How Rude

[Cages or Wings]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:22am

I meant to post this a while ago, but it slipped my mind until I was reminded of it tonight by a friend. About a month ago I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which I loved) and I noticed something I had never seen at a broadway show before (and I've seen my share). As the Finale ended and the curtain call began, I would estimate roughly a fifth of the audience got up and left. This was one of the most disrespectful things I have ever seen. These people have worked incredibly hard now for months to try to put on an entertaining piece of theater, and you don't even have the common courtesy to offer a little gratitude to the performers. Please tell me this isn't common and I've just been lucky to not see it before.

[BluCat500]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:26am

I've noticed this too...Its like on the 4th of july or at a highschool concert when people rush to their cars to get outof the parking lot first or something...Only at a broadway show there is absolutely no point to rush out ignoring performers and knocking people out as you go...

[Act4ever]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:27am

I swear, when I hear stories like this, I think there needs to be like a big poster outside w/ theatre etiquete rules! Lol. Could you imagine? Like a school for the poor etiquette theatre goer? haha! I can see it now "Must have concluded theatre goer's class in order to purchace ticket." Some audience members suck.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:28am

Agreed. This happens at every Broadway show all the time, especially at evening performances.

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:34am

omigod how rude!!

i also hate when people don't clap. at all. They just don't- as if its not their job. To me its the audience that gives the performers their energy. great audiences = a great show!!

[etoile]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:37am

"...there is absolutely no point to rush out ignoring performers..."

I don't know. What about trying to catch that last train or bus of the night? Or getting to work yourself? Or getting a babysitter home before midnight, especially if parked in a garage? Or needing to be the first to post their review on this site? Or rushing to the stage door to stake your spot?

[Blair]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:37am

The worst I've ever seen this happen is last Saturday night at Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. About a 3rd of the audience got up DURING the finale. But that audience was just horrible in general. There was this group of foreign tourists next to me that literally talked throughout the ENTIRE show.

[BluCat500]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:44am

Meh there is still no excuse...I take the train in and out of the city and never miss it...and as long as the babysitter is not cinderella then she can stay past midnight and if she can't find one who can...There are just some things in life to which a certain amount of time must be alloted and you can't (or at least shouldn't) cut corners. Besides the curtain call is fun

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:47am

I REALLY do think there needs to be a sign that has theatre etiquete out side of the theatres, and in the lobby. Instead of having it in small print in the Playbill, where most ppl dont ever look.

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 12:54am

I know someone that left after Act 1.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 1:07am

Leaving after Act 1 is sort of different. Yes, it's kind of rude (assuming there isn't an emergency) but if the show as at least stopped, it's not really wrong...leaving while the performers (in theory...though they probably can't see through the lights) can see you go is awful.

This happened during an Audra McDonald concert last month. I was agast. How anyone could leave that voice?

[teh_pretty]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:24am

"What about trying to catch that last train or bus of the night? Or getting to work yourself?..."

Yeah, but what are the odds 1/3 of the audience needs to do that at the same time? You go to a show to see it, not to leave during it. It doesn't matter why you are leaving, it's still not nice.

But meh, what can ya do.

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:31am

I have noticed this happening more at Broadway subscription houses across the country. It amazes me. Not only are they leaving as soon as the last note is sung or the last word spoken, they are also talking loudly on the way out. I really think this can be blamed on people not seeing this as being any different than leaving a movie.
Updated On: 6/12/05 at 09:31 AM

[senortenor]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:31am

I never even realized that they had theater etiquette write-up in the Playbills. What does it say?

Walking out on Audra!?! Now, those people should be shot!

I think overall it is really rude to walk out before the show is officially over. But, I think every once in awhile, especially at a show that has gone on too long or that was just really horrible (Good Vibrations, for me!)-- one just feels the urge to leave.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:33am

ugh that is REALLY rude!! i hate when people don't take the few extra minutes to appreciate all that the actors have done. pfft. damn them all! LOL.

[InfiniteGirl]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:35am

Not just Broadway theater. I was at a kid's production of Grease the other day, and people (parents, no less!) kept getting up and walking across the front of the stage to leave and come back. Like it's TV, not theater, and their own kids can't see them and be totally thrown. Grrrr.

[bunchamuncha]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:53am

I don't think there's any obligation to stay and clap. Do you stay for all the credits during a movie?
If you have the time and you liked the performance, by all means but to call it rude, that should be saved for the people who come in late and expect to be seated or the ones that open those damn candy wrappers during a performance.

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:00am

The bows and the curtain call are the only time when the performers really get to connect with the audience - when we thank them for taking us on this journey and they thank us for coming along with them. To leave during this is incredibly rude. I myself do not leave until the orchestra has finished playing, and I applaud for them too. Often I am the only one left in the theatre at that point.

Audiences have, in my viewpoint, become increasingly more rude at every show - professional, regional, high school, it doesn't matter. I went to see my good friend in a production of 42nd Street and the woman sitting behind had brought her four year old grandson. Now, I don't have a problem with bringing children to the theatre, if you can keep them under control - but this woman was allowing him to play his Gameboy *with the sound on.* When I turned around during one of the scene changes and asked her if she would please tell him to turn the sound off, she took on the most snide tone of voice. "Oh, is that *bothering* you? I didn't realize it was *bothering* you. People these days are bothered by *everything.*" At intermission, she said, "We're going to move our seats so we don't *bother* you anymore."

And don't even get me started on people eating in the theatre...! Fussing with their plastic wrappers, chewing obnoxiously right in your ear... the majority of theatregoers these days seem to think they're at the movies. You think they would have noticed the difference in ticket prices.

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:03am

And let us not forget about audience members who seem to already know a musical's score by heart. I once told a woman, "I came to hear Patti LuPone take over Argentina. Not you!"

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:09am

Oh man. I saw Evita on a junior high school field trip and all of my female classmates wanted to prove they were "tru bway fans!!!1" The thought the best way to do this was to sing along.

I saw The Lion King on another school field trip... don't even get me started...

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:35am

I agree that it is very rude to leave at any point during and right after the performance, unless there is an emergency. But when a large chunk of people leave like that, I think it might be because they are the people who have been bused into the city. They buy these dinner and theater tickets and have to get on those huge annoying buses to go back home. What they don't realize is that the bus will wait for everyone. They're just not familiar with it, which bothers me.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:37am

It is just as rude for people to come in habitually late . They are almost always in the middle of a row & they bother both people who got there on time & performers. Late comers are indeed a pain in the ass

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:46am

Mr. Roxy, The closer it gets to curtain time,the more I look to see how many empty seats are in the rows in front of me-praying they are either unsold or no-shows. Unfortunately, they are almost always latecomers.

Updated On: 6/12/05 at 10:46 AM

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 11:18am

I hate it when people do that too, although I did do that at Wicked on Idina's last week to secure a good spot at the stage door.

[musicnmath]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 2:24pm

I've seen shows (i.e. theatre in the round) where the actors enter and exit through the aisles and were almost knocked down by leaving audience members!!!