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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2016 22:31:56 GMT
I am seriously considering not going to the theatre ever again. Every time I have been in the past 2 years I have had people talking through every performance I have ever seen. I just can't enjoy it any more. The last straw was back in December when I paid my first ever visit to CATS at the palladium. Never seen the show or the DVD and by the time it had started I needn't have bothered continuing with the next 2 1/2 hours. A woman came in bold as brass and began telling her two foreign friends what the show was about from start to finish. She started at the beginning of the show and described it perfectly to the end before it had even begun. I had to say something when she started singing memory to them.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 10:21:46 GMT
I'm with the 'sometimes it happens' camp in falling asleep. Sometimes it happens. Usually I can keep myself awake but sometimes a combination of factors-travel, lack of sleep night before or lack of food/caffeine. As long as nobody is actively snoring then you aren't bothering anyone. Usually I'll consume some caffeine/sugar at the interval which will pep me up for the second half.
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Post by Stasia on Feb 24, 2016 11:45:17 GMT
I'm not a proper lark but I have to wake up at 6am for work and I am turning into a pumpking at around midnight.. So when I'm coming to London and there is this tiny little thing as 3-hour-difference my Moscow midnight happens at 9 pm London time! So yep, it happened with me a few times and I missed around 10 minutes of something nice  And it feels really really awkward of course |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 12:19:43 GMT
I am seriously considering not going to the theatre ever again. Every time I have been in the past 2 years I have had people talking through every performance I have ever seen. I just can't enjoy it any more. The last straw was back in December when I paid my first ever visit to CATS at the palladium. Never seen the show or the DVD and by the time it had started I needn't have bothered continuing with the next 2 1/2 hours. A woman came in bold as brass and began telling her two foreign friends what the show was about from start to finish. She started at the beginning of the show and described it perfectly to the end before it had even begun. I had to say something when she started singing memory to them. My one and only trip to Cats is also probably the worst moment i have ever had of bad behaviour at a show. The show was completely ruined for me by a cats "fan" sat infront of me, in costume, feet up on the seat, trying to recreate every....sodding.....dance in her seat whilst also waving at the cast! Never again! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 12:38:09 GMT
My one and only trip to Cats is also probably the worst moment i have ever had of bad behaviour at a show. The show was completely ruined for me by a cats "fan" sat infront of me, in costume, feet up on the seat, trying to recreate every....sodding.....dance in her seat whilst also waving at the cast! Never again! You should have put her in a bag with a brick and threw her in the river. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 24, 2016 18:29:39 GMT
If someone is that desperate to be first to the bar then why bother coming to the theatre? Go to a pub instead, saving them money & the rest of us disruption! Sorry Dawn I'm with you, I'm with you. You can never get enough emphasis into a post meant with sarcasm on a chat board Oh, I know you weren't advocating it. I guess it's just that, as a non-drinker, I don't see why people need to drink anything other than water at a theatre - or indeed anywhere else! Re: falling asleep, I've never done it myself as no matter how tired I feel beforehand I always revive when I get in a theatre. It is amazing what people can sleep through though. Some years ago I saw Britten's War Requiem at Hereford Cathedral. Having booked at the last minute I was right at one side only about 20 feet from the percussion section. For those who have never heard the War Requiem, there is a fair amount of percussion featured, not to mention the large orchestra & chorus. It is LOUD at times. Despite this the man sitting next to me managed to fall asleep within a few minutes & stay asleep till the end. He was emanating an aroma of alcohol which may have contributed but I still cannot fathom how anyone alive managed to sleep through it. |
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Post by frankanalysis on Feb 25, 2016 17:20:56 GMT
I am seriously considering not going to the theatre ever again. Every time I have been in the past 2 years I have had people talking through every performance I have ever seen. I just can't enjoy it any more. The last straw was back in December when I paid my first ever visit to CATS at the palladium. Never seen the show or the DVD and by the time it had started I needn't have bothered continuing with the next 2 1/2 hours. A woman came in bold as brass and began telling her two foreign friends what the show was about from start to finish. She started at the beginning of the show and described it perfectly to the end before it had even begun. I had to say something when she started singing memory to them. This happened to me at Miss Saigon! About ten minutes before it started a woman in the row behind me was asked by one of the others in her group what the show was about. Instead of telling them to wait and see, she began to describe the entire plot. I literally plugged my ears and begged my sister to tell me when she had finished. I couldn't quite believe that the person couldn't wait to just watch the show and find out! |
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Post by longinthetooth on Feb 25, 2016 21:31:38 GMT
Ashamed to admit I have nodded off twice during shows - once in front of a recent performance of Shakespeare by a peer of the realm. My husband once slept through an Eric Clapton concert.
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Post by firefingers on Feb 25, 2016 23:19:24 GMT
Only fallen asleep once. Rusalka at Glyndebourne. It had been a long week and as it was post dinner interval I had had a great deal of food and drink and so I nodded off. Only for a few minutes mind, and it was not a slight on the opera of course which was very entertaining.
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Post by Coated on Feb 26, 2016 0:12:13 GMT
Come back from the intermission at the Puccini triple at the ROH and two women sit in our end-of-aisle seats about 5 min before the second act starts. When asked to kindly vacate, one of them informed us that there hadn't been anyone sitting in our seats for the last few minutes.
If only we'd realised that you're not meant to leave your seats during a half hour break, we could have saved the poor dears the bother of having to clear out from our just about decent-ish upper slip seats and then make half the row behind us get up to slink back to their less decent-ish seats - from which they would have seen us sitting in the end of the aisle through the entire first act...
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Post by adrianics on Feb 26, 2016 8:22:02 GMT
Finally managed to bag tickets to The Lion King (which my fiancee has wanted to see for years) and we went last night. A very rambunctious and enthusiastic audience, but you kind of expect that with such a high-profile and tourist-friendly show. One woman behind me had a particularly eager young daughter (I put her at age four or five) who asked many questions throughout but since they were being quiet enough and kids will be kids, I didn't have a problem with it. Then the mum decides that halfway through Can You Feel The Love Tonight is the perfect time to have a full-blown, natural volume, actual everyday conversation. After being shushed several times by both my fiancee and people around them, I eventually turned around and said "could you *seriously* just stop talking"... And in the blood rush to my head I didn't realise it was right at the end of the song, during the quietest bit. So I guess you could make an argument that the disruptive audience member was me  As an aside, those buckets of sweets and popcorn they sell at the Lyceum are literally the worst thing that's ever happened. |
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Post by lou105 on Feb 26, 2016 9:43:38 GMT
Ugh, I'd almost forgotten a visit to the Lion King a few years ago when some kids were leaning over the safety rails and spitting onto people in the stalls..
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 26, 2016 10:40:04 GMT
My most memorable experience of having a plot describer sat near me was during the infamous Peter O'Toole production of "Macbeth" at Bristol Old Vic some decades ago. The man behind us was explaining every thing that was happening to his female partner. The nadir was when Banquo's ghost turned up at the feast, covered from head to foot in gore in this OTT production, and the women turned to the man and proclaimed: "I thought he said he was dead but he isn't dead after all!"
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Post by Nicholas on Feb 26, 2016 14:01:23 GMT
Ugh, I'd almost forgotten a visit to the Lion King a few years ago when some kids were leaning over the safety rails and spitting onto people in the stalls.. That one, if I'd been a victim, would have been a case of "forget calling the house manager, I'm dialling 999."
I’d have encouraged them with a little pat on the back. A nice, strong, firm, pressurised pat. Less of a pat, more of a push, actually.
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Post by richey on Feb 28, 2016 7:53:17 GMT
Two rather excitable ladies at Miss Saigon final show last night wanted to prove how much they were enjoying it. As the lights went down one of them shouted "Welcome to Dreamland!" Then at the end just as Kim died she blew her nose very loudly so all the Grand circle could hear which rather ruined the moment for everyone else.
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Post by jess173 on Feb 28, 2016 9:17:31 GMT
Sleeping during performances happened to me before. The first time this happened was at a performance of My Fair Lady. I had to get up early and had an exam at university so I was super tired in the evening and the show was so long it seemed to go on forever. I dozed off in the second act. I just couldn't help it. And I had serious problems at a performance of Hedda Gabler in London once. I really liked it, it was interesting and all, but it was so hard to keep my eyes open. I managed not to doze off, but it was hard work.  I never was in the front row though, so no one noticed...  |
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Post by theatre-turtle on Feb 28, 2016 10:27:07 GMT
At Miss Saigon last night there was a woman reading the entire script during the performance
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Post by richey on Feb 28, 2016 11:08:43 GMT
At Miss Saigon last night there was a woman reading the entire script during the performance Understandable for when Thuy was onstage. I couldn't understand a word he said. |
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Post by stuartww on Mar 2, 2016 13:31:58 GMT
I was at the final evening performance of Miss Saigon on Saturday with my husband. Behind us were two ladies, with think by the accent and language they were Scandinavian, talking very very loudly. I was mentally preparing comments in case their conversation continued (as happened on the previous Wednesday when two French teenagers held a full volume conversation behind me for near enough the entire show!). However, they remained silent throughout which was wonderful. What wasn't wonderful was the fact that the woman behind me decided the back of my chair was her footrest, then she moved her feet off and her legs were pushing my seat, then she would move again - it was almost constant! We were in the Dress Circle, so the leg room isn't really an issue...
In the interval they went off for a drink, and then guy sat next to her said to his companion "she hasn't stopped fidgeting!" so she was clearly annoying someone else.
We also noticed an eggy smell every now and then throughout the first act - was weird as it just came in waves every now and then. However, when the ladies behind us went for their interval drinks, the smell disappeared - until they returned for the second act.
When she started with the pushing of the back of my seat with her legs, I found the best way of stopping it...lean forwards slightly then throw yourself back into your seat. She stopped pushing my seat and no doubt had bruises on her shins.
Back at our hotel, i popped down to reception as our telephone wasn't working and we wanted food....and got back into the lift to go up to our room...and my leggy friend from the theatre was in the lift!!!! i coulnd't help but smirk
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 2, 2016 15:27:25 GMT
Your leggy friend or your eggy friend?  Did she still smell of eggs? |
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Post by bjorne on Mar 2, 2016 18:11:18 GMT
One time at the theatre (at the Noel Coward for Shakespeare in Love) a man was constantly taking picture during the show. A LOT of pictures.
I politely asked him to please stop and he told me: 'But I am the uncle of Tom (Bateman, Shakespeare)'
Oh well.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2016 18:37:49 GMT
One time at the theatre (at the Noel Coward for Shakespeare in Love) a man was constantly taking picture during the show. A LOT of pictures. I politely asked him to please stop and he told me: 'But I am the uncle of Tom (Bateman, Shakespeare)' Oh well. Oops. I'm so sorry. My bad. I do loves me some Tom Bateman. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Mar 2, 2016 19:29:41 GMT
I was at the final evening performance of Miss Saigon on Saturday with my husband. Behind us were two ladies, with think by the accent and language they were Scandinavian, talking very very loudly. I was mentally preparing comments in case their conversation continued (as happened on the previous Wednesday when two French teenagers held a full volume conversation behind me for near enough the entire show!). However, they remained silent throughout which was wonderful. What wasn't wonderful was the fact that the woman behind me decided the back of my chair was her footrest, then she moved her feet off and her legs were pushing my seat, then she would move again - it was almost constant! We were in the Dress Circle, so the leg room isn't really an issue... In the interval they went off for a drink, and then guy sat next to her said to his companion "she hasn't stopped fidgeting!" so she was clearly annoying someone else. We also noticed an eggy smell every now and then throughout the first act - was weird as it just came in waves every now and then. However, when the ladies behind us went for their interval drinks, the smell disappeared - until they returned for the second act. When she started with the pushing of the back of my seat with her legs, I found the best way of stopping it...lean forwards slightly then throw yourself back into your seat. She stopped pushing my seat and no doubt had bruises on her shins. Back at our hotel, i popped down to reception as our telephone wasn't working and we wanted food....and got back into the lift to go up to our room...and my leggy friend from the theatre was in the lift!!!! i coulnd't help but smirk Have we confirmed whether this is leggy or eggy? Can I be the first to say if there are any leggy Scandinavians they can put there legs on the back of my seat anytime |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2016 20:50:06 GMT
I'm at Kinky Boots and the blue rinse brigade are in. I swear they think they're at home on the sofa watching Coronation Street!!
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Post by mistressjojo on Mar 3, 2016 1:56:55 GMT
At Miss Saigon last night there was a woman reading the entire script during the performance I remember at the RSC Love's Labour's Lost a few years back, there was a girl in the front row, head down & taking copious notes during the show. During one of Berowne's monologues, David Tennant jumped off stage and took the book from her & started to read - all while remaining in character. |
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