Weird audiences at Glass Menagerie

[navnisinger]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 9:46pm

I went to see the Glass Menagerie today. For some odd reason, the audience was laughing hysterically the entire time and it completely distracted the actors and ruined the great production that it is. It was partially because someone had a radio or an ipod playing in the background at the beginning and didnt turn it off until an usher came by. In any case, it was really strange and I was wondering if other people had a similar experience at the show. Perhaps it was just the audience today (tourists at a sunday matinee). In any case, has anyone experienced anything similar?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:02pm

All ushers should be given TASERS, with licenses to stun.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:25pm

Laughing? Did those morons think it was a comedy? I can't imagine how awful it must have been for the cast and crew. Tourists are the living worst.

"All ushers should be given TASERS, with licenses to stun."

You're amazing.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:28pm

Why would you think this was typical?

[jv92]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:31pm

Seriously, maybe producers and theater owners shouldn't alienate ticket buyers and audiences by charging so much for a seat, but INSTEAD, should alienate them by kicking a few idiot patrons out of show they disrupt. Maybe we'd/they'd lose audiences...in a good way.

Off-Broadway audiences can be guilty of cell-phones going off, too. In fact, when I saw FUN HOME, a woman's phone went off a few rows behind me. But she sort of gasped and quickly shut it off after what was likely 10-15 seconds. I don't think that would happen on Broadway.

To quote Patti LuPone, "We have LOST our public MANNERS."

[navnisinger]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:34pm

I was wondering if it is typical at Glass Menagerie. Despite the fact that it is a wonderful production with a stellar cast, many tourists are drawn because of the stars and not because they want to see a great piece of theatre. So they would not take anything they see seriously and just sit back.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:35pm

Is Cherry Jones that big of a draw to the ME AND MY GIRL crowd?

[siny]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:47pm

I saw it last Wednesday night and you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. I feel sorry for the actors having to put up with this awful situation. Perhaps it was a bunch of kids on a school trip ?

[jv92]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:51pm

I'm always the first to get apprehensive when school kids on a trip sit near me at a show, but I've often had to eat my hat after thinking they might be a problem. I saw CINDERELLA with a group of 7-8 year old camp kids behind me and they were wonderful and enthusiastic (in a good way). I saw GYPSY with a group of middle-schoolers behind me (or in front of me...can't remember), and they were taken with the show and were really into it without being obnoxious.

It's the adults that are more worrisome and more of a disturbance.

Updated On: 10/20/13 at 10:51 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:56pm

Navnisinger, did the cast seem pissed and distracted? What were people laughing at?

[jv92]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 10:57pm

"Blow out your candles Laura."

"Ew. He wants to blow his sister." *snicker* *snicker*

[navnisinger]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 11:10pm

jv92 - hahahahahha

suttonross - they were adults, it felt like it was the whole audience. they were laughing through all the pivotal moments that are supposed to drive the plot forward, they were laughing at the fights between tom and amanda, granted some are laughable because they are either true to life or they stem from witty writing. But people were laughing uproariously at the events on the stage as if they were watching a hilarious comedy, which at the end of the day, the Glass Menagerie is not, and this production doesnt interpret it as a comedy or anything. So first there was the radio/ipod moment and then the laughter just made me feel like I was not getting what I should be getting from this production based on the reviews and how strong the cast is. It felt like the audience set the actors off.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 11:13pm

So the actors were visibly disturbed by the audience? That's so horrible.

[navnisinger]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 11:17pm

i mean.. to put it simply, i feel like the bad audience made it difficult for the actors to focus and connect

[broadwaybabe1234]

Posted: 10/20/13 at 11:59pm

I actually had a similar experience. I went to the show on Thursday and i was a stunned at the audience response. While i was crying because of how devastatingly beautiful i found it, the woman next to me was laughing hysterically at everything that Zachary Quinto did. She also felt the need to comment on everything that went on stage. Like when Amanda said, "He's not a unattractive is he?" she said, "THAT WOULD BE FUNNY!" In other circumstances i would have laughed at this reaction but the amount but i really wanted to experience the story, not her commentary. Also a cell phone went off when *SPOILER* the gentleman caller kisssed Laura *End spoiler* it really killed the moment.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 12:04am

I went a few Sundays ago and the audience reacted appropriately. Only some chuckling at the moments that call for humor.

[pc1145N2]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 9:04pm

I saw this show on Saturday Evening and the audience reactions were fine. However, why grown adults can not listen to the staff and not touch the water is beyond me. Every person who approached the stage was told not to touch the water as it had been dyed and would stain. Yet several people insisted on touching it and then got mad when it stained their hands and/or clothes! In fact, one woman smacked her hand on the water causing it to splash up and get all over me. So, while I listened and didn't touch anything, I had black ink on my hands, my brand new shirt and my windowcard. Do you think the woman apologized? Not a chance and when I said something, she looked at me like I was the crazy one.

[N2N Nate.]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 9:18pm

I don't think it's completely fair to generalize tourists as "the living worst". Contrary to popular belief, many tourists who come to NY to see theatre are passionate about the arts just as much as New Yorkers. It's not like ALL New Yorkers are well behaved theatre goers.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 9:24pm

And how do you know they were tourists? They could have easily been rude locals.

[mordav]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 9:26pm

How do you know it was tourists that were acting weirdly?
I saw a matinee of The Glass Menagerie a few weeks ago and the audience was just ok. A couple of minutes into the production one elderly woman started saying very loudly - "It isn't working, it isn't working" - referring to the equipment the theater provides for the hearing impaired. She was too deaf to hear the chorus of people shushing her (or simply didn't care), and maybe too blind to realise the play had started. She then stood up and started calling to the usher that "it isnt working". This happened again with a different elderly woman right after intermission. About a dozen people arrived back late from intermission, which wasnt too surprising given the length of the line to the toilets during intermission. Of course, while I was sitting in the lounge area downstairs having a coffee during intermission there was the guy who walked past me and paused just long enough to fart before continuing on his way. Then there was the couple near me who decided that they couldn't go a whole two hours without stuffing there faces with the tuna sandwiches they had brought from home. Does this constitute a weird audience or is this standard fare for a Broadway matinee?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/21/13 at 9:38pm

It constitutes a Broadway weekend matinee. What a horrifying experience. I'm so sorry.

Updated On: 10/21/13 at 09:38 PM

[The Other One]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 8:14am

I saw Kinky Boots last month and much of the audience carried on as though they were in a pub. They didn't drown the show out, but the commenting, hooting and hollering seemed more suited to Broadway Bares. The audience I saw The Glass Menagerie with later that week was quiet, suitably attentive and appreciative.

The worst Broadway audience I've ever experienced was a Wednesday matinee crowd at the last Roundabout revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. They laughed and commented throughout, culminating in them cheering Stanley on during the rape scene. There were many high school students in the audience. I do not know how the cast tuned them out, but they did.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 9:58am

I've seen many productions of Glass Menagerie that legitimately found a lot of laughs. To me, it made the sad moments even more powerful.

I think it's similar to Chekhov - people have been told by unimaginative school teachers that the play is "sad," and so they program themselves to think it's sad no matter what they actually experience onstage - and Chekhov himself said his plays were comedies. I've only seen one production of Three Sisters that found the humor, but several of The Seagull (certainly not that 2008 glacial/maudlin Royal Court production, though).

[dreaming]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 10:06am

I was going to say that in Tennessee Williams' works, there is typically a grain of humor. (Now they're aren't meant to elicit the kind of response described by The Other One). However, Tennessee Williams had a rather dark sense of humor, and that does come through in his plays.

I saw this production of "Glass Menagerie" (and will return before it closes) and did find myself (and other audience members) chuckling a few times-and not inappropriately, either. There are a few funny moments/lines.

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/22/13 at 10:31am

Tourists are still alive and thus can recognize humor. Whereas local New Yorkers are generally soulless and dead inside so often miss humor when it is presented to them.