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Post by starlight92 on Jul 7, 2023 8:15:04 GMT
I'm curious, has a show ever been so bad that you've felt the need to sack it off at the interval? If so, what show was it and why was it so poor? Personally I've never left at the interval (or even felt tempted to) and hopefully won't need to any time soon 😆
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Post by anthem on Jul 7, 2023 9:20:33 GMT
I left at the interval for 9-5 on tour. I thought it was dreadful but was also in a bad mood so it's possibly unfair. I had seen an amateur production which I felt was much better.
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Post by viserys on Jul 7, 2023 9:25:07 GMT
I never left just because a show has been SO awful - I guess I always hope to find something redemptive in the second part. I left three times for other reasons:
- Once because a migraine was absolutely killing me
- Once because I hated the first half and then the second half didn't start on time due to the technical problems and we still had a long drive home ahead, so since we couldn't be sure when they'd even start again and we didn't like it anyway, we bolted.
- Once (many years ago) at the Regent's Park Open Air because it was cold and miserable and I was still worrying a lot about walking back to the streets through the dark park as a single female, so I just wanted to be gone and get it over with.
I guess I'm bringing these up because people automatically seem to think "they hated it so much they left early" - and it's not always that. I was really gutted I had to leave "Shakespeare in Love" due to the migraine - Tom Bateman and David Oakes from the front row, what was not to like!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2023 9:33:02 GMT
Too many time to remember!
I do recall the first time, it was Oliver! on tour with Sam Barks and the bloke from Bob The Builder. Absolutely dreadful.
It feels very liberating to just vote with your feet. If the first half is so bad it’s really doubtful that it’s going to be redeemed for me in Act 2.
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Post by londonmzfitz on Jul 7, 2023 9:33:14 GMT
Young Marx at The Bridge Theatre (Rory Kinnear)
Macbeth at The Barbican (Christopher Eccleston)
I think I gave both a good chance to capture my attention, but .... you know, when you find your head thinking about a nice cuppa tea and/or an early night during the first act, then why hang on in?
I can't think of any others, and I've been looking at stages for 40+ years. Maybe my tolerance level has changed.
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Post by dollybm on Jul 7, 2023 9:34:03 GMT
I left at the interval for 9-5 on tour. I thought it was dreadful but was also in a bad mood so it's possibly unfair. I had seen an amateur production which I felt was much better. If I hadn’t been with family who were enjoying it I’d also have left at the interval for 9-5 on tour. If C**k had had an interval I’d have left during that. I have no other way to describe it other than I was just finding it dreadfully boring and as if the whole thing was just continually going round in circles. I understand that’s perhaps a choice given the inner conflict of the main character but there just didn’t seem any point to it. To be fair, I enjoyed it more when the dad turned up towards the end just to finally have something different going on. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2023 9:34:11 GMT
Cats. Absolutely hideous.
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Post by anthony40 on Jul 7, 2023 9:39:13 GMT
I have only ever done this once in my life.
It was a production of Uncle Vanya at The Criterion with Anna Friel and the young lady from Downton Abbey who plays Lady Edith.
I had comp ticket and were sitting at the back, so could take in the whole stage.
The whole thing looked really cramped and there seemed to be no real interaction between the characters- they were just actors on stage saying lines.
It was bad.
My sister and I left and took in the Christmas lights in Covent Garden. Much more enjoyable!
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 7, 2023 10:10:17 GMT
Cryano - NT
Paradise Found - MCF
Berlusconi- Southwark
La finta - Royal opera
Bare - Ed fest
I also wanted leave during Barnum at MCF but my mum wanted to stay
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Post by hadeswasking on Jul 7, 2023 10:10:37 GMT
As much as I wanted to enjoy it. The recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tour.
Quite a few reasons, I wasn't feeling too great by the middle of the first act.
The audience behaviour was also atrocious. Arguments between families in front of me (during the show???)
These are things I could've ignored and stuck through if I was enjoying what was happening on stage. But alas the songs completely forgettable, I love this adaptations writers previous work but the book was just not great and I was ultimately just bored with how lacklustre it all was.
The little girl who played Charlie did a fantastic job though.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2023 10:54:40 GMT
Petula Clark in concert. Embarrassing. She 👏🏻 Cannot 👏🏻 Sing! 👏🏻
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Post by vabbian on Jul 7, 2023 11:06:49 GMT
Have walked out of most operas at the ENO  |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 7, 2023 11:16:02 GMT
A part of me wanted to walk in the Beautiful Game and Stephen Ward but they were so bad that I had a compulsion to remain.
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Post by alece10 on Jul 7, 2023 11:20:15 GMT
Only done it twice in my many, many years of going to the theatre.
Once was at a musical at the theatre in The Mayfair Hotel. It was something to do with wags (but not Wags the Musical which I thought was fun). This was truly dire and I can't even remember the name.
Then other time was The Killing of Sister George at The Arts Theatre. I wasn't enjoying it but would have stuck it out but left as I had a terrible pain in my back. Next day I was in A&E having my gall bladder removed.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2023 11:22:12 GMT
Jerry Springer at the Hope Mill. I’ve seen infant school nativity plays with higher production values.
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Post by richey on Jul 7, 2023 12:02:36 GMT
First time was We Will Rock You on the latest tour. I loved the original WE production but this was so far removed from it that I was counting the minutes to the interval. When the lights went up I was straight out of my seat. The guy next to me said Isn't this great? and I just turned to him and said it was the worst thing I'd seen in 30 years of theatre going and promptly left. The look on his face was priceless.
I also left My Fair Lady earlier this year but felt guilty afterwards as I'd had a long day at work and realised I just hadn't been in the mood for it. I went back a few days later and enjoyed it.
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Post by eatbigsea on Jul 7, 2023 12:07:10 GMT
Only once that I can recall, for Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Pixie Lott, which was absolutely dire.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2023 12:11:28 GMT
Dinnerladies the play. I would have stayed but my friend was having none of it. “A load of lookee likees who can’t act”.
He was right, with a couple of exceptions it was a different cast to the tv show but they chose people for resemblance rather than their acting.
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Post by Fleance on Jul 7, 2023 12:16:45 GMT
Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward Theatre) -- disappointingly tedious, I couldn't bear another act. Too much talking to the contemporary audience.
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Post by solangelafitte on Jul 7, 2023 12:28:45 GMT
A part of me wanted to walk in the Beautiful Game and Stephen Ward but they were so bad that I had a compulsion to remain. Haha! That was me with The Beautiful Game. "This HAS to get better, surely??" Spoiler, it didn't. Although I have to admit I do enjoy a lot of that score even if the lyrics are shocking. I was also very tempted when I saw Marguerite but I was trapped in the centre of the row and no one around me budged in the interval so I figured that was my decision made. I know it was my fault going into it because I was jet-lagged and crabby but by the time it got to what felt like the tenth Day By Day I was practically twitching. I've often meant to revisit the cast recording because I'm sure it's better than memories serves, especially with that cast. |
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Post by kit66 on Jul 7, 2023 12:37:25 GMT
All the time!If it hasn't hooked me by the interval it isn't going to win me over in the 2nd act.And that dreaded feeling when you realise there's not in fact an interval.I've never actually left during a performance - well that's just rude - but get out of my way if there's an interval and my eyes are crossed with boredom!
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Post by fiyerorocher on Jul 7, 2023 12:59:41 GMT
The only thing I've ever left in the interval was a production of Tess of the d'Urbervilles at The Other Palace (possibly back when it was the St. James) that I hadn't realised was actually a student performance. It was just painful.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 7, 2023 13:03:55 GMT
I've left two operas in the interval because I found the productions unbearable: WNO's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and ENO's Peter Grimes (which won that year's Olivier so my opinion was evidently a minority). I found aspects of both productions repulsive and disturbing. Other than that, the only other time I've left in the interval was Titanic at Southwark Playhouse on a boiling hot day when their aircon wasn't working & by the end of Act I I thought I was either going to pass out or be sick if I didn't leave. I did seriously think about leaving the NT's The Light Princess in the interval after a scene in Act I that made me have a panic attack but decided to stay & fortunately there was nothing Act II that was as bad. I've never left anything out of mere boredom, I just think of something else if I'm bored. Was that La Finta Giardiniera in 2006? |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 7, 2023 13:04:52 GMT
A part of me wanted to walk in the Beautiful Game and Stephen Ward but they were so bad that I had a compulsion to remain. Haha! That was me with The Beautiful Game. "This HAS to get better, surely??" Spoiler, it didn't. Although I have to admit I do enjoy a lot of that score even if the lyrics are shocking. I was also very tempted when I saw Marguerite but I was trapped in the centre of the row and no one around me budged in the interval so I figured that was my decision made. I know it was my fault going into it because I was jet-lagged and crabby but by the time it got to what felt like the tenth Day By Day I was practically twitching. I've often meant to revisit the cast recording because I'm sure it's better than memories serves, especially with that cast. Marguerite was poor but I didn't walk. I'd forgotten about, thanks for reminding me 😉 |
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Post by Being Alive on Jul 7, 2023 13:07:06 GMT
I only ever leave plays at the interval it seems!
As You Like It and King Lear at the RSC, Play That Goes Wrong on tour, and Macbeth at the National.
Something ha to be seriously bad for me to want to leave - I did almost leave Wizard of OZ the other day at the interval, but remembered both Dianne Pilkington and Christina Bianco had numbers in Act 2 so stuck it out.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 7, 2023 13:07:44 GMT
I've left two operas in the interval because I found the productions unbearable: WNO's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and ENO's Peter Grimes (which won that year's Olivier so my opinion was evidently a minority). I found aspects of both productions repulsive and disturbing. Other than that, the only other time I've left in the interval was Titanic at Southwark Playhouse on a boiling hot day when their aircon wasn't working & by the end of Act I I thought I was either going to pass out or be sick if I didn't leave. I did seriously think about leaving the NT's The Light Princess in the interval after a scene in Act I that made me have a panic attack but decided to stay & fortunately there was nothing Act II that was as bad. I've never left anything out of mere boredom, I just think of something else if I'm bored. Was that La Finta Giardiniera in 2006? Yes. I found it tedious both the production and musically. I LOVE Cosi but the others leave me cold and bored. Mozart was not a good dramatist, in my book |
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Post by robertb213 on Jul 7, 2023 13:46:39 GMT
Loads of times. Life is too short to sit through something you're not enjoying. And if it means getting an earlier train home then all the more reason!
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Jul 7, 2023 13:51:03 GMT
Trump The Musical at the Gatehouse. It was the evening Her Majesty passed and it was the most unfunny musical comedy I've ever experienced. Probably would have stayed any other night. I wasn't the only interval leaver.
Not the same but have had to leave before the end a few times to catch last train or the one I've booked an advance ticket on. Who would have expected My Fair Lady and Sweeney Todd to each have at least 20 minutes to go three hours in !
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Post by marob on Jul 7, 2023 13:56:04 GMT
I’ve never left a show before the end. Wish I’d left Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense when it toured locally. I’ve liked the few Wodehouse novels I’ve read, but found that play completely unfunny. Despite being a matinee it was a struggle to stay awake, and I suspect I didn’t.
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Post by capybara on Jul 7, 2023 14:41:21 GMT
Berlusconi at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. Utterly dreadful.
Also The Circle at the Orange Tree. It wasn’t awful but I just wasn’t feeling it and had to be up crazy early the next morning so cut my losses.
I would have left early during Pretty Woman but it was a double show day for me. Also, Aspects of Love press night but I felt compelled to stay as it was like watching a car crash unfold before my eyes!
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