Singing along at a musical to cause such upset?

[cantbeatfreshsheets]

I went to a musical yesterday with my parents & sister to celebrate my mums birthday. We had a really nice day & this was the last thing we had planned. Arrived a few mins late and got to our seats with no problems.

After about 20 mins in. A catchy song came on. It was Tina Turner. My mum sang along for a couple of times during the chorus. It was hard not too. The whole show was about her being oppressed. Which is exactly how we felt after what happens next.

The lady in front turned around. Looked at my mum & said could you please, then used her hand against her mouth to gesture my mum to zip it 🤐 very passive aggressive.

Mum looked at us as if to say. What the F**
Anyway. She said I'll have to speak to her at the interval. Meanwhile I just thought what a spoilsport?!?! If you can't sing along at a musical what's wrong with the world. It's not like she was singing at the top of her voice???

It resulted with the lady in front going to make a complaint about my mum as mum tapped her on the shoulder and said during the interval How dare you tell me how to behave. My mum ended up going to see the manager herself where the other women was acting like we were trying to victimise her for not being happy against us telling her it was a free country. They said we were aggressive and being unreasonable?!?!

She said. It said on the way in you can't sing. We said. Well we didn't see that notice as we were late. We ended up leaving as my mum was so cross. There was a slight scene. The other woman was behaving like a child in my opinion. Has the world has gone mad.

My sister and I told her that she had spoilt our mums birthday and She was clearly enjoying playing the victim. I think she was probably shocked we confronted her over it.

We left. Were we being unreasonable? Or has the world gone crazy? I'd love to hear you're thoughts.

OTOH OP you're not related to screaming Sistine Chapel lady are you???

It’s rude to sing along

@Royallyscrewed that's brilliant

Op you and your mum sound quite selfish.

Why does your mums enjoyment of the event trump those sitting around you?

”anyone making a 'zip-it' movement when someone sings along inadvertently is also very rude. What about, 'excuse me, I can see you are excited to sing along, but there are signs out there asking everyone not to' or something nicer. Why the immediate aggression?“

A single silent gesture will not disrupt the performance any more than it already has been, @cochineal7 - whereas making a speech like you suggest would be disruptive.

We went to a local production of a musical earlier this year. Technically professional actors (as in, they get paid), but very much the bottom end of the market: £10/ticket in a provincial theatre. The singing from a couple of the principals wasn't great: slightly off-key, shaky, one couldn't project at all. I could have sung better than them. But I still didn't. Because you don't turn up to the theatre and sing along.

YABU. If you hadn't already figured it out. You also have no clue what passive aggressive means. Most overused, poorly and incorrectly used, phrase round these parts.

I consider myself a diplomatic, considered, cultured person

Followed by:

No doubt she works in health and safety or something else utterly boring or has a very miserable life to feel the need to say anything at all. I. My eyes she was a misery guts.

quite clearly we have no etiquette

Yep, that’s about the size of it. Not sure there’s a very big dose of culture, diplomacy or consideration either. Try karaoke.

I went to see KD Lang earlier this year - she very politely asked the person in the front row to stop singing along at the top of her voice as it was putting her off.

I would have been furious is someone from the audience had joined in with the singing. Like others on this thread, I would have paid decent money to hear the professional voices.

BTW I would also have been very cross that you arrived late!!!

The thing is with this sort of OP, they will never do what it is they should do, which is accept that they are wrong, process the fact, and act differently going forward.

Nope, someone else point out and refusing to accept their entitlement becomes the focus point.

OP

Just SHUT THE FUCK UP

I consider myself a diplomatic, considered, cultured person

Cultured - like mould in a petri dish?

In fact 20 years ago theatre going was quite a bit different to how it is now. People used to dress up to go whereas they certainly don't now

Goodness, I didn't dress up to go to the theatre 40 years ago

Some people with a penis and hairy bollocks consider themselves men. Doesn’t make it true.

To be fair, it sort of does

Oh god! This makes me squirm. I've done west end musicals and it's absolutely hideous when the audience sing.....please don't ever do this. Unless it's the bow of mamma Mia, in which case, go for your life.

Good grief, even after 11 pages of everyone explaining why your DM's behaviour was so VVVV unreasonable, you still seem unwilling to believe everyone.
Don't know if there is much point in us still telling you, by page 19 ?

If you aren't prepared to accept it, then why ask if YWBU ?

Jesus! Yes YABVU! It's not karaoke or sing along time it's a show that the whole theatre has paid good money to see.
They did not pay to hear others singing along and interrupting the show. Its massively unreasonable to those around you and the show cast!

Last week I took the family to see the Lion King and there were a group who were also loudly singing along which were told to be quiet and had to have security by their aisle to make sure they didn't ruin the second half for everyone.

Shows can do sing along shows so maybe look for those performances or go see a tribute act so you can sing along and not ruin others evenings.

I am dumbfounded that you need to ask

I would have been grateful to the shusher.

I enjoy taking my dd to the theatre. Naturally, now that she's a teenager, everything I say or do in public is incredibly embarrassing. She glares at me if she suspects that I'm about to call anyone out on their antisocial behaviour.

I always appreciate it if someone else - unnumbered by a mortified teenager - does the job for me.

This wasn’t the Rocky Horror Picture Show you know. I’ve never been to a musical where you sing along. It’s really not done. You shouldn’t need a sign to tell you not to. Your mum should have apologised for her over enthusiasm.

Oh, and people arriving late is very disruptive, and not just to the people who have to shuffle about to let you get to their seats. It’s distracting and breaks the concentration. You don’t seem at all apologetic.

I would have been grateful to the shusher

Me too - when someone is behaving badly at the theatre, I sit there seething for a moment looking around hoping someone else will say something before I do - I'm always so grateful when they do!

OP, you might not have realised this at the time, but I can guarantee that everyone around you would have been willing someone to say something to make your mum stop.

It doesn't matter whether it's middle-aged amateurs or over-enthusiastic drama students - no-one came to see them and their utter lack of self-awareness.

Didn't you or your mother wonder why no-one else was singing along, OP?

So embarrassed for you, also, never touch someone without their consent, you or your Ma poking a theatre audience member in order to verbally abuse her is assault, in the legal definition. Get yourselves under control before humiliating yourselves in public again.