Police called to theatre after audience sang over cast

[SnottyLottie]

According to this news article, 2 people were evicted by security and there was a “mini riot” after the show was stopped 10 minutes before the end (and ultimately cancelled) because a handful of the audience were singing over the cast. Police were called (riot vans included).

https://news.sky.com/story/police-called-to-disturbance-at-manchester-palace-theatre-during-the-bodyguard-musical-after-audience-tried-to-sing-over-cast-12852504

What do we think? Over reaction or perfectly reasonable response? I’d be furious to have the show stopped and cancelled 10 minutes before the end because of a handful of disrespectful idiots!

Oh is it?! I’m way behind the times!

AH is still a complete pain in the backside though.

didnt they attack the staff?
ah has apologised for her comment it wa smade before we knew what happened that night and she said she didnt mean she would want to disrupt the perfroamnce with loud ott singing

What else does she think she’d do to a theatre performance by singing along loudly?

She said she'd boycott the show. Even if she thought at this point that the furore was about people not being allowed to disrupt the performers by screeching along, she still thought they were hard done by when asked to stop.
Maybe her co stars should talk loudly over her every time she opens her fat mouth, and let her see how rude and disruptive it actually is.

this was before the Manchester incident she explained that

Strangely this does not happen at the opera or the ballet. Who can say why that is, it's a mystery.

I went on a school trip to lion king - couldn’t believe the audience. Chatting loudly, moving around - it was like the show hadn’t begun. Was such a shame.

Well it would put me off going to the theatre, but it might be worth remembering that all manner of rowdy behaviour was the norm at the opera in 18th and 19th century Italy. La Scala Milan was notorious for it.

I went to see Lenny Henry do Othello about ten years ago. During a very serious point someone's phone went off - loudly. It was a small theatre so it was obvious who it was. At the curtain call one of the actors pointed at him, made a phone gesture with his hand and then gave him the finger. I thought that was fair enough.

It’s on the news in Sweden now. How embarrassing for them behaving like idiots. I love how the audience clap their hands when they are dragged out. And the ’You can’t do that!’ She sounds very drunk too. Is she honestly that stupid..

https://www.expressen.se/tv/nyheter/falsksangare-slangs-ut-ur-musikalen/

Hopefully all this publicity will drive the message home to some people that it is not appropriate to sing and dance in a theatre audience.

I used to go to the theatre a lot in London in the 80s and there was never anything like this. That includes musical theatre.

Only been once recently and that was the Sound of Music which you would think would be a prime candidate for sing along but everyone was very well behaved.

I didn't realise that you were allowed to take alcohol into the actual theatre itself. This quite obviously must be a major contributor.

@Florenz mentioned this further up - but i went to the first performance after this has happened. Honestly, everyone was very respectful, the staff were great . Very relaxed atmosphere and a great show. Sounds like it could have had a positive impact!

Just like on planes.

We lived overseas for a few years when I was a kid, so my first flights were on BA and Pan Am in about 1973. We dressed up in outfits specially purchased for the journey -- dresses and tights or, a bit later, dressy pantsuits. And we were age 8 and 10! My mother wore a dress, hosiery, heels and of course Dad had a jacket and tie.

The higher ticket prices really kept the lower class off the aircraft. It was a pleasant and exciting experience up through about the beginning of the 1990s.

One of the last flights I took, an unshaven young lout went past my seat wearing pale blue threadbare pajama bottoms, with actual gaps in the fabric, and clearly nothing else below the waist. His woman had joggers halfway down her bum and a hoodie that spelt "Bride" on the back. Crass. I wish standards were such that they would be denied boarding unless properly attired.

@ZeldaWillTellYourFortune

There is a brilliant YT vid of Diana Damrau singing that aria. I wouldn't even try, let alone embarrass myself on TikTok.

Which might be relevant if we were in 18 or 19c Italy, but we're not. I'm not paying large sums for a seat at a performance only for it to be disrupted by some moron who can't behave and tell myself that this was quite normal in 19c Italy (or 16c London, come to that).

@ZeldaWillTellYourFortune 😂😂

Time to increase the entry prices

No thanks, they're getting out of reach as it is. Time to stop letting people drink in the auditorium and time to refuse entry to anyone who turns up drunk or the worse for wear.

The Manchester people should be fined heavily. I don’t know how much one night’s performance cost, but it must be a fortune. Add all of the people in the audience who had to leave and not watch the end of the musical. Because of some fucking drunk morons. You’d think at least the older woman shouting ’You can’t do this!’ would know better by now. Anyone know what, if anything, will happen to them? And why on earth to UK theatres allow people taking drinks in?

I think alcohol is definitely the main problem, we had to speak to theatre staff at a Suzanne Vega concert a couple of months ago due to the appalling behaviour of three women in their fifties who were drunk, one to the point that she couldn’t walk in a straight line. They ruined the support act, arriving late speaking loudly and using foul language and constantly on their phones.

I made the theatre staff aware during the interval and they were warned they would be removed if there was any more trouble and the bar staff were alerted to refuse them alcohol. The two who were more sober were a lot better and were rather ashamed, the other was still getting her phone out and went out to the toilet three times. She started shouting out during the encores as she had missed hearing “Luca” during her numerous toilet trips.

From a loud conversation we overheard it was quite apparent they had been in the local Wetherspoons before the concert, perhaps people who are visibly drunk should be refused admission in the first place.

I'd say sometimes it crosses the line from allowed to encouraged, even.

Football clubs have to pay for the police inside the grounds.

There is not much more to add. My dd works FOH in a theatre and this behaviour is the tip of the iceberg. In the last week alone she has suffered two serious incidents.

A woman next to me sang along at the top of her voice to Totally devoted to you during Grease. She was off key and ruined the whole thing