Bad Behaviour at a Show

it has been on the BBC news pages for a couple of days. ITV won't like that sort of negative publicity. They will do something to try to draw a line under it and distance themselves.

To be fair, bad behaviour is getting worse everywhere and is certainly not exclusive to jukebox musicals.

I wonder if the rise of ticket sites like TodayTix, where people who normally wouldn't go to the theatre, can get reasonably priced seats has contributed to this? Cultural capital is a real thing. Theatre being more accessible is great, but perhaps theatres need to be thinking about how they combat this. Perhaps it should be "if you sing even once, you are ejected", for example.

I went to see Phantom last week and was genuinely shocked at the amount of people mid row getting up to go to the toilet, etc, mid-act. They may as well have had a revolving door.

GBNews are talking about whether lockdown has resulted in a reduction in etiquette now
(Don't judge me, my parents have it on)

I would agree. We were threatened with violence after asking someone to stop singing along at Priscilla in Manchester years before lockdowns.

Pleasantly surprised at the segment on GB News, actively saying however much you want to, don't sing along unless it's a specific performance and pointing out the issue in Manchester wasn't merely the singing along, but the level of violence it descended to.

They do promote a lot of shows on This Morning, so I’d imagine the criticism will be fairly short-lived. At most they’ll probably have an incredibly brief “oops, we got it wrong” non-apology moment on tomorrow’s show.

I do think people are losing a bit of perspective on this. Yes, the segment was stupid, but it’s the theatres that need to be doing more, or rather less in the case of pushing alcohol on people.

The been to some ATG venues recently where I’ve noticed they seem to have started to play a loud-ish ringtone every so often before the show. No announcement. Why can they not just say to out your phone on silent? Same with the no photography thing. Just make a loud announcement over the speakers and let the ushers do something more productive than traipse up and down the aisles with a sign.

Totally agree
Bring back the serious pre show announcement.
It’s like every one is pussy footing around the subject.

‘For the enjoyment of everyone around you please turn off your phone and no talking or singing during the performance. Thank you.

It’s not hard

Such an interesting thread - but hasn't this decline in behaviour in theatres, cinemas and concert halls been brewing for some time? It's total selfishness and a culture in which many people now have the attention span of a gnat. It's got to a point where I'm going to fewer things. Is it not possible for these people to sit for a couple of hours without swilling plastic cups of pinot and stuffing their faces. It's even worse at concerts where there's a good chance that some idiot will have their camera in your sightline for most of the performance. The venues need to get their acts together.

By contrast, I was at a Thai boxing show on Saturday night and - apart from cheering supporters - the behaviour of everyone was exemplary and of the utmost courtesy. We do indeed live in strange times!

I also volunteered at a regional theatre until recently, I resigned after 7 years and still feel sad about it but audience behaviour has been noticeably worse since covid and I wasn't prepared to put up with that anymore.

Many audience members were lovely and it was nice seeing regulars, however it's always the negative ones that stick in the memory unfortunately.

As predicted, doesn't look like any sort of statement on This Morning. Have struggled to watch the first half hour of it and never seen such an inane poorly presented tv show so gave up.

I was a volunteer in a theatre for 10 years and, as others have said, the majority of people were very nice. I preferred musical audiences to plays as they were generally much friendlier.
We had a strict policy of not allowing any late arrivals into the theatre until the interval and if they left during the show to go to the toilet they were not readmitted. This was for practical purposes as the theatre was small and people would have to walk across the front of the stage and sometimes on the stage to get to and from their seats. This sometimes could be problematic and caused a few problem.
But mainly I have only very happy memories especially when you were recognised by returning customers.