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Post by Mr Snow on Nov 3, 2016 15:08:13 GMT
Sounds like Alan J Lerner's never had a cold. I don't like coughing when I'm enjoying a show, but I don't always have a choice.  He was absolutely serious about it, and he had a hit or two. |
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Post by kathryn on Nov 3, 2016 17:18:57 GMT
Sounds like Alan J Lerner's never had a cold. I don't like coughing when I'm enjoying a show, but I don't always have a choice. Some of us just have bad throats/allergies. Dust from moving stage machinery has been known to set me off. Makes my eyes water and my nose run too, so I always look like I'm getting emotional at something! I fear I would give Mr Lerner quite the wrong idea.... Dry ice has never made me cough, but during Bakkai at the Almeida I did find myself becoming incredibly itchy, and I noticed quite a few other audience members twitching and scratching as if they were feeling it too. I'm not sure whether it was the seating itself, a cleaning product they'd used, or something in the haze effect - or maybe actual fleas! - but it didn't recur during Richard III this year. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2016 18:57:03 GMT
I guess that's why his shows are quite good (yes, thank you, I know who Alan J Frickin' Lerner is ), he misread the audience's discomfort and decided he needed to make his shows BETTER. Entirely ridiculous reasoning, but with some pretty grand results.  |
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Post by ailsmal on Nov 3, 2016 21:09:33 GMT
I’m glad it’s not just old fogeys like me that find it very hard to enjoy a show when pandemonium is all around. BUT it does seem from this thread that it’s much more prevalent (though not exclusively) in the audiences for the ‘new’ mainstream musicals? A year or two back when 'The Bodyguard' was touring one of my friends posted up on Facebook about her excitement about going to an Alexandra Burke concert - I didn't think anything of it.......a few days later she was ranting that Alexandra Burke might not be performing, at which point I twigged what she had initially been talking about. I tried to explain to her that Burke may not be performing at every performance for any number of reasons - resting her voice being a good example - but she just didn't get it, she wanted the Alexandra Burke 'concert'. I love musicals, but I would really think twice about attending them now. I apologise if it sounds snobbish, but there are too many musicals inspired by mediocre 80s/90s movies being churned out and combined with the stunt casting of Simon Cowell rejects.....I'll leave it there. I try and stick to plays or the ballet now. SaveSave |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 3, 2016 21:12:36 GMT
I’m glad it’s not just old fogeys like me that find it very hard to enjoy a show when pandemonium is all around. BUT it does seem from this thread that it’s much more prevalent (though not exclusively) in the audiences for the ‘new’ mainstream musicals? I love musicals, but I would really think twice about attending them now. I apologise if it sounds snobbish, but there are too many musicals inspired by mediocre 80s/90s movies being churned out and combined with the stunt casting of Simon Cowell rejects.....I'll leave it there. I try and stick to plays or the ballet now. SaveSaveCome back when you're ready. We miss you, and you CANNOT beat a lovely musical. |
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Post by ailsmal on Nov 3, 2016 21:44:26 GMT
I recently listened to the cast recording of Hamilton - I really didn't expect to like it - so that may necessitate a trip to London. I'd love to see Matilda and Aladdin (I love Disney), but the thought of the potential audiences at those! I'm booked in to see War Horse when it tours in 2018 - I'm pretty sure it's not a set-text in Scottish schools, so hopefully it won't be too much of an ordeal. I had the misfortune to go and see Bear Grylls live last month - I thought the concept of the show sounded interesting (I've always thought him a prat - the show cemented this).....not a peep or movement out of anyone! How the kids, let alone the adults, managed to stay put is beyond me. The reviews on the Facebook page for the King's and Theatre Royal in Glasgow are worth a read, a number of 1 and 2 star reviews because the horrible staff shushed people when they decided to sing along: www.facebook.com/pg/kingsandtheatreroyalglasgow/reviews/?ref=page_internal |
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Post by ptwest on Nov 4, 2016 5:59:43 GMT
Some of these reviews are absolutely unbelievable! Remind me not to book for a show here... |
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Post by duncan on Nov 4, 2016 12:13:39 GMT
I've never heard the audience being shushed at either venue. Staff have always been very nice when I've been to both venues.
..but then again the current top review is some daftie complaining because Sister Act wasn't the same as the film, which does a fair job of representing the Weegie mentality.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 4, 2016 12:57:28 GMT
There does seem to be genuine puzzlement on those FB reviews as to why anyone would go to a musical and not sing along. I suppose until someone explains it, you don't know. Loved the comment about A. Burke though  |
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Post by bellboard27 on Nov 4, 2016 13:20:10 GMT
There does seem to be genuine puzzlement on those FB reviews as to why anyone would go to a musical and not sing along. I suppose until someone explains it, you don't know. Let's see what happens if/when Frozen opens at the Palladium! |
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Post by Mr Snow on Nov 4, 2016 14:59:55 GMT
There does seem to be genuine puzzlement on those FB reviews as to why anyone would go to a musical and not sing along. I suppose until someone explains it, you don't know. Loved the comment about A. Burke though Many Rock concerts these days have become sing alongs to your favourites and I wonder if its transferred over? Mrs Snow is addicted to the charms of Sir Rodney Stewart. The only way the old git can get through a Concert is to have the audience sing more than he does. You have no choice but to join in. Now I love a sing-a-long but why pay all that money to hear someone else? The Sky is indeed falling... |
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Post by 49thand8th on Nov 4, 2016 15:06:24 GMT
There does seem to be genuine puzzlement on those FB reviews as to why anyone would go to a musical and not sing along. I suppose until someone explains it, you don't know. Loved the comment about A. Burke though A good friend of mine (as in, I've known her for about 10 years; we've worked together on both coasts) is a casual theatergoer, and we've seen a couple shows together. She moved to NYC a couple years before I did, and tries to see a few shows a year. She's generally a very polite, non-obnoxious person... and she had no idea singing along was seen as rude until our boss (an aspiring actor/singer herself) and I both looked at her, silently, appalled, when she said she had sung along at Beauty and the Beast. I guess that's low on the list of Shows You Don't Sing Along At, but still. I think a lot of people just don't really think about it. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2016 15:53:37 GMT
Yup I've been told (by some charming ladies at Jersey Boys) that singing along is what they came for and that 'in the big city' that's what they do...Ahem. I mean Jersey Boys on tour does attract a certain demographic I admit...Likewise someone on FB was boasting about 'much singing along' at Dirty Dancing the other week. I mean for the latter it might actually improve the show but still!
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Post by 49thand8th on Nov 4, 2016 15:59:05 GMT
Ugh. I'm not surprised. It's why I try to rush Jersey Boys on Broadway whenever I do go -- usually if you're a single, they give you a limited-view seat in the front row, and any singing along is generally drowned out by the speakers and the goings-on on stage!
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Post by Sue on Nov 5, 2016 21:00:20 GMT
Ooh what a hoo-ha! I've just had a full-on stand up argument with a dreadful couple at Little Shop of Horrors! So the show starts and the female starts immediately singing. Very. Very. Loudly. She's across the aisle and a row in front and it's still very audible above the cast and we are way down the front of the stalls so it's quite loud. Three songs in and she's still at it. I decide I'm nipping this in the bud right now so I lean forward out of my seat and do a loud "shhhhhhhhhh.... thank you!". She is silenced. The show continues. She goes to the toilet, the male then goes to the toilet. Drinks are being drunk. Interval: uneventful..I'm with five pals and we're stood in the aisle chatting about alsorts, including bad backs, the original Come Dancing with Peggy Spencer and her dance team from Penge, and Hedy Lamarr's contribution to modern mobile communications (all male friends... you get the picture). The only mention of the singer was one of my group saying thanks for stopping the singing. Second half passes with two more toilet visits (them not us) and finally it's curtain down. So then we're in that little gap while you're waiting for the crowd to clear so you can make progress to the exit and the female turns round and starts ranting that I'm not better than anyone else and how dare I talk to her like that. So I say I dont want to hear her singing and the male says scornfully "you don't want to hear people singing?" Then she starts going on about how I was making fun of her hair! WTF? I never mentioned her hair! I say this and she says "you did, you did! I heard you making fun of my hair, you're no better than me!". My pal wades in "he never mentioned your hair, I've been stood here all the time" and her BF says "he must have, should wouldn't lie about it would she?". The BF is quite small and weasly and I'm 6'3 and built like a barn door do I just smiled nicely and said "she's mistaken". She has a final go about how im no better than her and they move off. I mean like WTF? What are people like? It was only when she mentioned her hair that I actually looked at her hair and yeah it was pretty hideous. But that's not the point, I'm innocent!  Bet you now wish you HAD told her exactly how hideous her hair was! |
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Post by ailsmal on Nov 6, 2016 20:39:24 GMT
This story puts me in mind of attending a Michael Flatley show at the Glasgow Concert Hall last year. There was a young woman (I'd estimate 20s) and her carer/mother(?) sat at the end of the row. First the woman wouldn't let people get into the row to get their seat, throughout the show she was standing up, clapping, hooting, laughing at entirely the wrong bits and - to be completely honest - I don't think she really had any concept of what was going on or where she was. At the end of the performance? Nobody on that row could get out as she suddenly decided she wouldn't stand up. Cynical me wonders if the carer wanted to see the show and got a discount for a 'disabled' ticket for her ward and took advantage of the carers go free thing that I'm pretty sure the Hall offers.....I don't know if this show would have eligible. I have every sympathy for anyone who has to care for someone like that, but what I and other people near her (the language from the man sat beside me was quite impressive) wouldn't have given for the ushers to have done something. There's a great comment on the story regarding the enjoyment of the majority having to take priority in cases like these. I've seen some shows advertise 'relaxed' performances, which are a great idea and I accept that if I attend one of those I have to expect some more unusual behaviour - this show was not one of these performances and the ticket (for Glasgow) was quite pricey. The story: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3910476/Mother-claims-told-calm-seven-year-old-disabled-son-LAUGHED-Mary-Poppins-theatre-show.html |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2016 19:17:50 GMT
A group of about four people walked out of Breakfast at Tiffany's in the middle of the first act, making everyone in the row stand up and blocking the view of everyone sat behind them. Now, I didn't like the show either, but if I was going to walk out, I'd soldier on till the interval and then make my quick exit instead of doing it in full view of the actors on stage. Rude.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 0:58:02 GMT
I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone, but it has to me quite a few times for some reason. Not really bad behavior, but do you ever buy yourself a program, have a read or flick through pre-show or during the interval in your seat, and the person next to you reads YOURS along with you? Some people have been more subtle than others (glancing away as I glance in toward direction), but I always can tell when they do it in the periphery of my vision, and earlier this year for a change the guy just asked to read along and leaned in even closer! But luckily that was like less than a minute before Act Two started). Don't get me wrong, I don't really mind when it happens and I try to be friendly and just let them, but sometimes it can make me paranoid that I'm either flicking through the pages too fast or too slow for them, or worry that they can't see and if I try to move it then it's an awkward invitation to allow them to read along, or have the feeling that I'm "in too deep" (as Bialystock and Bloom would say) and now I can't just put it down to have a drink or talk to whoever I'm with! - and then I start to think "I paid £4 for this, you go and get your own!" ....All that aside I probably am guilty of doing it myself now and then.  |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 11, 2016 9:37:25 GMT
Last Saturday at Amadeus I was sitting in front of Methuselah, whose hearing aid kept loudly whistling during the whole show.
Toward the end of the second act, while Salieri reads Mozart's Requiem, someone shouted "no" and I assumed it was someone onstage. After the show, where everyone was leaving, a woman and a man were fighting in front of an usher because she said he had been touching her for the whole show and the man was denying it... more than bad beheaviour.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 10:07:22 GMT
Yesterday at School of Rock theses two women next to me whenever a child came on,sang, said something, played an instrument, breathed, moved etc they would loudly 'AAAAWWWWWWWWW'. My looks of disgust didn't put them off
Had we stayed for act 2 my plan was to start breaking wind and see if they thought that was 'AAAAAWWWWWWWW' worthy
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 10:23:49 GMT
Last Saturday at Amadeus I was sitting in front of Methuselah, whose hearing aid kept loudly whistling during the whole show. Toward the end of the second act, while Salieri reads Mozart's Requiem, someone shouted "no" and I assumed it was someone onstage. After the show, where everyone was leaving, a woman and a man were fighting in front of an usher because she said he had been touching her for the whole show and the man was denying it... more than bad beheaviour. God that's awful - at least on the tube you can loudly make a fuss if you have the nerve, but in a quiet theatre you'd feel doubly cornered. Nightmare. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Nov 11, 2016 21:04:56 GMT
Last Saturday at Amadeus I was sitting in front of Methuselah, whose hearing aid kept loudly whistling during the whole show. Toward the end of the second act, while Salieri reads Mozart's Requiem, someone shouted "no" and I assumed it was someone onstage. After the show, where everyone was leaving, a woman and a man were fighting in front of an usher because she said he had been touching her for the whole show and the man was denying it... more than bad beheaviour. Wow |
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Post by theatrehound on Nov 12, 2016 11:01:26 GMT
Woman at Lazarus last night- while Michael C Hall is lying on the stage as part of the pre-set, walked up to the front of the stage and proceeded to take copious amounts of photos of him on her phone, in between grinning and waving at her friends in the stalls - WHERE WHERE THE USHERS?? Also my daughter who was sitting near the back was extremely annoyed by several apparently drunken people in the row in front constantly talking, laughing and commenting on everything throughout. Amazing show though...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2016 11:58:47 GMT
Yesterday at School of Rock theses two women next to me whenever a child came on,sang, said something, played an instrument, breathed, moved etc they would loudly 'AAAAWWWWWWWWW'. My looks of disgust didn't put them off Had we stayed for act 2 my plan was to start breaking wind and see if they thought that was 'AAAAAWWWWWWWW' worthy You can break wind at will. You should be on stage en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pétomane |
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Post by bex1210 on Nov 12, 2016 15:57:34 GMT
I was surrounded by badly behaved people at Half a Sixpence last night. The couple in front were leaners and blocked my view for the majority of the first half and then they shuffled into some other seats in the interval. Multiple people kept getting their phones out and the guy on our right couldn't stick to his own space and kept encroaching in our foot space. Good job the leg room was quite generous and we're short so didn't need much room.
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