticket for a performance in the show's previous location that they had not been able to get to and they just figured they could come to Nashville and use the ticket there. Insane! But they are never rude to anyone. My dad's worked in customer service before as a part-time thing...he took tickets at Opryland theme park when it existed, and one time a woman who was rather large insisted she could use the turnstile and she got stuck. So he had to stand there for the 30 minutes it took to get someone from maintenance to come and take the turnstile apart ~ all the time keeping a straight face while the woman's husband laughed at her and said "I told you so." (No, he wasn't small either, but he was taller so he didn't get stuck.)

When my friend and I saw "Spamalot" in SRO, we were nothing but nice to the usher while the three people next to us were horrendous ~ even sitting down in the empty seats in front of us the MOMENT the house lights went down. Sure enough, at the first seating opportunity, the correct occupants of the seats appeared ~ they had been checking their coats ~ and the three standers were extremely rude not only to the usher when she asked them to move, but the ticket holders as well. Within about 30 minutes, she told us we could go down front where there were some empty seats. But the three rude ones got the pleasure of standing the entire show. It can pay to be nice to your usher too! :)

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Updated On: 4/10/07 at 12:32 PM

I volunteered as an usher for ten years at two local theaters, and while some of the other ushers could have used an attitude adjustment (we were all volunteers, unless we were scheduled to floor manage, and then we received the princely sum of $20 per show), I found that patrons (not all, of course), percentage wise, were usually worse than the ushers.

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I've always had great experiences with the ushers here. Guess I've been lucky. I do love how the ushers at the Gershwin all say "Congratulations!" when you show them a lotto ticket. That's the only house where that's consistently happened to me. The other's they're usually like "Yeah, see the person down front for your playbill."

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"I am always surprised how much older ushers are generally on Broadway, (and I'm not being ageist, just observing the relative ages)."

Well, this is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to get a job as an usher on Broadway. A lot of the ushers have been there since, literally, the so-called Golden Age of Broadway. Physically, it's an easy job. After 50+ years of seeing audiences deteriorate, let's see how you would react to today's crowd compared to even 20 years ago.

"to which a nosy female usher said "Come November the role is his" and I replied "John has not announced whether he will extend or leave." The usher said "John is out, he has a ripped larynx." I knew she was full of s**t and was really pissed she was spreading the rumors."

Well, somebody was wrong, not about John's ripped larynx or acid reflux, but about Michael getting the role in November.

It didn't happen to me, but it kinda happened to my mom and she was telling me about it. The last time we saw Jersey Boys, it was my sister's birthday and she wanted to go see it for her birthday and we got matinee tickets. Now, the three of us each arrived at our seats separetely and our mom was the last one to show up, and when she did, she was saying that the usher gave her a dirty look, probably because of the recent scalpings and she probably thought my mom bought a scalped ticket. It's not exactly a B****** thing, but it was still kinda of rude that she did that to my mom, when there was a couple in the row ahead of us that clearly bought scalped tickets.

"YOU"

not

"u"

!!!!!!!!

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^Wow, what wit you have.

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I miss fengshuihellnyc.

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Updated On: 4/10/07 at 04:17 PM

It's happened every time I've won Wicked. Haven't ever been one of the lucky 6 (or so) at Avenue Q *pouts*

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