Booze in theatres

@FTPM1980 Yes, it’s almost exclusively middle aged folk. Rarely young! They buy booze and drink all the way through the performance and spill it! It’s a nuisance and disturbs others. Completely objectionable. I’d not allow booze in the auditorium. The ROH manages this policy.

I remember going to a show during the time pandemic restrictions were still quite tight, so they required us all to arrive 1.5 hours early to show our “vaccine passports” then admitted us to the theatre where we were essentially ‘kettled’ for an hour in the overcrowded bar area with nothing to do but drink. It was irresponsible as we were an entire auditorium’s worth of people trapped in a small covidy place and obviously no one was masking as they were drinking bottles of wine (the bar was rammed so ladies were each buying entire bottles of wine in one go) They had an hour+ to waste consuming it and then they took more into the theatre and acted like a pack of drunken primates. I’m a boozer myself but this was ridiculous. Put me off that theatre so now I skip it unless it is a show I can’t see otherwise.

It's nothing to do with drinking AT the theatre.
Lots of theatres only open the doors an hour before curtain and as PP said...its people arriving drunk. Last year couple infant if us arrived 20 minutes into first half having gone to the wrong theatre first. We're already very drunk and kept talking to people they knew in other rows... loudly

I think part of it is demographics.
Young people these days are more about image and Instagram and lots don't drink....but the ladettes and lads of the 90s are now in their (our) 40s and 50s....and some still see a good night out as getting smashed...but they don't want to be in bars with all the young people...they are drawn to the comedians of the last 20 yrs...and the juke box musicals of their favourite bands that encourage a party atmosphere.
Then having been introduced to theatre though comedy and raucous musicals and they think every show is like Mrs Brown's Boys

Appreciate I have quoted myself her, but for clarity, I'm not advocating violence!

@Peonies12 Arriving late armed with multiple glasses of booze! Hate it.

I've not personally witnessed any alcohol fuelled bad behaviour in a theatre. however my daughter when working front of house in a west end theatre had a glass of wine thrown at her by a customer, who was aggrieved that the water jugs weren't refilled quickly enough, glad to say she was removed from the theatre, and on another occasion at a different theatre a drunk woman sitting near the front at a well know musical was also removed as she was standing up and singing loudly, the lead cast member had even been gesturing at her to stop. It's outrageous that staff and other theatre goers have to put up with this. If a person can't moderate their alcohol consumption and behaviour, quite frankly a theatre is not the place for them.

Problem is some people don’t know when to stop drinking.

Then there’s the problem of people drinking on an empty stomach, that makes absorption of alcohol quicker.

YANBU, but it's just general behaviour has got bad since Covid, people forget they aren't in their own houses. It really puts me off the theatre, with people not putting their phones away, talking, arriving late.

The only issues I’ve had a lot at the theatre are annoying and entitled parents taking their too young children to watch things that’s aren’t really for kids ( or have a min age which they have clearly ignored ) and letting them talk / sing along like everyone thinks they are cute.

never had a drunken problem!

I've never seen anything like this and I love the theatre, from the huge ones down to the small local ones!
I always grab a glass of wine while there but that's it-never seen anyone drunk! For a start, I don't want to pay £8 for a thimble-full of Sauvignon!

@MarkWithaC It didn’t erode mine! We have to face facts, some people are oiks. Entitled oiks. Who pays to hear professional singers swamped by a cats chorus next to you? I do feel some theatre staff aren’t up to this sort of agro but they need to think about their staffing a booze policy. If folk are drunk on arrival, it’s no show for them. Literally.

I've never experienced this in a theatre. I am one of those who will sometimes get a drink in the interval - not if there's a long queue for the toilets! One drink is just a pleasant part of a special occasion.
I don't often go to the cinema as I have seen loud people, not drunk but chatting and eating, including children.

Theatres need to up their game, and if people are being disruptive, stop the show, and escort the perpetrators from the premises, using force if necessary.

It was a long period of a situation that was alien to, I think, almost everyone. I can well imagine it eroding the sense of how to behave in public.

I do think, though, there must be some people who were already predisposed to thinking it's OK to look at your phone/talk loudly in the cinema/theatre etc, who are now out in the wild and doing just that. I think it's exaggerated people's personalities and behaviour rather than completely changed it out of nowhere.

I've had a few experiences recently where groups had definitely smuggled in booze from outside and made the performance pretty unwatchable. We were next to a mother and daughter at Moulin Rouge who sang along loudly to every number despite being asked to stop by several other people. Then Pretty Woman in Manchester was totally disrupted by a really drunk woman and her friends. Mind you it was a pretty shoddy show.

I can never get my head around the covid thing in terms of behaviour - surely if you were a decent respectful person before lockdowns you don't just become an entitled arsehole after? Would make an interesting study to see just why behaviour seems to have deteriorated since then. I don't get why having to stay at home would suddenly mean you lose the ability to be civilised, assuming you weren't an arse in the first place!

James Norton was excellent in this very harrowing role. He was on stage the whole time and, as his role was of someone's long term physical and sexual abuse, it must have been exhausting - especially as he was going to repeat the performance in the evening. I'm sorry I didn't simply @TizerorFizz . I've just worked it out. No more whole quote for me!

It was the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh that ejected the rude audience member at Ballet Rambert. They did react to the complaint. I think some types of performance need clear warnings about what behaviour is expected. Any singing along (I would have been livid if this had happened at Sunset Boulevard - Nicole Sherzinger was amazing!) should be an immediate ejection if it’s not a sing along event. Ditto talking, tipping over drink and noisy eating.

@PatriciaHolm Yes, the ROH is still a great experience!

*sighing

And on the 'type of productions that attract this behaviour' comments, we saw King Lear at the globe more than ten years ago. The phone of a woman sitting in front of us rang loudly, which in itself was bad enough. What however was worse, was that she answered the call and then went on to have a phone conversation at usual volume, from her seat. This prompted lots of glaring, tutting and sighting from the rest of us, but no-one actually did anything about it.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hamilton-manchester-fight-palace-theatre-b2454058.html

variety.com/2023/legit/news/bodyguard-musical-halted-mini-riot-audience-singing-along-1235577476/amp/

Just two examples...

This has been covered in the news over the last couple of years, with a handful of productions having to be stopped mid performance due to poor audience behaviour. It's certainly not new, and you're certainly not BU! I'm a fairly regular theatre goer, and it's definitely far worse than it used to be. But theatres make money from refreshments, so there's a definite challenge there too.

I love the theatre, but I increasingly am put off going by this issue.

I have been going to the theatre for over 30 years. Behaviour has definitely got worse since the theatres re-opened after covid. My daughter has worked as an usher in several theatres (regional and west end) and has witnessed fights and all sorts. She herself has been assaulted.

I agree OP we go regularly and have seen a decline in behaviour. Not every time but it definitely happens. People don’t get that the theatre isn’t a concert.

We were talking to someone last night who said they were at the theatre and the performance was halted while a couple got thrown out because the cast complained!

I went to Abba Voyage and a group of about 10 people got thrown out for dancing in the seated area and being horribly rude. They were warned a number of times. Total waste of money. I can’t see why having a few drinks equates to getting hammered.