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Post by jojo on Apr 28, 2022 18:17:04 GMT
Last night was the first time I'd been to see a Theatre show since March 2020. I chose a play I hadn't seen before Catch Me If You Can at Alex Theatre Birmingham. Booked a seat a bit away from others wore my mask all the way through. Anyway within the first half of the show I counted phones going off about 3 times including one which must have rung out ten times before it was switched off. Why can phones not be put on mute, keep them in view so you can see if they are flashing even if you want to. I went to NT Live last week and a phone went off. I was initially convinced it came from the recording at the Donmar. Imagine the shame of your phone going off during a live recording! But it was just someone in the cinema, and thankfully it only went off once and they were quick enough to switch it off. I've been at a funeral when someone's phone kept ringing and the person didn't know how to switch it off. |
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Post by hannechalk on Apr 28, 2022 19:59:47 GMT
Two seats from me at Anything Goes there is a boy aged about 10,maybe even slightly younger, who is taking in the show in awe, loving every second of it. He hasn't eaten, drank anything nor needed the toilet.
Which is more than I can say for the three women behind me, who for starters arrived late, and are munching and masticating their way through it.
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Post by shady23 on Apr 30, 2022 19:47:35 GMT
I have been reading with interest all the talk about bad audiences and luckily I have not really experienced this myself. Until this afternoon....
The Cher Show at Sunderland Empire.
We were sat at the end of the row. A few rows in front someone was slumped in their seat asleep. I hadn't seen them come in but someone told me later that they had staggered in very drunk indeed. They woke up half way through the first act and must have realised they were feeling pretty unwell. They told their friend who was then rummaging around in her handbag for a carrier bag for them. Yes you guessed it.... she then started being sick into the bag. This carried on. At a point you'd probably think, or a friend would say, let's just leave or go to the toilets at least. No the sickness continued... It got to the point some people around complained. No wonder. I can only imagine the noise and the smell. They were eventually asked to leave and the friend did so loudly calling those those who had been complaining.
A front of house came to assess the damage and they'd left their bag of sick behind and it was all over the floor too. Lovely. Now I am not blaming the front of house team, they had to clear it up before the interval so people didn't step in it but it's pretty hard to lose yourself into the magic of a performance when in your eyeline someone is cleaning up sick!
In the interval when the lights went on they realised it was all on the seats in front too.
Then more fun. Front of stalls was a hen party. They were about ten rows in front of me and I heard them occasionally and saw them being shushed alot in the first act but it didn't really impact me too much as I was many rows away (I'm sure those around would say differently). In the interval half left to the pub as they were sick of being told to be quiet and were loudly saying that everyone in the theatre was boring and didn't want to have a good time. The other half of the group had even more to drink.
Second act all the woo-ing, clapping and calling out random things started which we could all hear loudly.
I don't envy front of house but a handful of people should not be allowed to disrupt a performance for everyone else.
A few people told me this was their first show back after lockdown and after seeing all this they weren't going to come back. Tours are struggling enough right now.
This was a matinee performance.
I dread to think what it would have been like if I'd gone tonight.
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Post by Phantom of London on Apr 30, 2022 21:13:33 GMT
That is terrible
Jukebox musicals tend to bring out the worst out in the worst people, by which I mean, people seem to find it necessary to get out of their tree before the performance.
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Post by theatreian on Apr 30, 2022 21:24:47 GMT
It's getting to the stage like an airport , that someone should be refused entry if they appear to have had too much to drink.
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Post by alece10 on Apr 30, 2022 21:56:23 GMT
Bag checks and breathalyser checks upon entry.
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Post by sfsusan on Apr 30, 2022 22:07:16 GMT
breathalyser checks upon entry. Maybe the new COVID breath test can be tweaked to also include blood alcohol levels. |
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Post by ceebee on Apr 30, 2022 22:13:25 GMT
This country is starting to get very trashy. Problem is, theatres rely on bar sales so they're never going to stop serving drinks to people even if they're pie-eyed.
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Post by Dawnstar on Apr 30, 2022 22:35:34 GMT
That sounds absolutely unbearable shady23. I have emetophobia & am feeling sick just reading your description. If I'd been in the auditorium I would have fled while having a panic attack. How does anyone even manage to get that drunk by early afternoon? I am so glad that I don't want to see the vast majority of jukebox musicals as the audiences sound as if they're getting worse & worse. |
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Post by shady23 on Apr 30, 2022 22:55:47 GMT
The vast majority of the audience near me were fine. It was just a few people.
The problem is it only needs a few people to turn a lovely afternoon into a not so lovely one.
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Post by Jon on Apr 30, 2022 23:10:36 GMT
This country is starting to get very trashy. Problem is, theatres rely on bar sales so they're never going to stop serving drinks to people even if they're pie-eyed. Starting to get trashy? it always was! |
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Post by Mark on Apr 30, 2022 23:27:37 GMT
Tonight at Mary Poppins was one of the worst I've seen recently. I learned that there was a group of 120 in on a company trip from South America who had all been to an event of some sort. So many people attempting to record from the front stalls, the FOH staff really had their work cut out. The lady next to me had her phone primed for an insta vid at the top of the show - I told her to turn it off and she did. Then for the first couple of minutes of act two she's scrolling through insta. I asked again. Turn... it.... Off...She turned the brightness down.... Turn...it...off, the light is distracting. I got the attention of the usher who saw her on her phone. It went off... Not a peep for the rest of the show.
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Post by NorthernAlien on May 1, 2022 19:34:39 GMT
This country is starting to get very trashy. Problem is, theatres rely on bar sales so they're never going to stop serving drinks to people even if they're pie-eyed. Starting to get trashy? it always was! The thing is... I used to be a barmaid (many years ago), and it was drilled into us that serving alcohol to people who were clearly intoxicated was illegal, and that it risked the landlord's licence. Surely those rules must still be in place? And yes, I'm sure they send the most sober person, and the actual bar staff aren't paid enough to have to try and argue with drunk people during the short time an interval lasts, etc, etc, but the amount venues charge companies in rent etc, they must surely be able to hire security staff who could intervene if necessary? |
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Post by fiyerorocher on May 1, 2022 20:00:03 GMT
From my experience working in theatres: they are happy to serve people so drunk they can't even hold their drink upright, and they only throw people out as an absolute last resort, which really undermines anything the FoH staff try to do to curb bad behaviour. When I used to work in a theatre bar we were told to do outrageous (in my opinion) things to upsell more alcohol to people, which I always refused to do. Sadly most places care more about bar profits than customer experience.
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Post by og on May 5, 2022 21:16:53 GMT
Conversely...  |
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Post by Mark on May 6, 2022 9:16:28 GMT
This is sort of an “opposite” of bad behaviour but only because it was called out and I think everyone had the fear of death put into them.
I saw the Wednesday matinee of How I Learned to Drive on Broadway and just before the play started, one of the actors came onstage and pleaded with the audience to turn their phones off, because they had been plagued with ringtones going off recently.
The play started, and Mary-Louise Parker says her first line, setting the scene, and then stops, looks at the audience, and says something like “and I’ll tell you more just as soon as that cell phone gets turned off”. Audience cheer, She did a fake tap dance, and then continued.
And yay - no more phones!
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Post by ladidah on May 6, 2022 9:22:09 GMT
Love it!
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Post by adrianics on May 6, 2022 13:41:53 GMT
Imagine sitting there, listening to them specifically asking you to turn your phone off, then thinking "well, that clearly doesn't apply to me"
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Post by LaLuPone on May 7, 2022 4:12:09 GMT
Sounds like someone tried to get on the stage at the Six tour in Cardiff last night from a tweet I’ve just seen! That’s the Welsh for you…
The stage at the Millennium Centre is very high so I have to laugh at the chutzpah of whoever tried to clamber on😭
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Post by ceebee on May 7, 2022 21:50:33 GMT
Folk at Grease thinking it was a singalong show... Two very polite people next to me asked folk behind to quieten down several times to no avail. In my best Phil Mitchell impression, I told them to stfu. Cue incredulous Vicky Pollardesque stares, before FOH intervened and moved them on/out.
Recent experiences for me are that it's tending to be drunk 20-somethings causing the trouble, and they seem genuinely offended if you pull them up on it.
My view is clear: we all pay enough to see these shows and want to see and hear professional performers. If theatre staff/security won't intervene quickly to deal with drunk karaoke artists in the audience, then people will take matters into their own hands.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2022 8:47:48 GMT
Sounds like someone tried to get on the stage at the Six tour in Cardiff last night from a tweet I’ve just seen! That’s the Welsh for you… The stage at the Millennium Centre is very high so I have to laugh at the chutzpah of whoever tried to clamber on😭 Maybe consider if you’d ever say ‘that’s Indians for you’ before you make comments like this again. |
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Post by LaLuPone on May 8, 2022 9:12:34 GMT
Hi @happysooz, I was born and raised in Cardiff!
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Post by LaLuPone on May 8, 2022 9:53:19 GMT
Really? I think as a Welsh person I’m allowed to make jokes like that, it’s basically self-deprecating!
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2022 20:16:46 GMT
Really? I think as a Welsh person I’m allowed to make jokes like that, it’s basically self-deprecating! If we say these things about ourselves, then we are setting the standard for how other people can speak about us. Classic unconscious bias, too. |
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Post by inthenose on May 8, 2022 20:20:54 GMT
Really? I think as a Welsh person I’m allowed to make jokes like that, it’s basically self-deprecating! If we say these things about ourselves, then we are setting the standard for how other people can speak about us. Classic unconscious bias, too. Oh for pity's sake. This isn't Twitter. Can we move on with the thread now? Friend of mine saw Oklahoma the other night, during the dream ballet (which she described as "laughably bad") someone said loudly "what the hell was THAT", which got a laugh from those them. They left shortly after voluntarily. |
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