Not sure what it was on Broadway (I assume it was the same or very similar), but The Addams Family on tour had a cute bit about torturing audience members who used their phones/crinkled wrappers/etc during the performance.
Ha! And within THAT link there is an identical post redirecting people to an even earlier thread!
This board really needs a new format where questions like this (and stage doors, specific shows, rush, etc) can be posted. Or maybe make the "search" button more prominent.
I loved the Legally Blonde pre-show announcement, I also love the Kinky Boots pre-show and I used to love the Hairspray pre-show with Corny Collins reminding the audience that it is 1962.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
The best pre-show announcements are the ones that sound kind of mean, like at Phantom, where they say that flash photography is annoying to people around you. The ushers who walk around and tell small sections of the theater at a time are great too. The cutesy ones suggest that it's more of a suggestion than a rule to put phones away and it's totes NBD if you text and/record.
I like the Kinky Boots one. I think (hope?) it's more effective having a person on stage rather than a voice over and I like that they spell out that no phone use whatsoever is acceptable. At the final Melbourne show last weekend Don's 'understood?' was responded to by a chorus of 'yes!', although admittedly a large portion of the audience would have been theatre people.
Phantom4ever said: "The best pre-show announcements are the ones that sound kind of mean, like at Phantom, where they say that flash photography is annoying to people around you."
I'm not sure I'd describe him as "mean", but the guy who does the Phantom announcement is certainly severe. I particularly like the way he phrases his last statement as if it comprises four distinct sentences: "Please do not take photographs at any time. In. This. Theatre."
==> this board is a nest of vipers <==
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene" - Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage