Bad Behaviour at a Show

I’ve seen them doing that at the Liverpool Empire a few times. I don’t buy drinks in theatres anyway, but I definitely wouldn’t want to drink anything once a load of random people have mauled the glass.

I forget about this thread, then catch up on pages and pages...

Told to me - a man thought he was hilarious by playing 'Hey Mickey you're so fine!' 6 times or so during the first act of Blood Brothers, every time Sean came on stage. He was reprimanded and later removed.

My own experience at 'The Woman in Black' last night - little groups of ladies on a glass or two who at every scare would laugh and titter about the scares for a while after, as the play tried to move on through audible chatter.

It's coming to something when the teenagers on the top tier have to shush their elders.

More detail needed, but I’m leaning towards yes.

I was at the Cabaret matinee with my friend. Now we have been planning for a long time as he is disabled so we needed certain seats. We were stalls slips so right by the stage, under the band. Amazing for me! I've been 4 times but never so close. Was thrilled to be seeing Nic go on for Sally (planned around this too) and a wealth of other covers including at least one track debut!
I thought a midweek matinee would be a calm audience. I was wrong.
The group in the box behind / to our side were rather rowdy, especially one who just before it started made sure lots of people knew she had been before and loved the show. She was drunk and getting drunker, plenty of glasses around!
She sang! I tried my best glares but they were fruitless and I was so close to the stage I felt I couldn't go for help. My friend was closer and heard it even more!
But what did it for me. The emotional Act 1 closer of tomorrow belongs to me. She sang. She sang so badly! She got to the last two lines before the cast did!

During the interval I spoke to one of front of house, I was so upset. She said she would speak to them. Later on a manager came over (While the main woman was away) and the friends basically said 'she's like that, she knows the show!'. The manager even said the cast had commented on it!
The manager did come back and spoke to them all again before act 2 and no more signing but lots of talking and clinking of glasses!

I know there have been worse ones in the thread but this really shocked me at a midweek matinee!

I don't care how well someone knows the show, how many times they have seen it the rest of the acudience haven't paid to hear them sing. Pity the cast leads didn't say something to them directly as first act ended.

At Blood Brothers in Bradford they had the monitors up on the Friday, I was like 'Ooooh, singalong! 

They of course were the close caption-monitors. 

I was just distracted for the first part of the first act by making sure they had the right text up. 

The sorts of things people here complain about in theatres are now being extended to concert halls--by management decree. According to the Slipped Disc site, new management at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is proposing (as part of a new "vision") to allow people to bring drinks into the auditorium and to film concerts. They haven't mentioned la-la-ing along or pretending to conduct, but somehow one doubts that sort of thing will be clamped down on...

I guess nothing can account for a topknot, big hair, turban, dreadlocks etc but if it is a huge topknot then there is something she could do about it. Also sometimes you can just end up behind a large person who could likely have a large head.

I was sitting a couple of rows behind someone the other day who had shoulder length curly hair. It was really bushy and stuck out to the sides (something like Selma from The Simpsons.) In the interval he pulled it all back and tied it up into a man bun.

I’m not sure which would be worse to sit behind. I should be used to it by now, but the lack of awareness or consideration for anyone behind him still surprised me.

I sat behind one of the Queens from Six at WOS Awards once. She spent the whole evening running her fingers through her hair and fiddling with it. I so wanted to slap her hand away and tell her to sit still.

I went to see Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy for what will be the last time before it closes tonight, and honestly it felt like a bus load of horrible people who shouldn't venture anywhere near a theatre got a group discount.

I had a brilliant seat in the stalls, but shortly after I sat down an older couple sat behind me in the next row. From the minute the man sat down he was moaning about the seat, the theatre and being openly rude and abrasive to people who were very politely asking to get to their seat, as he was on the aisle. I was also on the aisle of the row in front, so when someone asked to get past me I of course stood up and walked to the side to let them past, when I heard a really loud EXCUSE ME in my ear. I looked behind and it was the man going berserk at me, claiming I had knocked over his drink that was next to his seat. I looked to the floor and noticed that his drink was very much still in tact and about 2 metres away from me, if anything closer to the people behind him. I genuinely didn't know what to say and didn't want to be rude, so asked 'Sorry, is there anything else at my feet?' and he again very rudely shouted 'YES I THINK YOU CAN SEE - WATCH IT!'. This whole exchange was so pointless and didn't need to happen in any way whatsoever, as nothing had been knocked over. To add hypocrisy to the mix, the man then extended his leg out towards my seat, resting it right next to me and eventually knocking over my bottle of water during ACT 1 - I definitely feel that it was an act of defiance.

There was a technical problem that delayed the start of the show by around 10 minutes tonight, and honestly the amount of moaning that this man did when he was waiting drained my soul. He just kept huffing and puffing, complaining about the seat and saying how uncomfortable he was at having to be in it for 10 minutes more than he had to - Why bother coming to the show at all? Just before the show started he said 'If this doesn't start soon I'm leaving', and honestly I wish he had.

To add to this lovely experience, a family of four sat in the row in front of me and chatted throughout the entire first act. The lady next to me took matters into her own hands and told them to be quiet, but they didn't take any notice and continued in a whispered tone - Again, why bother coming? I paid just under £100 for my ticket, so decided I wasn't having it and spoke to a FOH at the start of the interval who said they'd have a word and were very helpful.

Just after this I walked over to the bar and witnessed another older man screaming the face off of the FOH at the bar, I was genuinely shocked at the amount of terrible behaviour I was seeing in one night! She called the manager over before serving me and the man continued to argue, saying if service has to be this slow then he has a right to shout at anyone he wants to. There were literally about 5 people in the queue including me, so again a totally pointless argument. I ended up having a mutual rant with the FOH at the bar about how terrible the audience was and felt slightly better, but she was physically shaken.

When I got back to my seat though I found the older man behind me in the middle of complaining to a FOH about me, saying I was 'constantly' knocking over his things. He was also speaking to the FOH in such a rude and unnecessary way, and she just looked at me and then back to him and said 'Sir perhaps if you hold onto your things and then move them to your feet when the show starts and everyone is seated, then maybe this won't happen again' - I have no idea who this lady is, but she's my new hero! The man then just gave us both a look of distain and mumbled 'disgraceful' under his breath.

To top all of this loveliness off, I waited until almost the end of the interval to go back to my seat as I had hoped that FOH will have chatted to the people in front before I got back, However, they came just as I sat back down and the family really didn't take it well. The dad stood up and turned to everyone behind him, saying 'Right, who's been complaining about me?' and was told to sit down. The wife then said 'I'm sorry but can I just say we were only chatting during the quiet bits where nothing good was happening', to which the FOH of course said they shouldn't be disrespectful enough to chat during any part, but they were so riled and entitled about it. The man then just kept constantly turning his head back and looking at the people behind him, as if someone was going to just jump up and shout 'IT WAS ME!'. They then continued to chat throughout act 2.

The only redeeming funny moment was when Tom stripped towards the end of the show, and the mum turned to her seemingly teenage son and said 'Those are like the pants you wear' - He looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole!

Overall I don't think I've ever seen so much equally bad behaviour in one night at the theatre. The show was brilliant, but I was happy to leave when it was over.

Thankfully when I saw it there was none of that. I was next to a group of four, a youngish couple and an older couple. From the way they talked in the interval I’m assuming the older couple were the younger lady’s parents (or possibly grandparents.) The older couple seemed completely disinterested in the show. Not disruptive in any way, just clearly not their cup of tea. Sat with coats on and hands on their laps the entire time. Slightly odd, but I’ll happily take that over any other nonsense.