Audience behaviour

[mkmswain]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 5:54am

I had a few annoying experiences this week, with people arriving at least 20min late (and making a whole row stand up for them), forgetting to turn phones off, whispering to friends etc. Do you think theatre audiences are getting worse?

[Broadway_Boy]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 3:53pm

So much worse!  More and more often I have to call people out for talking mainly.  At Funny Girl, a couple behind me in the second row wouldn't stop talking and I finally turned around and glared at them and made direct eye contact. They immediately continued speaking, so I said "For the love of God, stop talking." They stopped then. 

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 4:40pm

The few shows in London I have seen on my two trips there in the last four years I have not witnessed any bad behavior. Check the Broadway board and you should read some of the things people have said about audiences.

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 5:49pm

There's plenty of bad audience behaviour in London. Just read here:  http://theatreboard.co.uk/thread/13/bad-behaviour-show

[Emma MK]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 10:02am

For the last few shows ive seen ive always had someone either in front or behind me that has been whispering or on their phone and its so frustrating! Audiences are definitely getting worse! There was a girl who must have been aged about 18-19 in front of me at Sunset Boulevard who spent half of the show on facebook. She was with an older lady who im assuming was her mother, who said nothing to stop her.

[FireFingers]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 12:06pm

Emma MK said: "For the last few shows ive seen ive always had someone either in front or behind me that has been whispering or on their phone and its so frustrating! Audiences are definitely getting worse! There was a girl who must have been aged about 18-19 in front of me at Sunset Boulevard who spent half of the show on facebook. She was with an older lady who im assuming was her mother, who said nothing to stop her.

 

"

Conversely, the worst audiences' I have been in in London have been packed with people who are old enough to know better. Whether is be coughing every 5 seconds (if you are that ill, you shouldn't be in the theatre) or jabbering at each other about who is on stage, what the plot is, what they saw that performer in before, I have found the more mature audiences to be much worse than the youth orientated ones.  

 

[rjm516]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 1:43pm

^ Agree with the above. Older theatregoers are the louder whisperers, the ones who don't mind using their phones. I think perhaps a lot of young people who go to the theatre are more actively going out of their way or wanting to be there, like they're the young people on these boards who are aware of theatre etiquette and maybe going to the theatre isn't the standard done thing socially for their age group, so it shows they really are theatre people. Whereas a lot of middle-aged people are going to the theatre socially with other couples or something and want to talk. At least recently, the people I've sat near who have been the worst loud talkers etc. were middle-aged couples. I just can't believe that with all the bad-mouthing NYC audiences get, London's are actually just as bad.