Bad Behaviour at a Show

I always say, well it's happened twice, 'you can't film me, this lady isn't my wife' to which my wife adds 'and he isn't my husband'

First time in my life I’ve had to walk out of a show because of audience behaviour! I’ve seen Choir Of Man twice before and yes it can be raucous at moments but tonight the couple next to me were a whole different level. I endured the following before I had to leave and request a refund.

* Really drunk when they came in to sit down.
* The wife Recorded (which is allowed) as soon as it started then posted to instagram.
* She Screamed like a fog horn at every moment which made even the people sitting in front turn round.
* She reached into her bag and routed around for eternity before pulling out some sausage rolls, she then reached back into her bag for salt sachets and opened those and gave one to her husband. Worth mentioning she was wearing about 8 silver wrist bangles which added to the noise.
* Talked constantly to her husband in between and during songs.
* Went back into her bag to take out a pret wrap which caused the same level of noise as the first time round.
* Said loudly that she didn’t give a F**k about what anyone thought which was a result of the guy on the other end asking the husband to be quiet.
* I then asked them to not talk throughout the whole show which is when FOH first intervened when she started getting angry at me.
* She then shouted at the end of a song at me “Can I clap now” then cheered in my face which was the second time front of house came over.
* I then got angry and told the staff they were incapable of being quiet, the show was all about them and they didn’t give a damn about anyone else, unfortunately that meant I became a disruption monetarily at that point.
* It started to settle down and I tried to grin and bear it and enjoy the show but when 500 miles properly kicked in and I along with the rest of the audience clapped along, the husband yelled at me to stop making so much noise, I imagine to get his own back but at this moment, the loudest point of the show, his wife was now crying as the song reminded her of her dead dad.
* Security came over this time and that was the point I got up and left and asked for a refund.

I cannot stress how amazing the FOH team at the Arts were and they did their best but it
Is the first time in my life I’ve left a show because of audience behaviour.

I’ve seen it twice before and loved it and the audience banter made it, but tonight was the worst, most entitled behaviour I’ve ever seen at a show. I feel so sorry for the FOH team at the Arts if they have to deal with that a lot.

That's awful avfan
Makes my evening not feel so bad but I think it's worth a post. I was at the first night of Wicked in Southampton. As you might guess from my username it is a show that means a lot to me. Took my mum for her first time (she gets to about a show a year so a real treat!). The audience was never quiet, plastic wrappers, talking, loo visits, all the normal stuff but more than I am used to!

The kicker was during No Good Deed. I got really into it as it is a song I love. I was taken right back out when I heard a loud alarm. So loud I assumed it was the building and there would be an immediate show stop. It wasn't the building. It was a phone. They stopped the noise then checked their phone. I'm not sure if it was a time, a text, an insulin thing or what but they didn't leave.

It tipped me over the edge. I wanted to go outside for air but didn't want to miss the rest of the song. My brain couldn't process it all. They left during the curtain call so it may have been something important but no sign of regret at all.

That reminds me of when I went to see Blood Brothers in Birmingham. 

On front row, this really loud alarm went off during a quiet scene in act I. Like really loud distress signal-alarm. The lady did look incredibly embarrassed as she fumbled around in her bag as it continued.

My friends who were further back in stalls (row T and beyond) heard it too - one started to get his stuff together, as it just sounded like the fire alarm at the Empire Liverpool, and he thought we'd be evacuated. 

With some sort of alarm sounds, that's a tricky one for me personally, as my boyfriend has diabetes and had a sensor.
He'd always check his levels before we enter the building and before the show starts, but sometimes that thing was just out of whack and would just go off (he's had a faulty one more then once). The anxiety we'd both have hoping it wouldn't go off during the show was quite high at times.

At this evening's performance of For Black Boys... two women in the front row began chatting with each other pretty much from the start. There's a bit of audience participation with the front row throughout the show and that is obviously fine, but this wasn't that. This was continuous chatting, heads on each other's shoulders, pointing things out on the stage, etc. Luckily I could tune them out quite easily, but I couldn't believe they were acting like that so brazenly when they would clearly have been visible - and possibly audible - to the actors.

In the second half the woman behind them got fed up and asked them to stop, prompting them to mutter various rude words about her. That was then followed by an argument between them when the lights came up. It went on for quite a while as there were long queues to get out and no one was moving - so that was a bit awkward! She quite rightly pointed out to them that they had been incredibly disrespectful to the actors but they couldn't have cared less.

Terrible. I'm wondering if it's a tactic to pretend to nonchalantly join the chat saying: "what did they just say?, I didn't catch that". If close enough.

It’s not really bad behaviour, but amusing. Many patrons at the Dominion don’t realise most of the stalls is slightly raked. Unlike a lot of theatres where this is “stepped”, in this theatre it’s gently “sloped”. This means that people putting plastic glasses or wine bottles on the floor sometimes find them rolling away. We had quite a few yesterday going between people’s legs and some down the aisle. Sadly a wine bottle going down the aisle would have been immensely amusing but didn’t happen!

I'd like to think so, but apparently not...

Speaking of volunteer FOH and confrontation, same applies to the Royal Exchange. Someone checks your ticket when you enter the building so having done that my friend memorised our seat numbers and switched his phone off before we entered the theatre. Snotty cow on the door asked to see the tix so he had to faff about getting his phone out, booting it up etc while holding drinks. Flustered he kind of instinctively offered the drinks to FOH to hold while he got sorted out and she was absolutely vile to him “I’m not here to hold your alcohol, what do you take me for I’m a volunteer” etc etc. Of course I stepped in from behind and took the bevvies off him but he was quite shaken. No you’re not there to hold people’s drinks but don’t speak to people like that.

That is the output of the filming, you can just see the top of my head as they filmed going up the stairs - for about the 20th time.  

The Palace assistant general manager did send me an email with some spiel about how press night works, and that they put posters up to say there may be filming (I didn't see any), but he upgraded a future booking that I couldn't get lounge access for to include the gold package - so happy with the outcome, even if the apology was overall poor.