Bad Behaviour at a Show

Another interesting one that has just come to mind was when seeing Nell Gywnn in February. But, in this case it was the ushers not the audience. When entering we were told no photography of the set, fair enough then that they told some people off for taking photos. But what was more rude was that an elderly lady was entering row A of the dress circle and lent her coat on the balcony edge (not even leaning over) so that she could sit down and it looked like she was just about to move it as she was sitting down. Yet, the ushers come along marching their orders of how nothing can be leaning over the rail (which it wasn't), and as the woman stated she was picking it up to move it, the ushers walked off and described the lady as a 'deaf, old woman'. I thought this was poor FOH behaviour, and I did complain, as apparently did many people from the audience, about the FOH but didn't hear anything, and it's a shame that if FOH can be so rude, and it may be this in some venues that explains why the audience has such bad manners.

^still hot on stopping it when I was there earlier this week... man on rear row of front block 'made' to delete all his photos while they watched. Different rules re talking do however seem to apply!

I can totally back you up on that one. In my days as a Cardiff theatre-goer my ex-wife used to call them the "Andrew Lloyd-Webber brigade".

Im far too nice sadly...

Just think about it as being nice to everyone else around you who's also suffering.

This is actually about the Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics, but it's an audience behaviour comment and I've seen it in theatres too, so:—

Audiences: If you're going to clap along with the music then make sure you have enough rhythm to clap along with the music, and not with some other beat that doesn't exist anywhere in the world around you.

Hey all - I'm new here but have an interesting one for this thread. The other day I was at Mamma Mia and during the finale/curtain call one of the ushers was up dancing and singing along in the aisle like most of the audience members. I get why she'd want to, but it seemed a little unprofessional. Do you guys agree or do you think it's ok at a show like that?

House staff thankfully. I don't know if I'd have been happy had a punter shouted at others for taking photos of an empty set.

The dancing usher is the sort of thing I'd find a little bit cringey but if it's genuine excitement I wouldn't be too annoyed. That said, as TM reminds us, they're not being paid to dance but to patrol the house.

The Globe this afternoon for Macbeth - apart from untold chatting/murmuring and all too audible 'whispering' throughout, a couple brought in a baby to the standing area that was hanging on the fathers back like a rucksack for the first 15 minutes or so before it began grizzling, the mother got out a bottle to keep the child quiet which worked for about 2 minutes before it started choking on the milk and making even more noise and started grizzling again even louder, on and off: the father kept wandering in and out of with the child only for it to start crying again each time - 'is this a dagger I see before me?' loses any dramatic impact when the sound of a child wailing means you can't hear Macbeth - thankfully they disappeared not long after this, OK so standing at the Globe is cheap but why would you think it would be a good idea to bring a child that age in with you?

Unfortunately, there was also some over-egged coughing when the dry ice was used (I was in the front row of seating and couldn't smell it, the coughing was well behind me so I'm thinking it was a drama queen trying to join in the on-stage 'fun'), a group of four sat in the row behind me who turned up 15 minutes into proceedings and after 40 minutes or so decided to plunder their stocks of smuggled in junk food, much rustling and opening of plastic bags ensued including someone eating something that sounded like a zombie sucking someones brains out, before the alpha male of the group then decided to sit there squishing a plastic squash bottle for the duration while one of the younger members of his troop decided to scrape their feet back and forth along the ground making as much noise as possible.

What with the man sat next to me looking at football scores on his phone at every opportunity, and a man by stage side trying to photo/film as much as he could (he must have loads of photos of the back of Tara Fitzgerald's head to enjoy tonight), I think it'll be a very long time before I bother going back there.

I think we have discussed this before but what do we think about someone coming down in the interval from the gods to the front stalls having spotted an empty seat? I wouldn't have noticed but she very loudly asked the poor American tourist next to her if he minded and oh dear she couldn't hear from where she was and she left her husband up there and didn't tell him she had come down but then he knew her and what films had he seen. A credit to him he was very polite. She rattled on all through the interval. And then did the thing American visitors must all suffer- she asked him and his companion if they had enjoyed it. Good job she wasn't next to me.

this was at RSC tonight 

It's not just babies who are inappropriately young or who behave disruptively, though: yesterday at CFT there were several small parties, apparently of grandparent(s) plus grandchild(ren), but the adults were making no effort to restrain the children or advise them on behaviour.

In the seats adjacent to mine I had a grandmother with a fidgety grandchild on each side, so one was unfortunately next to me, and she was constantly leaping about and jiggling my seat each time. I shot her the occasional filthy look but she clearly didn't realise why and the grandmother didn't take the hint, either. As we were front row I didn't dare whisper a polite request for her to sit still.

Then, a few rows back, another grandparent had thought fit to provide the grandchild with a huge, rustly bag of sweets into which said child dipped vigorously at regular intervals, despite aggrieved backward glances from people in my row. Maybe it's time theatres put on special family performances? I do think however that the show wasn't suitable for children so young, though whether the grandparent misjudged it or was trying to combine child-minding with theatre-going, I don't know.