Today at "Blackbird"

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 7:34pm

A friend just posted this to his Facebook:

"Perhaps the most poorly behaved audience I've encountered.

1. Someone has their hearing aid turned up so high, the feedback was audible throughout the theater and sounded like someone was playing 80's video games for the duration of the show. Manager provided her with a house listening aid which she refused to use...incredibly distracting.
2. A couple wanted late seating. ABSOLUTELY NO LATE SEATING is printed on your ticket. There are signs at the box office, in the lobby, outside the theater. They showed up 20 minutes late and started loudly fighting with the ushers in the back of the house.
3. After badgering their way into getting seated, they proceeded to take out deli sandwiches, loudly eat them, crumpling paper and crinkling bags for the next 40 minutes (while texting).
4. The same cellphone rang lengthily (10 rings min) at least 6 times during the performance including during the shocking finale.

This play was intimate and only 80 minutes long. I haven't the foggiest idea what it was about.

Thanks, assholes."

Updated On: 6/8/16 at 07:34 PM

[TigerBait88]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 7:36pm

Dear God that sounds awful. I would have been furious. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 8:58pm

This was nothing compared to The Color Purple a few weeks ago. A fourth of the audience seemed to be late, cell phones going off, and people bringing full meals and snacks. The mess they left behind was repulsive. Such a shame that no one has any manners these days. Whatever happened to class, indeed!

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 9:58pm

it's gotten so bad recently, it's starting to make theatre-going a stressful occasion. I wish there was some outlet to complain in a more constructive way that actually changes people's behavior, but it seems futile. Almost none of the people responsible are on message boards like this. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:00pm

Owen, did you contact them via email or social media? Not that you can get your day back, but it can't hurt to let them know.

 

EDIT: Sorry, just saw that it was your friend's post, not yours.

Updated On: 6/8/16 at 10:00 PM

[laugard]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:16pm

I guess this is one time when I'm glad to have been in the balcony,  because I was also there today and wasn't even aware of most of those issues! I did hear the cellphone several times, but the sound was so distant, I actually wasn't sure if it was meant to be part of the play at first. (Since it takes place in an office and at the beginning there's some background noise.) I was actually more aware of the sirens coming from the street. And the balcony was so cold, especially coming in from then rain, i spent the first 10 minutes wishing i had the jacket michelle williams wears at the start lol. But what a terrible experience for your friend and others. I'm glad I was unaware, but sorry others had their time disrupted in such a terrible fashion, especially during such a serious play. 

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:21pm

Unfortunately, the house staff can't do anything about this type of behavior. Scott Rudin prohibits the staff from doing almost anything once the curtain goes up. This allows for this type of behavior to persist.

[belrowley]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:28pm

Isn't he also stringent on latecomers? I wonder why the staff seated people who came 20 minutes late.

[Sylver1]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:49pm

It has probably reached the point where before the performance a person needs to come out onstage and basically read the riot act… Turn your cell phones off… No eating food… No sloshing of drinks and ice cubes etc. etc.… Make it clear that people will be thrown out if they disobey.... It is just nuts…that said… The theaters need to not allow food in after intermission etc.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:52pm

belrowley said: "Isn't he also stringent on latecomers? I wonder why the staff seated people who came 20 minutes late.

 

"

Probably to just make those belligerent nudniks shut up. It was clearly a losing battle and if they could be heard in the theatre, so I'm sure they made a decision to just let them go through. 

[Anakela]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 11:51pm

I (knock wood) have been having good experiences with audiences and staff at the off-Bway productions I've been to recently. Saw Daphne's Dive tonight and I was cringing before the show started as the party next to me (second row center) had someone who they were talking about would be coming late. well, late seating is at the discretion of management, and if their party came late she wasn't seated second row center; there was no late seating interruption. No cell phones rang, no lights from texting, bare minimum talking (as in maybe two "what did she say?" and repeating the line) from the couple behind me, no hearing aid feedback, etc. It was lovely, and definitely makes me want to keep to off-Bway (again, knock wood.) 

[belrowley]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 12:03am

Yeah, I'm sure the staff thought it would be resolved quicker if they just let the latecomers sit - but this is what happens when they don't follow their own protocol.

Blackbird is such a brutally tense play, I can't imagine how distracted the people sitting nearby were, not to mention the actors.

There has to be a strict policy in place, and the staff have to actually enforce it. If Alamo Drafthouse can do it, so can others.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 12:23am

They enforced it when we went. We were in the orchestra and my wife had a medical reason for water - no ice - but they still confiscated her water bottle and we were told if you got up to go to the John, you could not come back to your seat and had to stand the rest of the way in the back. One guy got so frustrated by these rules he got up and left after 20 minutes.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 12:38am

PThespian said: "Where was security? This is the type of issue they addressed at the two Scott Rudin plays I worked. "

 

Because the show is nowhere near sold-out, latecomers are permitted to enter and sit in the back. It's not clear to me in this situation if that's where they were being seated and that's why they were arguing, or if they sort of just sat themselves. 

[Just_John]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 12:52am

I was also at Blackbird this afternoon, but in the balcony, and there was a woman rattling her bracelets for the entire show.  It drove me nuts. I moved to the complete opposite side as soon as it started and I could still hear it  I kept looking at the usher trying to signal her to do something but she seemed more interested in taking a nap.  I'm surprised to hear that it seemed to have been much worse had I sat lower. 

Then I saw Daphne's Dive tonight as well and I was also thinking how well behaved off-Broadway audiences are.  Broadway has gotten out of control and something has to be done.  Iv'e seen most Broadway shows the past ten years and it is happening far to often all of a sudden.  

At Eclipsed, a few weeks ago, I had to call for an usher to come out after asking these two woman behind me to stop talking more than 5 times and then she tried to contest it.  When I told the usher she told him I was lying but thankfully another audience member said "No, he is not," but all he did was say "please be quiet" and ran away, but thankfully they then gave it up.  

Updated On: 6/9/16 at 12:52 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 1:20am

At Kinky Boots tonight about halfway through act one, the girl next to me pulled out a big bag of salt & vinegar potato chips. She went to open the bag and I leaned into her and said (and I swear i didn't know what I said until I said it) "If you open that f**king bag, I will smack the sh*t out of you". 

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 1:46am

^ That's amazing. What did she say?

[StephieElise]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:11am

I was at Megan Hilty's concert last night (which was awesome!) and at the end she thanked us for not having a single phone out all night as that was the first concert she's done where she hasn't seen one. On one hand, yay for that audience, on the other that really stinks that we were the exception not the rule!

The issue with hearing aid feedback relates more to the fit of the ear moulds than volume. If they are not a snug fit or aren't worn properly then the sound keeps bouncing back to the microphone, hence causing the feedback loop. My sister is severely deaf so most of the time I go to the theatre I am within 2 seats of a set of hearing aids which are loud (they have to be for her to hear) and I have NEVER heard feedback from her hearing aids. But because she has had hearing aids since she was 6 months old she knows how to wear them properly and is accustomed to the feel of them and the amplification of her own voice (which comes with properly fitted ear moulds). So while I know how annoying the feedback is (I've experienced many whistling hearing aids overnight) but I think we need to note that the person likely isn't intentionally being a bad theatre patron but rather a bad hearing aid wearer and they probably shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as phone users.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:18am

Jordan Catalano said: "At Kinky Boots tonight about halfway through act one, the girl next to me pulled out a big bag of salt & vinegar potato chips. She went to open the bag and I leaned into her and said (and I swear i didn't know what I said until I said it) "If you open that f**king bag, I will smack the sh*t out of you". 

 

"Definitely not the right way to handle that situation  

 

[Broadway_Boy]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:29am

So what was the right way?  Kindness never works with these people.  I could tell you story after story of how I have tried nicely to get people to stop being a nuisance in the theatre and I always have to resort to raising my voice or using curse words.  

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:34am

Threatening physical violence is not going to scare people into behaving.  Go ahead and curse and confront all you want, but the physical violence threat pushed it too far 

[@z5]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 3:05am

I was there today too and was mortified and so disappointed. I missed so much of the show. Also, people in my row were talking nonstop and on their phones...the usher sitting directly behind me was SLEEPING!!!! Fast asleep. I am fuming.

[evic]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 6:25am

The problem could be solved if they just market Broadway as "Dinner Theater".  I had the same potato chip problem the other night at She Loves Me.. This fat cow, who didn't need to be eating chips was crunching and crinkling the bag.  I snapped my fingers at her and she stopped.  And I had to put up with a kid of about 10 who kept kicking the back of my seat and when the Act 1 curtain came down, he said to his mother..."Is it over now?"

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 7:20am

evic said: "The problem could be solved if they just market Broadway as "Dinner Theater".  I had the same potato chip problem the other night at She Loves Me.. This fat cow, who didn't need to be eating chips was crunching and crinkling the bag.  I snapped my fingers at her and she stopped.  And I had to put up with a kid of about 10 who kept kicking the back of my seat and when the Act 1 curtain came down, he said to his mother..."Is it over now?"

 

"

You could've made your point without fat shaming, but otherwise I feel your pain. How did chips become a thing? Why aren't those confiscated instead of water bottles?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 8:09am

Maybe Rudin has a soft spot in his heart for potato chips.