Bad Theater Behavior

[TotallyEffed]

I usually just give one short, strong "shhh."

[Phantom4ever]

**Curious incident spoiler alert**

 

 Last weekend at Curious Incident, my friend and I were in the front mezz. As soon as the show started, the man and woman behind us started with the whispering/talking. The dead dog appeared onstage, the boy was accused of killing it and then "See, but he didn't kill it. That's what this play is going to be about."   

Then, when the father has his first scene, "I think the father did it. Don't you think the father did it?"

When the boy had a seizure and the lighting reflected it: "I think the lights symbolize that he's having a seizure".  "A what?"  "A seizure. Do you see what the lighting is doing?" 

When the boy is holding his pet rat "Is that a rat? Why is he holding a rat"  "That's his pet". "He has a pet rat?"  "Yes he talked about earlier in the show."  

At first my friend and I turned around twice and glared. Then we gave up and just knew the comments were coming and we would kind of turn and smile at each other at how dumb some of the comments were.  These people were acting like they were at home on their couch.  Never did they think how noisy it would be in the theater if even a quarter of the audience talked like they did.  

[BroadwayConcierge]

LOL Phantom4ever that is so frustrating, especially since Curious Incident is exactly the type of show you kind of just need to sit, see, and absorb. I would have turned around and started shaking them.

[dramamama611]

I would have done a heck of a lot more than glare.  How do they come to realize they distracted people if they aren't told??

[vdirects]

I once saw a musical and the man next to me was singing along and saying some of the funny lines the WHOLE time, loudly.

 

The women in front of us turned around and glared and his friend tapped him to stop, but he just shrugged

[uncageg]

The Sunday befor last at DISASTER we had about 4 drunk woman sitting next to us. They we're singing before curtain went up but after it did, they continued to sing along and talk out loud. We shushed them, told them to be quiet and they shouted back at us. This went on for maybe 10 minutes. The usher on our side noticed and shushed them, then flashed her flashlight at them. They continued as we continued to shush them. The usher disappeared for about a minute after the 3rd time trying to quiet them and then all of a sudden she was back on m side of the row and an usher and house manager we're on the other end and made the ladies leave their seats. They were amazingly swift about it. Kudos to the Nederlander staff.

[Platypus]

I am someone that tries to avoid confronting bad behaviour, because you never know when it will cause a scene. But if it reaches a point that I can no longer enjoy the show, I tend to reach a boiling point where I feel that I have to say something. A few years ago I was at the Toronto production of Miss Saigon. My friends I were seated at the back of Orchestra. and we had bought the tickets at a deep discount. I suspect that the others in that section had gotten the tickets for cheap as well, and perhaps as a result hadn't placed much value on the experience? The people seated directly behind me showed up about 30 minutes late, and proceeded to have a continuous conversation from the moment they sat down. Not whispering, but normal, conversational volumes. After about 5-10 minutes of this, I turned around and sternly said. "If you're here to talk, then please leave." To my surprise and pleasure, a few minutes later they stood up and left and never returned. This thread is full of stories of confrontation not working, but sometimes it can be surprisingly effective....

[mpkie]

VintageSnarker said: "I am resurrecting this thread because things were a little ridiculous at Bright Star. I'm non-confrontational because I think it can make things awkward for the person doing the reprimanding and the person being reprimanded for the rest of the show depending on what the response is. Still, I have been calling people out more. But I think it helps when they do it really frequently and they must know it or if you can stop them when they're doing it. Tonight there was so much whispering but they were short comments so to call them out would have probably been more disruptive. What do you do in that situation? I didn't want to say something at intermission but then it resumed in act 2 and it was too late."

 

I usually try to hold it in until intermission if it's consistent but brief, so as to not be more disruptive. You should definitely say something at intermission. My strategy if it is people next to me is to chat them up first. Are you enjoying the show so far, what do you think, etc. Act interested in their responses and respond accordingly even though you couldn't care less. THEN you sneak in politely that it would be great if they could hold their comments till the end because it can get a little noisy and distracting and people around can hear them.

A small minority might get put off and ignore the suggestion but most normal people are embarrassed and will behave as a result.

[quizking101]

"The Sunday befor last at DISASTER we had about 4 drunk woman sitting next to us. They we're singing before curtain went up but after it did, they continued to sing along and talk out loud. We shushed them, told them to be quiet and they shouted back at us. This went on for maybe 10 minutes. The usher on our side noticed and shushed them, then flashed her flashlight at them. They continued as we continued to shush them. The usher disappeared for about a minute after the 3rd time trying to quiet them and then all of a sudden she was back on m side of the row and an usher and house manager we're on the other end and made the ladies leave their seats. They were amazingly swift about it. Kudos to the Nederlander staff..."

I was in that section sitting about three rows up. The fact they acted so quickly and them out more or less by the time first number ("Hot Stuff" was over was astounding. I was incredibly happy because I've never seen such deftness in action.

[LizzieCurry]

IMO it's much more difficult to shush someone if you've already started establishing a rapport with them. So I never talk to anyone beforehand if I go to a show alone!

[Cupid Boy2]

The audience I saw Fiddler with three weeks back had some of the worst behavior I've ever seen. Talking, texting, singing along, and recording the show all accompanied by the rings of several phones. I was surprised given that it didn't even seem to be a tourist-heavy crowd. 

[LizzieCurry]

I've asked this before, but do threads like these ever come up in house manager or PR meetings? I wonder how much of it is us ranting into the void, but I guess given recent events we can assume a decent number of people in the business are reading this. Whether it's making a difference seems to be up in the air.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Worst behavior I've ever seen on Broadway was at a performance of Hedwig last summer with Taye Diggs in the role. I had killer orchestra seats rather close to the stage. A couple then came and took the two empty seats in the row in front of me and my friends, late after "Tear Me Down," and was so rude and obnoxious. Diggs was interacting with audience members (as part of the role, obviously), but they took it so far as to keep talking to him after he had moved on, to OVERTLY pull out their phones and take pictures, and continue to talk loudly to each other when Diggs was working on his monologues. I, as well as other audience members, persistently asked them to refrain from speaking so loudly and from using their phones. I have to assume the man was rather intoxicated because not only did he neglect to respond to numerous taps on his shoulders, when someone would politely request them to calm down, he would get rather belligerent, threatening people to stop tapping him, saying "Shut up, we're on a date, we can talk and do whatever we want," yada yada. They continued through the performance chuckling at rather inappropriate times. Between them and Diggs' performance (which, for those who remember, I don't really need to recap...), it was one of my personal worst theatrical experiences at one of my favorite shows ever.

Edit: Forgot to add that a separate pair, in the row in front of the aforementioned duo, also seemed to miss the whole directive of the show. During the brief and obviously devastating break between the "Wicked Little Town" reprise and "Midnight Radio," with Diggs standing silently on stage, shirtless, they whooped and hollered at his bod. It was...just not a good evening. 

[slumdogdelaware]

I hit the jackpot at Fiddler's Wednesday matinee last week. 

There were 2 rows of elderly women sitting behind us, must have been a bus trip of some kind. Also to note, as this will be mentioned later, that there were was a huge group of schoolkids seated in the last few rows of the orchestra.

Anyway, they seemed like sweet little old ladies going to see a show - and most of them were, of course. Just as the curtain goes up and Danny walks out, everyone in the theater starts clapping, rightfully so (he was AMAZING). There's this woman sitting directly behind me, we'll call her Dottie because that was her name, who exclaimed, "Why is everyone clapping? He hasn't done anything yet!" 

Then, as "Tradition" starts, a cell phone starts going off. It's coming from behind me. I kid you not, that cell phone rang from the start of the song up until the end. Dottie and one of her pals squabbled for a bit, each denying that it was their phone. It ended up being Dottie's phone.

Weirdly enough, there were multiple cell phones that went off at that performance, which was the most I had ever encountered, and I've seen dozens of shows. I don't know if it was the amount of older people in the audience or what.

At intermission, Dottie went off about how much she hated the show. She realllllly did not like it. I was just astounded that she had never seen the movie (she was confused by the plot and characters). The best was when her friends were coming back from the bathroom and had to squeeze by Dottie (the aisles were extremely tight). Dottie was audibly upset, and when her friend told her she was sorry, Dottie said, "You're sorry but you're still doing it!" That was actually hilarious to me.

If big D disliked the first act, then she downright abhorred the second. She huffed throughout every scene, kept commenting how "slow" everything was, and fumbled with her tic tacs for about ten minutes towards the end. The entire theater was on their feet at curtain, but I didn't need to turn around to know that Dottie was not.

As for the schoolkids, they were the best. They were loving the show - laughing, being respectable, and just enjoying it. It was truly refreshing.

[Cupid Boy2]

That's a shame because Hedwig would've been the perfect show for an ad-lib addressing them directly or even an usher to deal with the situation. Just imagine what John Cameron Mitchell would've said to them or even NPH for that matter. 

[JudyDenmark]

I feel like it just gets worse and worse, and without fail, the biggest offenders (in my personal experience) are the octogenarians. At Color Purple, the guy next to me was loudly tapping his cane along with the music until I asked him to stop, at which point he glared at me but at least obliged. At Noises Off I was sitting in the second row and the couple next to me was bitching out loud the whole time about how terrible the seats were and that they had to look UP. (For what it's worth, the view from those seats was spectacular.)

 

But my worst experience was at the 2009 Ragtime revival...

 

***Major Ragtime plot spoilers ahead:

The man next to me was wearing a theatre-provided hearing device turned all the way up, so I heard the entire show on echo. (Not really his fault, but it significantly added to the annoyance.) The whole show, he kept confirming what they were saying out loud to his wife, until at the end, at arguably the most tense moment in the show, when the theatre is silent and everyone is waiting for Coalhouse to walk out of the library, he says, at full volume, "THEY'RE GONNA SHOOT THE BLACK GUY." Then, a few minutes later, "SHE'S GONNA MARRY THE JEW."

I mean... I'm thankful at least that I already knew the plot, but man was that obnoxious.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Cupid Boy2 said: "That's a shame because Hedwig would've been the perfect show for an ad-lib addressing them directly or even an usher to deal with the situation. Just imagine what John Cameron Mitchell would've said to them or even NPH for that matter."

I couldn't agree more. I have to wonder how much of the poor audience behavior is potentially attributable to Diggs' performance. I saw multiple other Hedwigs during the Broadway run, and I have to say, you always felt like you had an advocate against bad audience behavior up on that stage—because Hedwig just wouldn't take that s***. Unfortunately, I did see Diggs early in his run, when I believe he was still so caught up in knowing his lines and blocking that I think he was too focused on that to acknowledge/perhaps even see bad audience members. I did not feel like I had an advocate at that performance.

[hedwigbway]

I was at a matinee of Beautiful back in December. I got to the theatre as soon as doors opened and stayed in my seat (in the very last row of the side mezz) until the show started. 15 minutes into the show, a group of about 4 older women took their seats right next to mine. I just tried to not let it distract me and focus on the show, but one of the women was trying to get my attention. She told me that her group had seats 6,8,10,and 12 and that I was in her seat (which was seat 6) I was super confused and didn't really know what to say, since I definitely was in the right seat and had been for almost an hour. She kept telling me to get out of her seat and now I was just as angry as she was, so I dug into my bag to find my ticket and show it to her. I wasn't going to give in and move just because she was causing a scene because it would push me all the way to the far side. She threw the ticket back at me and then her group took their seats in the four empty seats right next to me that were clearly theirs all along. If this had happened before the show started, it would probably just seem like a normal misunderstanding and wouldn't have left me with a bad taste in my mouth for the entire first act. But she just had to come in late and bother me (and the people around us) just to get a slightly better seat. 

To make things worse, she sang along under her breath almost the whole show. I thought about moving at intermission but it looked like a full house.

[VintageSnarker]

Maybe they need to add "don't talk" to the standard announcement at the beginning of shows. They started in at Bright Star with the first song. Billy's dad sings about a visitor coming. In spite of all the foreshadowing and the obvious euphemism being obvious, a woman just had to say

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Death?

No, it was Aunt Flo. Of course you're right. But no one else felt the need to verbalize it. You're not a detective someone has paid to solve the big mystery. Just sit there in silence. But no, it went on and on the whole night. It's part of the reason I think Bright Star might catch on with a certain audience that doesn't see all the reveals coming.

 

That said, it's not just older folks. At Aladdin, two girls kept whispering to each other and they were better about it so I couldn't hear them but obviously every time they put their heads together I couldn't see the stage. I spoke to one girl at intermission and then in act 2 I still had to interrupt her friend and ask her to stop.

 

Could I complain about people going to the theatre with really strong BO? Yes, but I'm fairly forgiving. It's all the little ways courtesy is lacking that bothers me. Like hey, maybe this quiet play is not the time to start munching on a cookie.

[Randomlink1]

Ok, so first I want to say that in a production of Les Miserables, there was a kid talking during the barricade scene. That was kind of understandable, since it was a little kid, but if your kid can't be quiet, don't bring them to the theatre. Additionally, I really don't like it when audiences decide to use flash photgoraphy. I just saw a production of Sweeney Todd, and there were a lot of audience members using their flash photography. Now, if you know anything about Sweeney, you probably know that most productions incorporate high platforms into the story. So, they had to make an announcement before the show and at intermission to not use flash photography, and even then as the announcement was being made I saw people around me taking pictures. Another thing I take issue with is when people give a standing ovation for one person but then choose to sit down for the next. I just am kind of annoyed by it as an actor myself, and I would be hurt if someone decided to sit down as soon as I came out and then immediately got back up. Also, I've sat next to people who've fallen asleep during the show (in the third row no less). I know sometimes shows can happen late at night, and sometimes it's bad so you're not that invested, but seriously? If you can't stay awake, don't see the show.

[dramamama611]

As to sleep -- I doubt that anyone goes to the theater KNOWING they are going to fall asleep!  Last night I had a woman (maybe young twenties or  upper teens) fall asleep behind me at Shuffle Along....she had actually curled up under her coat ....so it certainly wasn't a total accident.  She didn't snore, but definitely was close, because that deep breathing that comes with sleep is what I heard that even had me turn around.  Had she snored, I definitely would have woken her up.

 

Also at Shuffle Along, a woman sat herself incorrectly (in row M instead of N) but then left her jacket there and went to the lobby (I suppose)  the people that actually had that ticket sat down and gave the jacket to an usher.  When the woman returned, a minute or two before curtain, she was so very confused about why these people were sitting in her seat.  Once the usher straightened it out, it put her next to me.  As we all stood up to let her in, she let us all know that she wasn't sure she'd be able to sit through the whole thing so she wanted to warn us all that she'd likely have to leave several times.  My row (about 4 of us) opted to move in one seat (further from center) so as not to be disturbed.  Don't you know, she didn't leave once.

[LizzieCurry]

I really don't care if people fall asleep during a show as long as they don't snore, drool, or lean on me. I feel asleep at The Total Bent, but I didn't mean to and had had a long day...and was in a comfortable seat! In the back row.

[Randomlink1]

With the sleeping, I just think it can be rude to the actors. I personally don't like it, but if they're sleeping peacefully and aren't that noticeable, I guess it's fine. To each is own.

[dramamama611]

It's not that its "fine", it's not....but it's not something people plan to do.  I use to nod off all the time when I took my kids to the movies....its dark, comfy and no one needed anything from me.  I never went thinking, "naptime", but it happened.

[LizzieCurry]

https://twitter.com/lin_manuel/status/645093552834396160

[mailhandler777]

I don't mind people falling asleep. I've fallen asleep myself. It's not something I plan on. It happens after a long bus ride or car drive.

 

At American Psycho yesterday afternoon two guys in front of me HATED the show. One guy fell asleep which I didn't mind. The other guy was so loud and obnoxious throughout the whole show. At one point when Jenn is singing and it's a fairly quiet slow song he is laughing so loud that Jenn heard him. He was laughing so loud at inappropriate moments that I finally had enough that I smacked him on the head with my Playbill and shushed him.