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Post by danb on Jul 12, 2023 17:31:25 GMT
I’ve left several shows in the interval, sometimes for very specific reasons (boorish sweaty drunk next to me at WWRY, appalling understudy at Bat) and sometimes because getting home an hour earlier is more appealing than sitting through the 2nd half of a cast on autopilot giving 25%. I’ve paid good money to see you! (Les Mis a few times, Wicked etc).
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Post by intoanewlife on Jul 12, 2023 19:16:32 GMT
Actually left...
The Crucible - The National - My 2nd visit after previews. Once I realized no-one had bothered to inform the director that the audience don't really want to look at the backs of the actors for 3 hours, there was no way I was staying through the 2nd act. I'd have left much earlier if I wasn't with someone else. Not to mention witnessing the single most head scratching bit of casting I have ever witnessed in the theatre, so kudos for that I guess.
Chicago - Broadway - The dancers were all our of synch, the 2 leads were terrible and the theatre was so old and in such disaray I was scared it was going to collapse around me.
Wished I'd left...
Cats - Nuff said. I've spent the rest of my life apologizing to the person I dragged along with me. And it was free...if I'd have paid I would've been hysterical.
Falsetto's - The Other Palace - This was actually worse than Cats, but the entertainment value of the woman in the front row sitting her book on the stage 10 feet from the actors and reading it throughout the whole of Act 2 was so apt and deserving I couldn't help but stay and watch her do it.
Moulin Rouge - It could be so amazing, but the utter laziness of it all just left me stunned.
My Brilliant Friend - The National - Those puppets...oh the puppets...something I will NEVER forget as long as I live...
Hello Dolly - Broadway - Obnoxious leading lady playing an obnoxious character in an obnoxious musical surrounded by obnoxious audience members hysterically over reacting to the utter mediocrity of it all. The whole thing was embarrassing beyond human comprehension.
War Paint - Broadway - 2 'legends' trying to out scream each other for 2 hours. I stayed on to hear some song everyone was losing their **** over, I shouldn't have bothered.
Fun Home - Broadway - I wouldn't even know where to start with this one.
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Post by bordeaux on Jul 13, 2023 11:24:04 GMT
I've left five times in 35 years of theatre-going, probably over 1500 shows. Gogol's Government Inspector at the Tricycle in the early 90s with Sylvester McCoy - I didn't realise quite how allergic I was to McCoy till the play started. A terrible double-bill of Mike Leigh plays at Stratford East also in the early 90s entitled It's a Great Big Shame. I usually love Leigh's work for cinema and theatre but this was tedious in the extreme. 1953, Craig Raine's adaptation of Racine's Andromaque, a rare misfire for the Almeida in the 90s directed by Patrick Marber with a very good cast, I seem to remember; certainly Emma Fielding was in it. Stephen Jeffreys' The Libertine at the Royal Court one New Year's Eve. One this century: Mike Bartlett's Earthquakes in London, NT production on tour at Bath Theatre Royal about a decade ago; can't remember why - did I just feel I was being preached at?
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Post by Dave B on Jul 13, 2023 11:25:52 GMT
Just the once for me in what must be coming up on 1000 shows, Baghdaddy at the Royal Court very recently. In hindsight and following some discussion in a thread here, I regret it and so it'll have to be really really awful for the next interval leaving as a second half might change things up.
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Post by londonpostie on Jul 14, 2023 12:38:49 GMT
I didn't though have done more this year, probably due to booking later in the evening when my judgement is sometimes blunted. Some that I left at the interval for just not been right for me inc. The Secret Life of Bees (US, trite, unsubtle, mess), The Unfriend (different humour), ENO's Yeoman of the Guard (ditto) and - what was I thinking - To Kill a Mockingbird, which I convinced myself about on the tube ride in (Lee + Sorkin, in a middle-class liberal double helping of half-witted, over-written, smug, melodramatic sentimentality). A bit like the least obnoxious parts of The West Wing  |
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Post by ellosey on Nov 29, 2023 9:10:09 GMT
It’s never something I’ve done, even when I haven’t enjoyed a show. But last night I went to see a preview of a very small show at a tiny theatre, and about half of the audience walked out in the interval. It was absolutely horrid, you could see the way the actors came out from backstage and realised, and who I assume was the director looked as though she was going to cry in the audience. I can understand why people may have walked out (show was good, but there was a roaring gig that started downstairs, and the show had a delayed start time, so trains were a worry) but seeing the looks on that poor team’s face, I would feel just too guilty to! What are people’s thoughts?
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Post by ladidah on Nov 29, 2023 9:17:36 GMT
It's hard when it's out of the performers control - like a noisy neighbour and a late start time. But an audience are also allowed to leave whenever they wish.
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Post by Dave B on Nov 29, 2023 9:26:31 GMT
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Post by anita on Nov 29, 2023 10:40:42 GMT
Never done it even if hated show.- Don't want to waste my money.
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Post by amyja89 on Nov 29, 2023 10:41:59 GMT
Never done it, usually because I feel like I have to justify the money I've spent, but there have been times I was tempted!
Off the top of my head:
- Touring production of Sound of Music with Connie Fisher, way after her voice had started to go.
- Viva Forever
- A couple of lesser quality Rocky Horror Show tour productions where the crowds were slightly too drunk to be on the right side of appropriate participation!
- Mary Poppins on Broadway circa 2009.
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Post by ceebee on Nov 29, 2023 11:56:13 GMT
Yes - I left "The Witches" last night at the interval having seen a very clunky first preview. I wanted to give it a second chance but was bored senseless. Only redeeming factor was some of the humour, but not enough to keep me for the second half. I also left "Wicked" at the interval as I found it abysmal, and wish I had left "Frozen" at the interval. I have never walked out of a play though - probably because I've not yet seen something bad enough to warrant it.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 29, 2023 12:09:07 GMT
Merged
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Post by n1david on Nov 29, 2023 16:31:17 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 29, 2023 16:48:58 GMT
Hello Guardian! 👋
Give us a plug next time you nick an idea for an article eh? 😙
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Post by Dawnstar on Nov 29, 2023 17:01:36 GMT
A phrase from the article: "it’s for the lily-livered who can’t hack the gory bits in Titus Andronicus". I for one would never ever walk into a Titus Andronicus but I see nothing wrong with people leaving a performance if they find it too unpleasant. Far better to have people leaving than have them fainting, having panic attacks, maybe even being sick. I've left at the interval for two opera productions which, while not having Titus Andronicus levels of goryness, included things that I found unpleasant (and which were not in the libretto so I couldn't know in advance). |
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Post by starlight92 on Nov 29, 2023 17:22:56 GMT
A phrase from the article: "it’s for the lily-livered who can’t hack the gory bits in Titus Andronicus". I for one would never ever walk into a Titus Andronicus but I see nothing wrong with people leaving a performance if they find it too unpleasant. Far better to have people leaving than have them fainting, having panic attacks, maybe even being sick. I've left at the interval for two opera productions which, while not having Titus Andronicus levels of goryness, included things that I found unpleasant (and which were not in the libretto so I couldn't know in advance). Honestly if I hadn't been with someone I might have left at the interval when I saw The Pillowman, not because it wasn't good, it was, but it was really, really disturbing... |
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Post by helz on Dec 3, 2023 23:03:53 GMT
The Deep Blue Sea at the NT. The whole point about Rattigan is class distinctions yet the entire cast, from the landlady to the doctor, had exactly the same accent. Helen McCrory was the old redeeming factor. I wasn't the only escapee at the interval!
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Post by tmesis on Dec 3, 2023 23:56:22 GMT
Don’t do it very often. The most recent was Marvellous @sohoplace. Toe-curlingly awful.
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Post by daisy24601 on Dec 4, 2023 9:46:32 GMT
I never have.
I would have loved to have left during the interval of Titanic the Musical but I was one of the ushers.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 4, 2023 11:36:54 GMT
I never have. I would have loved to have left during the interval of Titanic the Musical but I was one of the ushers. Did you have to watch it multiple times? You poor thing 😕 |
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Post by daisy24601 on Dec 4, 2023 15:45:46 GMT
I never have. I would have loved to have left during the interval of Titanic the Musical but I was one of the ushers. Did you have to watch it multiple times? You poor thing 😕 Fortunately it was a theatre for touring productions and they rarely were on longer than a week. So anything dire we didn't have to stand for too long. |
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Post by distantcousin on Dec 4, 2023 18:09:29 GMT
the only times I was incredibly close was for "Barking In Essex" - starring Sheila Hancock, Lee Evans and Keeley Hawes - crass, vulgar, shouty, bit like a ITV 90's comedy, but with 4 letter words.
Should have left at the interval of The Book of Mormon. As it was I went to the loo in act 2 and only came back to keep my friend company. Absolutely dire show.
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Post by backstage on Dec 5, 2023 12:42:30 GMT
Quite a few operas - I don’t think I like opera all that much (there are exceptions) but I often get cheap seats when I’m on holiday as it’s a chance to see a beautiful building. On occasion I’ve loved it but I’ve got a very low threshold for disappearing (especially if it’s a nice evening and I’ve already eyed up a wine bar).
Only thing I remember leaving purely because I genuinely hated it was an improvised musical thing that toured recently. I left Standing at the Sky’s Edge due to a combination of not liking it and having some bad medical news earlier that day (probably shouldn’t have gone in the first place). Recently left an amateur production of a musical due to a wave of ‘morning’ sickness and didn’t want to risk throwing up mid-second half…unfortunately meant missing a friends big number in the second half but hopefully they’ll understand!
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Post by erik24601 on Dec 5, 2023 14:59:39 GMT
Broken Wings at the Charing Cross Theatre was a perfect reason for me to slip out in the interval and dive into the nearest bar to drown my feelings. Beautiful score and vocals but my goodness it had been directed to one side of the auditorium (seemingly a regular problem when shows are put into that stupid two-sided auditorium in the venue). I was on the 'original stage' side of the auditorium and spent 95% of the time looking at the back and sides of heads, despite paying the same price for a ticket as the other side of the auditorium offered. What's the point in installing a revolve if you aren't going to occasionally shake up the staging.
Seems directors just sit on one side of the rehearsal room and don't bother to move to see how interesting/boring it is for the other 40% of the auditorium. I wrote to the box office to ask for a refund and didn't receive a reply. A shame as when it's in its traditional layout, I really like the Charing Cross Theatre but I'll now avoid any productions that aren't produced 'end-on' there.
C'est La Vie.
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Post by longinthetooth on Dec 5, 2023 16:30:43 GMT
Back in 2013 (I've just looked it up, my memory isn't that good!) I had the misfortune to see a musical called 'The Opinion Makers', starring Daniel Boys, Mel Giedroyc and Julie Atherton. It was described as Mad Men meets Carry On. It was absolutely dire, not remotely funny, and after the interval I was the only person left sitting in my row (I only stayed in the vain hope that it would improve - it didn't). On the way out I overheard someone say they had never heard it so quiet as everyone vacated the auditorium. We couldn't get out fast enough.
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