Worst Broadway Audience Ever?- Page 6

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 12/13/07 at 1:33pm

This wasn't Broadway but we had this group of college actors who put on a theatrical adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. When Boo Radley said, "Can you take me home", the entire audience (except for me) burst into laughter. To them, a man with psychological or mental problems is totally hilarious.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 12/13/07 at 2:15pm

At Pygmalion yesterday, people were laughing during the scene after the party where Eliza is crying alone in Higgins' office. I think it mostly came fromt he high school group in front of me (those of them who were awake, anyway), but still.

[DaneSaw]

Posted: 12/13/07 at 4:08pm

I swear, every time I see "RENT" there's a group of idiots or young children who can't sit still somewhere in my general vicinity. Once I was next to a girl who could have been no older than 4 and just crawled around in her seat the whole time. Most of the other times it seems like a bunch of 15 year olds with that hideous black "RENT" shirt on who scream whenever (insert actor here) appears or sings. However, when I saw the show and was front-row in Philly, there was a girl behind me who had to be between 16 and 18. I, 17 at the time, knew how to behave during a musical. She, however, did not and attempted to sing every song up until "Life Support", during which I kindly informed her to shut the hell up (my "Out Tonight/Another Day" will not go interrupted).

Aside from that, I went on a trip sponsored by my dorm last year to see Avenue Q. It was a Sunday, the mezzanine was empty except for us, and a ton of other unrelated people our age...was it college day? Anyway, a lot of them had never seen a musical and had been dragged by their roommate/girlfriend so there was a lot of getting up and phones going off and what-not.

Aside from that, this old, staunch couple were seated in front of my mother and I during Spring Awakneing and wouldn't shut up about how much they didn't like the show during intermission. Thankfully they kept their traps shut for the remainder.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 6:30am

At last night's performance of THE HOMECOMING there was what seemed to be a virtual symphony of interference from those damned infrared hearing devices. One of the loudest offenders was sitting right behind me. He also managed to ruin one of the most important moments in the play by talking out loud full blast, as if he was in his own living room.

I managed to put up with it until the intermission, when I politely but firmly informed the gentleman that his headphones were making a LOT of noise and that he needed to have them adjusted. My friends informed him that he nneded to turn off his other hearing aid when he had the device on. He apologized, got up and went to the lobby to see about it. One of my friends went to talk to the house manager about the situation, thinking there were other technical difficulties.

Act II started, and the noise was somewhat lessened, but then got suddenly louder. The gentleman behind me had taken the headphones out of his ears, and the noise was interminable, loud and electric. He was fiddling with them, and I asked him again to keep them quiet.

Then they started up again even louder. I turned around and saw that the old man had the headphones in his lap. I finally grabbed the headphones from the gentleman, wrapped them in my jacket and shoved them under my seat.

At last, I could concentrate on the play, but the damage was done. I'm afraid I was so angry that I couldn't fully enjoy the play, which was by now two thirds over. When the lights came up I tossed the headphones into the gentleman's lap, telling telling him that he had singlehandedly ruined the play for me, and that he owed me the price of a ticket. His wife tried to shame me by telling me that the old man was 87, as if the old man's age had anything at all to do with it. One of my friends told her that it wasn't just the headphones but the out loud talking that was a problem too.

To be fair, the old gentleman wasn't trying to ruin anyone's evening. But ruin it he did.

[[tos]fan999]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 5:23pm

So, this is my first post here, and I have been thoroughly amused (and at times disgusted) by this thread.

So here's my story:
I've seen many many many Broadway shows in my lifetime (and I'm only 16), but the worst BY FAR was when I saw The Drowsy Chaperone back on January 6th.
I love the Marquis Theatre because it barely has any obstructed views. I got the 2nd to last row in the center for $25 a seat. I was there with my mom, and it was my first time seeing the show. I had been familiar with the show since the Tony Awards, though. The trouble started when a overly enthusiastic pre-teen was seated right behind me, and made a fuss about Bob and Danny being out. I'm assuming she had seen the show before, because she kept obnoxiously laughing at everything, and kept telling her father what was going to happen next, although she didn't laugh during the "gay wedding" joke, so I'm assuming that she wasn't old enough to get it. And her father didn't seem to like the show at all, he didn't make any noise at all.
And the thing that annoyed me the most was that people left right as the "As We Stumble Along" reprise was starting. They couldn't wait 5 minutes for the show to end?!

And, when I saw Spring Awakening back on April 14th, I was in the mezz. and there was a girl seated onstage who couldn't have been more than 12. I could see her mother getting really uncomfortable, and needless to say, they were gone after intermission.

Updated On: 12/22/07 at 05:23 PM

[StuckToTheStage]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 7:52pm

I have three....

In The Pirate Queen there was a group of school students behind me who would not stop talking the entire time. I was with a school group as well and we never spoke a word.

In Tarzan another group of students were listening to iPods, texting, and producing far too much chatter.

Lastly, I was in the audience for Mary Poppins and this kid was sitting behind me and constantly unwrapped candy and had very large bags from shopping pushed right up against my back. As you know, the New Amsterdam seats are about 6 inches apart.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:16pm

This isn't Broadway, but I recently saw the Nutcracker in Boston and probably sat among one of the worst audiences ever. I loved the show, but there were numerous latecomers and a lot of little kids. One family even allowed their little girl to roam around in the aisles during the show.

[TabooWickedFan]

Posted: 12/22/07 at 10:57am

One experience that comes to mind is when I went to see Coram Boy. I was sitting on the side of the orch. and the ushers behind the curtain were talking. Not just talking, but like yelling to each other about their days. Everyone kept looking at the curtains that they stood behind and muttering to themselves because we could hear them over the performers. I didn't go to the theatre to hear about their days I came to see the show. So I got up from my seat, went to the curtain pushed it aside and said you know everyone can hear you from behind this curtain would you mind being quiet? They looked at me in shock and I went sat back down. At intermission a lot of our section thanked me, but yeah, definitely glad I said something or I would have missed the show.

[BeDeeDaDooBaDoBop]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 9:26pm

I saw TCP [Yeah, I bring that up a lot] and it was my first time going to see it. It was fine during the first act. However, ACT II was when I wanted to shoot the people in the orchestra level. They stood on thier feet and sarted to dance during "Miss Celie's Pants" and it was pretty hard to focus on the actors on stage. Then one woman in particular got the...how do you say it...um..."holly ghost" and started chanting "Thank you, Lord!!" during "I'm Here". Im only fourteen and maybe I won't understand, but, but even I know that the appropriate thing to do is leave the theatre.

[ShiksaGoddess2]

Posted: 1/5/08 at 12:20am

One time, I saw Wicked and there was this kid next to me who won't stop singing along. Like seriously, come on kid, don't make me punch you in the face.

Oh and during One Short Day, when Elphaba was like "No one's staring.. no one's pointing," this kid points. And she was sitting front row. Really annoying. Updated On: 1/5/08 at 12:20 AM

[mizzfit24601]

Posted: 1/5/08 at 11:33am

Well I was seeing Chicago and before the show started the very old woman next to me was like "sorry dear, but I don't speak english too good, i'm french" and I was like "oh, french is my first lanaguge too" (and it is) ands he did this annoying squeal thing and starting talking really fast in french and I answered her polietly but then once the show started she kept whispering in my ear in french. i kept asking her to be quiet but she didn't care, she just kept whispering loudly. I was very frustrated and everyone kept looking at me.

and one time at spring awakening someones cell went off and the tone was dont do sadness.

[Mezzo21862]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 1:45pm

when i went to a performance of Spring Awakening last March, people were laughing a lot at very innappropriate parts...such as when Wendla gets beaten by Melchior. I chocked it up to the fact that maybe these people were very uncomfortable or something?? I don't know...it sounded like that uncomfortable laughter...when you don't know how to feel sad...hmmmm
also, when Melchior and Wendla finally have sex, this guy very close to me says "And...he's done", making a very crude reference to melchior's first time experience...and i thought for a middle-aged man that was very immatture!! haha

[Glitzinda]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 2:01pm

The first time I saw Phantom on Broadway I had really bad balcony seats (like one row before the back wall). Anyway, all around me were children on a school field trip. It was very obvious that these children did not care about seeing the musical and literally spent the whole time talking and moving around with their friends. They would also make snide comments about the show once in a while about how much it sucked and how boring it was. What made it even worse was that the teachers and other chaperons didn't do anything about it, they just let the kids do whatever they want. The whole experience of watching the show was ruined for me.

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 2:17pm

The first time I saw Les Miz on Broadway was a horrible experience. I have a huge pet peeve with gum...it's gotten better (a little) but at that time it was actually beyond a pet peeve. Well, the woman behind me was chomping, cracking and popping her gum the whole time. It didn't help that we'd been up since 3am, flown and then walked all over the entire city and I was exhausted...but she just wouldn't stop. It bothered me so much that by the end of the first act, it's all I could hear. Needless to say it was awful. I went back to see Les Miz this past July and was actually able to enjoy the show. There was a lot of it that really was a surprise, because I missed it the first time.

There was a gum popper at LB on Saturday afternoon, too. I just think it's so rude. But it didn't bother me as much. Mostly because it wasn't right in my ear. Actually there was a lot of noise at LB. Crinkling wrappers, gum and whatnot. But it wasn't bad enough to distract me from the show much.

[RogerBartFan78]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 1:48am

In response to actors breaking charcter . . .

When I saw GLASS MENAGERIE in NYC in summer of 2005, it was a Sunday matinee, and about 10 minutes until the end of the first act, my mother and I kept hearing some strange sound - we thought it might be sound effects, but it turned out to be this old man snoring EXTREMELY LOUD in the second row. It got louder and louder, and finally Christian Slater, just looked down, started saying a line . . .and said "Will someone PLEASE wake him up? It's hard enough to do this, but harder to do when SOMEBODY'S SNORING!" He was laughing while he said it, but still, I bet he was pissed. Jessica Lange just lost it - she broke up laughing. The audience applauded - haha! Then he continued by saying, "Anyway, my next line is . . ."

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 3:13am

The tour of RENT came through Chattanooga back in November. The show started about ten minutes late (I'm assuming because there was terrible weather and they were waiting for more people to show up), but ushers were still seating people during "One Song Glory" and a couple people even snuck in during "Today 4 U". It was extremely distracting and the ushers were using flashlights, which seemed a bit unnecessary.

When I saw Spring Awakening in December there was a group of about eight girls in their early teens who giggled at EVERYTHING (including Jonathan Groff's...overabundance of saliva, which was kind of weird) and laughed at every reference to sex. They completely ruined "The Word of Your Body" and the scene where Melchior beats Wendla with their incessant sn*ing.

[IsolatingAge]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 5:04am

When I saw the Rent tour a few weeks ago, my friend and I left the theatre talking excitedly about Christine Dwyer and Onyie Nwachukwu, the actresses playing Maureen and Joanne, and an older gentleman overheard us and said "Did you think they were good?" And we said yes, and this man said. "They needed to be hotter."

It was... weird.

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 5:19am

And we said yes, and this man said. "They needed to be hotter."

This is because the only "acceptable" lesbians are young, attractive women who will also sleep with men.

Updated On: 1/10/08 at 05:19 AM

[IsolatingAge]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 4:48pm

Ha! Too true.
And, I would say the audience for that performance was pretty good. I mean, I couldn't really tell because I was in the front row directly in front of the speaker, so I couldn't hear anything but the show even if I tried. They were certainly quiet though. I believe that in the case of Rent, a few hoots and hollers at the ends of songs and the occasional cheer during specific moments (The glittery hair shake in Out Tonight) are appropriete, as long as you stay in your seat, that is. It just doesn't have the same energy with a quiet audience.
I was kind of proud of them when they cheered at the end of Voice Mail #4. That was a vast improvement.

And my friend and I were the first ones to stand during the curtain call, and I just had this eerie feeling that no one behind us was standing.



OH! ETA:
I didn't actually see this happen, but my friend who is the House Manager at Villanova University's theatre told me about this.
Once during a very passionate scene during a play, two actors were sitting together on stage. Now, the stage at Villanova is three sides and usually floor level with stadium seating. So, during the performance an eldery couple decides they need to go to the bathroom. They walk onstage BETWEEN THE ACTORS!!!!! To get to the other side of the stage. And when they returned they walked BETWEEN THE ACTORS! again.

Updated On: 1/10/08 at 04:48 PM

[worrell4077]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 6:23pm

"Aside from that, this old, staunch couple were seated in front of my mother and I during Spring Awakneing and wouldn't shut up about how much they didn't like the show during intermission. Thankfully they kept their traps shut for the remainder."

I was around the area when this occured but the first time I saw Spring Awakening was on a trip with my Play Production and Intro to Theatre classes and we were talking about it the next day and my Play Production professor said that behind him was a Southern couple who did very much like the elderly couple that you mentioned Danesaw and were complaining about how they didn't like it and that they wished that they had tickets to see Mary Poppins.

The third time I saw The Producers was during Hunter Foster's first run as Leo and I had already seen him as Leo and I was looking forward to seeing him again as Leo and before the show started I was sitting talking with my sister and stuff like that and this elderly gentleman says to me, would you mind taking your hat off, and I did(even though I was going to take it off before the show started). So, I thought that would be the end of it, the son of a b**** then says, "I would like to see the show as much as you do." I got so pissed, but I kept my cool and just ignored it, even though I probably should of turned and said, "Excuse me sir, there was no need for that comment." I'm not one of those people who if someone pisses them off says something unless they really piss me off, but you can see it on my face that I'm annoyed by them.

Anywho, that was the rest of it because apparently during Springtime For Hitler, the couple were saying how inapproiate it was for my sister to be watching that. Inapproiate, Springtime For Hitler is not exactly something I would call inapproiate since it pokes fun at Nazis and Hitler and my sister has seen things that are inapproiate. Then these two apparently complained to my sister at the end during the curtain call when she was giving the entire cast a standing ovation(there was period in her life where she wanted to be the first one up giving standing ovations no matter what the show was or how big the cast was). They were complaining and asking her to sit down because they couldn't see and she turned and said ,"I thought they did a good job and I'm giving them a standing ovation for it."

This past summer I got to see Curtains and the couple infront of me were blocking my view, so I had to look off to the side, but as I was looking off to let's say the right side, the guy in front of me would move to that side, and then I would go look at the left side, seconds later, he was on that side. I was getting so pissed. I was thinking, does he have eyes in the back of his head or does he know when I'm watching the show and just wants to piss me off.

This wasn't theatre, but I went to see Frankie Valli at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ and there were two drunk women at the show that were causing a scene during the show and at the stage door afterwards.

[dancingqueen]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 6:06pm

I hate when people are so inconsiderate of others who have paid just as much as they have to actually ENJOY the show. If you or niece feel like you missed out on anything the touring cast from HSM will be performing on Dance War next week.

[philly03]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 7:22pm

I'm sorry but the balcony/cheap seats whereever in Spamalot is usually the worst for me. Honestly, we all know you know every single joke and you think this is the best show in the world, etc., etc.. But seriously I'm sure the actors/other rowdy people like it but most of the time I'd rather just sit back and watch the play.

And I agree with the WICKED. What's with EEVERYONE singing the entire show. I pay good money for those tickets and if I wanted to hear you sing I could sit at home and watch YouTube!

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 7:40pm

When I saw Wicked a couple weeks ago, NOONE laughed at ANYTHING. I actually felt bad for the actors. Also, during some very cheer-worthy parts (defying gravity end for one), all they got was a polite applause. I almost apologized for the audience when I went backstage and met Annaleigh. My friend and I were the loudest and most excited people in the whole audience, it was insane.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 11:48am

Last night at work we had to deal with two extremely drunk women, one of whom fell down the stairs into one of our ushers, whose wrist and ankle were hurt badly. One of the women tried to punch a passerby outside.

Please do not come to the theatre drunk.

[broadwayboy522]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 5:32pm

I recently saw High School Musical when it came to Raleigh and the audience was terrible. When the show started there were a lot of empty seats meaning a lot of late people. There was a huge group a row in front of us that came in during the chemistry lab scene and we all know that's pretty far in the first act. Don't people even bother to see what time a show starts? Just look at your ticket!