950 posts
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Post by vdcni on May 10, 2019 7:28:33 GMT
I don't stand very often, maybe 4 times last year which was a lot for me, and will usually happily stay seated when others stand, particularly if I didn't think it was that great. No way was I going to stand after the Cumberbatch Hamlet even though pretty much everyone else did and my Cumberbatch loving friend was giving me a death glare.
If I generally liked something and most other people around stand then I might do as well as by that point I need to stand and stretch anyway.
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544 posts
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Post by amp09 on May 10, 2019 8:14:02 GMT
I tend to save it for spectacular performances, however, I do find myself reluctantly standing if people have done so in front of me just so I’m not aimlessly looking at their bottoms and can see what’s happening on the stage. I mean, sometimes that's a good view. Well sometimes I remain seated for that good view 🤣🤣 |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 8:34:42 GMT
I do agree that generally the nation has been conditioned into the reactive standing ovation, as mentioned, by the competitive talent programmes. Performances that might not even gain a sanding ovation of the audience in filming, are edited to manipulate the viewer with reactive audience shots. As a result the home viewer comes to see this behaviour and copies it.
Case in point:
Les Mis, Manchester. Very good show - Audience of mostly occasional theatre-patron - frequent theatre-patron. There to 'see the show'. Rapturous applause, no standing.
Calendar Girls, Salford: Mediocre show - Audience of mostly infrequent theatre-patron - event-goer. There to 'see them off the tele'. Medium response applause, standing ovation throughout.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 8:35:42 GMT
and don't judge them if they're in absolute raptures over a play you thought was adequate at best Unless they're sitting at the interval loudly listing all the shows they've seen, you don't know that this "mediocre" show isn't the best thing they've ever seen. Let people enjoy things. |
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Post by floorshow on May 10, 2019 8:49:31 GMT
We had a very appropriate standing ovation last night - a premier followed by the composer joining the stage from the stalls. But we had a massive change in applause etiquette during the performance, at the end of the first movement there was absolute silence and the conductor had a brief panic. At the end of the second, one person boldly started clapping on their own and everyone piled on which meant a much happier conductor for the rest of the evening  |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 8:59:06 GMT
We had a very appropriate standing ovation last night - a premier followed by the composer joining the stage from the stalls. But we had a massive change in applause etiquette during the performance, at the end of the first movement there was absolute silence and the conductor had a brief panic. At the end of the second, one person boldly started clapping on their own and everyone piled on which meant a much happier conductor for the rest of the evening Interesting. Normal etiquette there would be to pause between movements and clap at the end. I've been at a few concerts where people have felt implored to clap between movements but its not grown throughout the audience and usually petered out quickly. Nice to see the audience responded to the conductors behaviour though, sounds fun. |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 9:01:49 GMT
and don't judge them if they're in absolute raptures over a play you thought was adequate at best Unless they're sitting at the interval loudly listing all the shows they've seen, you don't know that this "mediocre" show isn't the best thing they've ever seen. Let people enjoy things. Not sure if this is aimed at me, with use quotation of "mediocre". But with the Calendar Girls example, I was listening to conversations as everyone left the house and the overall response was "yeah it was ok", "ahh that was nice", fairly average compliments, that to me seemed to undermine the ovation. |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 9:10:29 GMT
I rarely stand to applaud. If I find a show particularly disappointing I will dig a hole and sit in it so my eyes are at floor level. This does not work well in a balcony.
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544 posts
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Post by amp09 on May 10, 2019 9:12:41 GMT
Oh please don't get certain people started on this again, I feel like it is a topic that has been done to death on various threads here... Anyway, my view on it is simple - if you feel the show is worthy of a standing ovation in your personal opinion, then give one if you want to. If you don't, then don't. Whether a show "warrants" that sort of reaction is and always will be entirely subjective and what everyone else around you feels about the show is irrelevant - plenty of people stood when I saw Company but I didn't overly like the production, so I didn't. My prerogative. The people sitting beside me didn't stand at A German Life, I did. Their prerogative and mine! It's nothing more complicated than that, and there's certainly no "should" involved, unless you choose to make it that. If people feel they have to stand up, that's nothing more than a personal choice on their part, no-one is forcing them to do it. Nothing wrong with a healthy discussion, and the OP may not have been here when it was previously discussed, nor me. |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 10:18:06 GMT
I believe Sondheim said something at his recent NT platform about how we were becoming too American and ovating everything nowadays. I sort of agree, but have been in many audiences where there was barely applause, let alone ovation.
I have no issues standing for something I thought was excellent, or for someone I thought was excellent when they come out to now. It’s rare though I see something everyone wants to ovate but when you discover such a show it ends a wonderful evening on the right note I feel. Company, for example. Deserving in every way.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2019 10:48:51 GMT
Last night at Avalanche, three women on the front row chatted throughout and appeared to be utterly bored, and then leapt to their feet at the end.
Sometimes I feel like I don’t understand other humans.
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Post by sparky5000 on May 11, 2019 22:54:59 GMT
three women on the front row chatted throughout and appeared to be utterly bored, and then leapt to their feet at the end Either their kids were in the cast, or they were were exceptionally happy it was over, perhaps? @theatremonkey On the Sara Cox Show today Kat McPhee was saying how in America, compared to England, people are probably too quick to give standing ovations, and Jack McBrayer joked that it’s probably because they can’t wait leave 😆 |
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4,993 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on May 12, 2019 7:58:53 GMT
when you can pay 500 for a ticket to Fleabag then you need to validate that purchase. So brag on social media and then stand and scream at the end and brag some more
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2019 8:04:26 GMT
People will stand for any old rubbish nowadays (Come From Away and Man of La Mancha as recent examples). I think the great unwashed think it's the "done thing" now. I don't think they get out much.
I blame the Americans personally.
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1,936 posts
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Post by wickedgrin on May 12, 2019 9:16:47 GMT
Last night at Avalanche, three women on the front row chatted throughout and appeared to be utterly bored, and then leapt to their feet at the end. Sometimes I feel like I don’t understand other humans. A man in front of me slept through most of Allelujah by Alan Bennett at the Bridge Theatre and then unbelievably leapt to his feet applauding at the end!! |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2019 9:23:25 GMT
Last night at Avalanche, three women on the front row chatted throughout and appeared to be utterly bored, and then leapt to their feet at the end. Sometimes I feel like I don’t understand other humans. A man in front of me slept through most of Allelujah by Alan Bennett at the Bridge Theatre and then unbelievably leapt to his feet applauding at the end!! Probably glad of an opportunity to stretch his legs |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2019 11:19:53 GMT
when you can pay 500 for a ticket to Fleabag then you need to validate that purchase. So brag on social media and then stand and scream at the end and brag some more Economics is part of it, so I see fewer standing ovations in subsidised theatres as opposed to the West End, when there is no noticeable difference in quality. If you paying sometimes eye watering West End prices then you might decide to make more of it. |
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1,127 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on May 12, 2019 12:16:45 GMT
The Death of a Salesman SO Nash witnessed was at press night, so no one in the audience had paid for their ticket. Press nights are a world unto their own.
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5,062 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on May 12, 2019 12:38:06 GMT
People giving a standing ovation doesn’t overly bother me, it’s the people at the end whooping and whistling between their fingers, that I have a problem with - why do people feel the need to do that, especially the latter as it goes right through my head?
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4,993 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on May 12, 2019 13:33:12 GMT
People giving a standing ovation doesn’t overly bother me, it’s the people at the end whooping and whistling between their fingers, that I have a problem with - why do people feel the need to do that, especially the latter as it goes right through my head? "look at me" It's not just the actors who are performing! |
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5,189 posts
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Post by Being Alive on May 12, 2019 19:35:50 GMT
Midshow standing ovations are special - like the one the mirror number got last night at Follies. I’m 100% here for moments like that.
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19,791 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 12, 2019 19:49:43 GMT
People giving a standing ovation doesn’t overly bother me, it’s the people at the end whooping and whistling between their fingers, that I have a problem with - why do people feel the need to do that, especially the latter as it goes right through my head? "look at me" It's not just the actors who are performing! Like those people who do a random “whoop” in a quiet bit of the song. Pathetic grandstanding. |
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1,347 posts
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Post by tmesis on May 12, 2019 22:18:06 GMT
I'm not really fussed if someone is prone to ovate vertically although I nearly always restrict mine to sedentary expressions. But for some people this is not enough - it now happens so much that they feel they have to go one further by standing and doing over-the-head clapping, or, worse still, standing and doing a weird, beatific slow hand clap, with the arms held out well in front of the body in a supplicatory, quasi religious manner.
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Post by sadanon on Jun 10, 2019 22:56:57 GMT
So I went to see an opera at the Royal Opera House, and greatly enjoyed the performance. So towards the end of the curtain call, when the main characters came out, I was tempted to give a standing ovation. I looked around, and saw a few people giving standing ovation, so gave a standing ovation myself. Even before the curtain call ended, roughly 30 seconds afterwards, an old man sitting behind me poked me. Because of the applause I could not clearly hear him, but I thought he said something like “What are you doing?”, and since that is such a rude thing to say, thought that I was mistaken. So I said “Sorry?” and he said, “Sit down.” I was dumbfounded but nevertheless sat down.
Then after the curtain call ended and the audience left the theatre, and I met the same old man in the queue to the exit. He said, “Why were you standing?” in an aggressive way, so I replied, “You do realise that standing ovation is a form of showing appreciation and”—I couldn’t finish what I was saying as he interrupted by saying “No. It is not. You were blocking my view. What were you thinking?” And so I tried to tell him that there were other people who stood up during curtain call as well, but he insisted that I was wrong, there is no such thing as standing ovation, and that he was angry because I blocked his view. When I told him that the way he talked to me was rude, he said that “It was meant to be.”
I want to ask if it is indeed inappropriate to give standing ovation in ROH- I am not british, so I am unsure whether standing ovations are indeed forbidden in the uk opera scene as he said, or if he was just a rude racist guy. Please tell me your thoughts!
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19,791 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 10, 2019 23:17:40 GMT
sadanon I see you posted this in Opera and Dance as well. You can’t have the same thread in two sections so I’m going to remove the duplicate thread in Opera and Dance. I’m merging this with an existing thread about ovations.
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