The Constituent - Old Vic (J. Corden, A. Maxwell Martin)

I'm neither Welsh nor remotely interested in rugby, but were Sheen to have provided a running commentary on the final moments of that game, I'm pretty sure I would have been caught up vicariously in all the emotions he was investing in it. If you're human and have empathy, how can you not be?

If the national side (male or female) or a national player was involved in any major sports competition that had reached a nail-biting game finale with minutes to go, then I could well imagine the same thing happening. It's not just England men's football. Imagine if Raducanu was close to match point at a Wimbledon final.

If the Wales or Scotland men's football team were in a quarter-final penalty shootout, I'm pretty sure the pressure to hold up the start of shows in Swansea or Glasgow would have been even more immense than we saw in England.

If there's incessant football media coverage driving you mad and it feels invasive and presumptuous of your interest, I empathise, because I feel the same about the royal family and Love Island to name two, but the media are only being driven by what they know generates viewers/listeners/clicks.

I wonder if you could get a refund, that in the terms and conditions there is a penalty clause?

This is a very James Corden thing to do, and I'm sure most of the audience lapped it up. It's a unique experience that they all shared.

We can only have one poll per thread I’m afraid. I’m thinking  more people would be interested in opinions of the play? 

I was lucky enough to be at Wimbledon on centre court at the time, and there were sort of sporadic cheers and muffled “yes!”s before the prolonged cheer at the moment of victory. Djokovic certainly knew what was going on (and I think his opponent did too) and in these circumstances I think you just kind of have to let people release their emotion before carrying on. I’m no particular fan of Corden (or this play, although I thought his acting was more naturalistic than Anna Maxwell Martin’s), but I think he made the right choice here.

Now wouldn't it be weird if before Dear England, Corden turned up and tried to lead the audience on a round of carpool karaoke?

I bet a large percentage of that audience had seen This Is England - football can be theatre, and embracing it like this allowed it to become part of the theatrical experience rather than a distraction from it.

Dear England, This Is England is about something completely different.... 

I actually think Corden did everyone a favor by watching it and getting it out of his system so that he could concentrate on doing his job which was to act in a new play which in theory he should be focusing on. The level of distraction he would bring to the role while not knowing what was happening would've probably been intolerable. But frankly, what a self-indulgent pampered ass he is.

No it wasn't (and I'm seeing it tonight).

I would NOT have been pleased to find myself having to get a later train home because of an actor's self-indulgent, unprofessional behaviour. And I would also not be pleased to find a performance disrupted because of rude, self-indulgent morons in the audience who didn't have the manners to put their phones away before the lights went down.

I honestly cannot believe the outrage of people on this - it's wild.

The alternative was the first 10 minutes of this play being disrupted by audience members trying to sneakily watch the penalties on their phones (it happened in other venues, I was working in one, it was a nightmare) - can we honestly say that that's a better option than waiting 10 minutes to start the play?

Also, he could have sat in his dressing room and watched the penalties and they just go up 10 minutes late with zero explanation, and then people would have had no idea why the show started late - shows start late with no explanation all the time, so they could have done that...?

Of all the options here, I fail to see how what The Old Vic went with wasn't the best one?