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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2019 15:19:51 GMT
Also, frankly, the volume that cinemas crank the films up to these days, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a tiny baby to see anything (except maybe A Quiet Place), I'd be so terrified of doing permanent damage.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2019 15:47:59 GMT
Also, frankly, the volume that cinemas crank the films up to these days, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a tiny baby to see anything (except maybe A Quiet Place), I'd be so terrified of doing permanent damage. Good point, a thriller with sudden bursts of tense music would be just the thing to unnerve a baby and thus we get the associated noise from them.
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Post by alicechallice on Apr 7, 2019 17:41:22 GMT
UPDATE - I popped back in there yesterday and mentioned it when I was buying some more tickets. The person behind the counter said that another viewer had sent a complaint e-mail and it had been discussed with the staff that morning. Turns out the baby hadn't been let in but snuck in by the mother as none of the staff had noticed it.
They said I should have come out to complain but I admitted (and I thought they would be on the side of the mother) that I'd just assumed they let people with babies in nowadays, as long as it wasn't consistently disruptive - which it wasn't, there wasn't a peep out of the baby after about 15 minutes. As mentioned in my previous post, I was more annoyed about the mother's eating habits.
Now, my assumption isn't down to the fact I think they'd be in the right, I just had visions of this woman kicking off if somebody had asked her to leave and my experience of trendy arthouse cinema staff is quite apathetic to be honest, so I just assumed that they wouldn't be too fussed. Which is more my own short-sightedness to an extent but the last time I criticised somebody for disrupting a film, I got accused of doing it on sexist grounds and the staff were no help whatsoever. So I haven't since.
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Post by distantcousin on Apr 7, 2019 18:42:27 GMT
Standing At The Edge Of The Sky tonight at the Crucible. It started badly when before the show I went to the bar for a drink. It was busy and this bloke with what I assumed to be his partner and a couple of women tried pushing in. I could hear him talking to his party, rough as houses they were. Then he tried that thing where you get close to the bar and they stretch their arm out and put their fingertips on the bar as if to claim the next service by physically blocking you. Not on my watch dear, and especially not on my own manor! So I said “Nicely pushed in there” and all of a sudden he’s talking like Penelope Keith “oh did I really? I’m terribly sorry” “Yes you most certainly did” I replied “AND you seem to have one leg in two separate queues which isn’t how it works” (him and mates all giving me daggers) “Oh well you MUST be served next then.... excuse me will you serve this gentleman first please apparently I’ve pushed in” “Thanks very much” I say with a smile. Opening of the second act and the bloke next to me decides to take pics. Then he stops for a bit then starts to video it. Not for long he didn’t. THEN towards the end when several of the storylines got joined up and resolved in various lovely ways some joker across the way started applauding and shouting out trying to get the audience to join in. Did it four times and it was just inappropriate and wrong because no-one was going along with it apart from a few round him. Who was it? Yes Penny Keith and his gang of naff mates. Absolutely dreadful 😑
Heavens, I didn't know such achingly middle class social mores occured in the North!!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2019 19:24:57 GMT
UPDATE - I popped back in there yesterday and mentioned it when I was buying some more tickets. The person behind the counter said that another viewer had sent a complaint e-mail and it had been discussed with the staff that morning. Turns out the baby hadn't been let in but snuck in by the mother as none of the staff had noticed it. They said I should have come out to complain but I admitted (and I thought they would be on the side of the mother) that I'd just assumed they let people with babies in nowadays, as long as it wasn't consistently disruptive - which it wasn't, there wasn't a peep out of the baby after about 15 minutes. As mentioned in my previous post, I was more annoyed about the mother's eating habits. Yes, similar to my experience - I didn't say anything at the time as I wasn't sure of the rules and in any case I thought them being asked to leave would cause more disruption than them staying. Although in my case the staff were aware the child was there as one of the ushers helped the mother carry the pushchair downstairs afterwards!
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Post by daisy24601 on Apr 7, 2019 19:34:45 GMT
But if a film is a 15, how much under age does a child have to be to not understand or be unsettled by it. A baby certainly wouldn't know what was going on but a toddler which is classed at between 12 and 36 months might. So what would the rule be about taking a near 3 year old as opposed to say a 5 year old? If it says under 15 then that should be the rule although I'm sure loads of underage teenagers would easily get in if they looked old enough. For designated baby screenings mentioned above, the child should be no older than 18 months as that is when it's deemed they can take things in. The volume will be lower in these screenings also. They should never be allowed into regular screenings.
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Post by partytentdown on Apr 7, 2019 20:55:04 GMT
When you're nominated for an Olivier Award but you don't win so you leave at the interval...!
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Post by Mark on Apr 9, 2019 21:39:13 GMT
Tonight at the Sunderland Empire for Fame the audience were just awful during act one.
Four women behind my sister and I. I shushed them quickly once. Five minutes later they got the death stare, shush and fingers on lips and that seemed to shut them up for a while, though they were clearly dying to chat over the show again towards the end of the act. People up and down every 10 minutes for the bar/toilets. And the crisps. There was a never ending rustle of crisp and sweet packets for the entirety of act one.
Act two was better, although telling that these four women got back 10 minutes late for it. And still up and down for the bar throughout the act. We actually moved over to some empty seats with fewer people around and it was much better!
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Post by shady23 on Apr 10, 2019 7:43:40 GMT
The problems I've had with the Sunderland Empire and drunk people over the years!
Doesn't help there is a big culture among a minority that when you go to the theatre you go for lots of drinks beforehand.
Also doesn't help that the theatre seems completely surrounded on all sides by nothing but pubs.
Certainly doesn't help that it is an ATG venue and they will now bring the drink directly to your seat!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Apr 10, 2019 22:12:12 GMT
What a night it was, never-ending drama!
For the past few weeks I had an intense craving of going to see Mamma Mia and tonight I gave up and bought a ticket. Behind me sat a lovely family of five: Papa, Mama, Nana and two kids. I was slightly concerned about the children, which was foolish of me because they were very good. Their parents, alas, were very not. Before the show even began Mama and Papa started playing the dangerous game of rating each other's physical appearance. The little boy, still in his edipic phase, gave Mama a 9.3; Papa gave her a 7. She was very upset about it - as she should have been, she's a solid 8 - and Papa made it even worse by saying that he rated himself an 8 (which is bollocks, at best he might have been a 6 in the 1990s). Mama was offended and asked Papa if he really wanted to spend the rest of her life with a 7, but the overture brought an end (or so I thought) to the quarrel. Mama then sang along at every song with dubious vocal skills, but she wasn't the only one and there is that much you can expect from an audience when you watch Mamma Mia.
Now, at the interval the sh*t really hit the fan. Mama told the kids how much Papa loved ABBA and Papa had an acute attack of Toxic Masculinity and denied everything, explicitly saying that he is a man, so not only he doesn't "love" musicals, but he also refused to admit that he knew the lyrics. This made Mama extremely upset because she felt that her opinion, experience and even herself had been undercut and undermined by Papa, who made her feel diminished beyond forgiveness. The rosé she drank during the interval gave her courage and she announced that she was about to leave the theatre, leaving her ABBA-negationist husband behind. She didn't, but she went on arguing for a good 30 minutes, threatening at every song to leave the theatre. Obviously you can repeat a threat only that many times before it loses its power, so after Does Your Mother Know? she just sobbed for a few minutes. Her husband, the bastard, decided to make amends by starting to sing along at every tune, demonstrating that Mama was right: he knew the lyrics.
This was surreal, frustrating and actually slightly entertaining: a few people told them to stop but it never worked, and I did not have the heart to turn around and intrude the shipwrecking of someone's marriage. I am considering writing the box office/Delfont/whatever to complain, but what can they do? They were in the middle of a row where no usher could have reached them, and there was nothing wrong with the production, although my experience was frankly terrible due to their fight. Should I complain? I have never done it before
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Post by wickedgrin on Apr 10, 2019 22:48:39 GMT
Delighted you enjoyed your evening at Jeremy Kyle - The Musical couldileaveyou !!!!
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Post by sparky5000 on Apr 11, 2019 1:53:20 GMT
Wow, that’s some theatre experience 😂 Imagine the breaking point of their marriage being Mamma Mia! I’d complain if I were you ... nothing really to lose!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 6:13:25 GMT
Wow, that’s some theatre experience 😂 Imagine the breaking point of their marriage being Mamma Mia! Well seeing as the breakdown of both marriages resulted in some of the defining songs in ABBA's later catalogue, it seems rather fitting I think.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 7:24:07 GMT
What outcome would you be hoping for if you were to write to Delfont Mackintosh? If you're after an opportunity to see the show again at a reasonable-to-hefty discount, or if you genuinely believe there's an opportunity to improve usher training, or if you just want a heartfelt apology, then by all means get in touch with them. I once complained about a really negative theatre experience because I had just had such a rotten time, and was surprised and touched to be offered free house seats for another performance so I could actually watch the show properly. So if your evening was ruined and you have an idea of what DM could reasonably offer that might make it up to you, then it never hurts to try.
But if you don't have an outcome in mind, if there isn't actually anything you want out of this and you just want to let them know about your negative experience so that they know about your negative experience, then there's probably not a lot of point in writing. People in customer service do mostly genuinely want to help their customers, but if the customer doesn't want any sort of help, just an opportunity to vent, then it's not going to be a fulfilling conversation for either party really.
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Post by MrsCondomine on Apr 11, 2019 7:54:13 GMT
WTF!!!
Who let these people out in public?
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Post by couldileaveyou on Apr 11, 2019 7:55:16 GMT
What outcome would you be hoping for if you were to write to Delfont Mackintosh? If you're after an opportunity to see the show again at a reasonable-to-hefty discount, or if you genuinely believe there's an opportunity to improve usher training, or if you just want a heartfelt apology, then by all means get in touch with them. I once complained about a really negative theatre experience because I had just had such a rotten time, and was surprised and touched to be offered free house seats for another performance so I could actually watch the show properly. So if your evening was ruined and you have an idea of what DM could reasonably offer that might make it up to you, then it never hurts to try. But if you don't have an outcome in mind, if there isn't actually anything you want out of this and you just want to let them know about your negative experience so that they know about your negative experience, then there's probably not a lot of point in writing. People in customer service do mostly genuinely want to help their customers, but if the customer doesn't want any sort of help, just an opportunity to vent, then it's not going to be a fulfilling conversation for either party really. Yeah that's what stopping me, I'm surely not one to make scenes or vent, and I think that there was very little an usher could have done - even if to be honest there wasn't one in sight. I wouldn't mind seeing it again as the couple were an enormous distraction to the point I could barely hear what was going on on stage, but there is not an outcome I'm aiming at, so I'll probably let go.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 8:40:10 GMT
So many questions but what I really want to know, couldileaveyou, is what was the Nana up to for the duration? What was she thinking? Did she sleep through? Was she trying to distract the children? Who's parent was she, mama or papas?
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Post by couldileaveyou on Apr 11, 2019 9:19:28 GMT
So many questions but what I really want to know, couldileaveyou , is what was the Nana up to for the duration? What was she thinking? Did she sleep through? Was she trying to distract the children? Who's parent was she, mama or papas? Nana was Papa's Mama and she didn't say much for the whole evening. From what I heard the theatre outing was a Christmas gift either from or for her. At the interval Papa asked her if she was enjoying the show, and Nana replied with an indifferent "yes". She took no part in the fight, and honestly she looked like she simply stopped caring about things sometime during the Cold War. I'd also like to add that Mama obstinately stayed seated and sulking during the Mamma Mia/Dancing Queen/Waterloo encores and since the whole fight occurred in the fourth row of the stalls I wonder if anyone on stage had a clue of the drama that was happening in the house.
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Post by peggs on Apr 11, 2019 10:10:45 GMT
Masterly write up couldileaveyou I'm sorry it spoilt your enjoyment but your post has brightened my day.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 10:52:06 GMT
This was surreal, frustrating and actually slightly entertaining: a few people told them to stop but it never worked, and I did not have the heart to turn around and intrude the shipwrecking of someone's marriage. That account almost sounds like a real-time play in its own right.
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Post by peggs on Apr 11, 2019 11:32:07 GMT
This was surreal, frustrating and actually slightly entertaining: a few people told them to stop but it never worked, and I did not have the heart to turn around and intrude the shipwrecking of someone's marriage. That account almost sounds like a real-time play in its own right. Yes I did wonder if you could perhaps expand and write it please.
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Post by 49thand8th on Apr 11, 2019 14:16:59 GMT
Amazing sign at the tour of Beautiful at the Princess of Wales in Toronto:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 14:21:04 GMT
Amazing sign at the tour of Beautiful at the Princess of Wales in Toronto: They've had the same sort of notices at Tina since the show opened...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2019 18:03:01 GMT
Yeah that's what stopping me, I'm surely not one to make scenes or vent, and I think that there was very little an usher could have done - even if to be honest there wasn't one in sight. I wouldn't mind seeing it again as the couple were an enormous distraction to the point I could barely hear what was going on on stage, but there is not an outcome I'm aiming at, so I'll probably let go. I think I'd take the view that if I complained at the interval, and they didn't then either warn them or keep an eye on them for the second half, I'd feel justified in writing and asking for a refund or similar. On the other hand if there was no interval complaint I'd view a complaint as an opportunity for them to improve training.
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Post by stevej678 on Apr 12, 2019 8:01:52 GMT
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