Musical Theatre Actors Criticising Audience Behaviour

Bit of a funny one this.

I follow lots of MT actors on Twiddler and the like, and I see huge amounts of involvement in the bad behaviour debates, ranging from the bemused and amused to the borderline aggressive (you know the kind of thing 'WE SEE YOU in the front row with your phone, how disrespectful, what is your problem, you're a terrible individual etc etc.")

Now to be clear, audience behaviour and the decline thereof drives me berserk. All I want is to sit in my seat in complete peace with no talking, eating, picture taking, arm rest elbowing etc etc and will happily call it out. 

But for some reason, for me personally, I don't feel comfortable when the MT actors do it. The bemused/amused is fine. But the really aggressive ones I really don't like. I guess ultimately, the audience, including the badly behaved ones are paying their salary. I also feel the policing of the audience should be done in other ways, by the ushers, by better announcements, by raising awareness and ultimately by the audience themselves.

Bad audience behaviour is complex. It is almost never an individual deciding to be evil but rather reflects the way society is and social norms, attitudes and behaviours. So singling out individuals for a social media flogging (when they are paying your salary) doesn't sit well. I guess I sort of think two wrongs don't make a right. 

Just wondered what other people think? Reason I put this under musicals is that the MT actors seem much more keen to jump on this bandwagon. Further, I think it's more unclear for an MT audience what is and isn't expected of them (I wish it could be made clearer!)

A kind of parallel is that I work in patient facing healthcare, and we encounter poor behaviour all the time. But there is a myriad of reasons for this and it is very much our job to remain professional and never criticise or react to this (unless it tips over into threatening, of course). It should be managed in other ways, but not by us.

Anyway, just some random Saturday morning thoughts really!

(Oh and the whole "why can't people turn their phone off for two hours and immerse themselves" line from MT actors also falls apart when SO many of them tweet DURING shows from the wings. If THEY can't switch off their phones for the whole show and immerse themselves, how can they expect the audience to? Attachment to phones is an awful problem endemic in society; am thankful that I can turn mine off for a show, but no idea how I can persuade other people!)