West End theatres now employing bouncers
West End theatres now employing bouncers
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#1West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:01pm
From U.K. Times Online
A number of West End theatres are now employing bouncers to cope with intoxicated patrons who fight, fondle one another and even urinate in the auditorium.
The yobbish behaviour has led to theatregoers being ejected during performances and police being called to some of London?s most successful shows.
One production was interrupted after a woman was caught ?pleasuring? her partner in the stalls. And the cast of Stephen Sondheim?s A Little Night Music were stunned to see an audience member walk over to the side of the stage and relieve himself.
Mind your step: it?s a yobs? night at the theatre
Updated On: 8/2/09 at 09:01 PM
#2re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:12pm
Liaisons!
What's happened to them?
Liaisons today.
Disgraceful!
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#2re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:18pm
A number of West End theatres are now employing bouncers to cope with intoxicated patrons who fight, fondle one another and even urinate in the auditorium.
Not to be rude, but what the fu*k is going on over there?!
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#3re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:25pm
When I saw Avenue Q at the Noel Coward, after the intermission one of the balconies was occupied by two men and a woman, obviously drunk and very loud. Each was holding a bottle of liquor. After a few minutes they started their own show, making out with each other (yes, like a threesome) and laughing very loud, and ignoring there was a show going on.
One man in the front row tried to "shh" them, and one of the guys threw a bottle at him and they all left a few minutes after.
I was like WTF?! Never saw an usher trying to stop them.
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
timote316
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/04
#4re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:28pmTheatres using bouncers? Don't tell Nick Adams.
#5re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:37pmSeriously? What goes on in these theatres?
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#6re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:41pmYeah. If anything, they should be peeing on the walls of the Marquis with its current tenant.
#7re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:48pm@Yankeefan ROFL/Yikes!
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
AndAllThatJazz22
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/08
#8re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:50pm
Well, at least they don't stand at the end of every show 
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas."
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
#9re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:51pm
I love how some of the British theatregoers critique US audiences because we give entrance applause, and standing ovations, all the while they are having threesomes during the show and pissing on the stage.
AndAllThatJazz22
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/08
#10re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:54pmAmerica has had a handful of 'incidents', like the couple that had sex in one of the boxes during 'Legally Blonde'. There was also a dude that touched himself during one of Cheno's songs in YAGMCB.
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas."
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
#11re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:59pmI saw four shows in London two months ago and three of the shows (Little Night, La Cage and Sister Act) recieved full standing ovations during the curtain call. I also saw a matinee of Oliver! and I would say about 40% of the stalls were standing at curtain call. So I wouldn't say London doesn't give standing ovations easily.
#12re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 9:59pm
Oh, I'm sure we have. I guess it just hasnt reached the point that it has over there.
Although it wasn't really an 'incident', when I saw Ave. Q for my first time there in New York, everytime the man next to me would laugh, the side of my face got a little more preserved due to the amount of alcohol on his breath. I had to hold mine just so I wouldnt become intoxicated.
#13re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:08pmI love this because I know people who think American theatre goers are rude but honestly has this happened in NYC
Genius lasts longer than beauty.
#14re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:09pmHahaha, and yet there's still the completely unfounded stereotype that they're somehow substantially more sophisticated over there.
#15re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:17pmMy thoughts exactly Scarywarhol...
Genius lasts longer than beauty.
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#16re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:26pm
Fondling and drinking are passable.
Pissing during A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is passe.
AndAllThatJazz22
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/08
#17re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:28pmMaybe the reason why british theatre goers don't 'respond' as much is because they're passed out from excessive alcohol use.
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas."
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
#18re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/2/09 at 10:30pmGuess sending ROCK OF AGES to the West End might not be such a good idea ....
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#19re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 11:03amAs awful as this stuff is, it's not as if its something that happens all the time in the UK! In many years of going to the West End several times a month, I have never seen any behaviour like those things mentioned in the article. Maybe I'm just going to the "wrong" shows...!
#20re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 11:14amIsn't the obvious solution to send Patti over there?
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#21re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 11:34amHow many times did you pee on that wall? Three!! Three times!!!
Just give the world Love.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#22re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 12:00pm
I'm sure it's not an every performance type of behavior. We have our share....and we've heard of fondling experiences here....onstage at SA one night there was a couple that couldn't keep their hands off each other and were not trying ot hide it...at all.
Still....oy.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#23re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 12:02pmThere's always the popular story of someone jerking off during a show. Such as the guy who did so during one of Cheno's songs in You're A Good Man Charlie Brown.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
#24re: West End theatres now employing bouncers
Posted: 8/3/09 at 12:38pm
Just because it is not reported does not mean it doesn't occur in the US.
I attend London theatre four, maybe five, times a month and the worst I've ever seen is someone answering a phone call during Waiting For Godot ... boy, did Ian McKellen tell that guy where to shove his phone. Never have I encountered people pissing on walls, or anything that bad. However, I haven't seen Mamma Mia, Thriller, Dirty Dancing or We Will Rock You, all of which are notorious for roudy audience behaviour.
Re standing ovations - at shows which are marketed equally for Brits and tourists (Sister Act, Oliver, Dirty Dancing) there is sadly a mandatory standing o.
Example 1 - at Michael Ball's last performance in Hairspray, the audience gave Leanne Jones (who played her last performace as Tracy on the same night) a standing ovation in the middle of the show.
Example 2 - at La Cage last Saturday, only a handful of the stalls gave Roger Allam and Phillip Quast a standing ovation, and after they realised no one else was standing, they all sat down.
