Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Annoying audience members in the theatre

470 replies

beverleybass · 06/03/2022 22:19

Does anybody else ALWAYS seem to have seats right by the worst people in the theatre. I must just be unlucky.

This year saw Come From Away and was directly behind 3 women who kept chatting all the way through, including during really emotional and key moments and solos. Someone tapped them on the shoulder and told them to shush in the end which improved things slightly.

I also saw Cinderella and more chatters as well phones coming out constantly with their shining lights.

What is the point spending all that money on tickets to look at your phone or chat to people?? Angry

Anyway saw Mamma Mia as a birthday treat today and it was honestly the worst of the lot. People on my row playing musical chairs, people arriving up to fifteen mins late (and still being let in) the man to the left of me kept singing along with the songs, the people in front chatting and constantly zipping/unzipping bags and rustling noisy bags of snacks.

How hard is it to sit still and be quiet Sad

OP posts:
Original poster
beverleybass · 06/03/2022 22:59

@Erinyes maybe the case with some eg those singing along. For those that chat through and look at their phones I just wonder WHY did they bother spending good money on tickets? The women chatting through Come From Away were doing so through all the best bits it just makes you wonder why they even bother? Confused

OP posts:
ButtockUp · 06/03/2022 23:01

My husband and daughter went to see the Book of Mormon yesterday.
It's apparently quite irreverent and throughout most of the performance, a couple sat with their mobiles on. Husband and daughter felt that these folk were maybe embarrassed or disgusted and chose not to watch it but it was annoying to others. They should have just left.

SpiderinaWingMirror · 06/03/2022 23:04

Never fails to amaze me. I do make my feelings known at the theatre.
Same at music concerts. Once paid a fortune to see the eagles at the 02. In front of us were a group of 8 that literally did not sit for an entire song. Too busy buying drinks and then got an entire Chinese meal and ate that. I think the tickets were 125 each. Can you seriously not just watch?

PuttingOutFires · 06/03/2022 23:13

I do agree, but I've never understood silent seething. If it's annoying you, just (,politely) say something?

Pixiesfan · 06/03/2022 23:20

I work in a theatre. Please speak to an usher at the time. We can't do anything after the event, but can at the time. God I hate it when people sing along - I pay good money to hear the PROFESSIONALS sing!

Rickrollme · 06/03/2022 23:24

I can’t stand when people sing along at musicals. I know it’s to be expected at family friendly/mainstream popular shows but it is incredibly rude. That being said jukebox musicals do blur the lines a bit between theatre and cover band and you have to know Mamma Mia is going to be filled with tourists who may not otherwise go to a lot of theatre.

MsFogi · 06/03/2022 23:24

Yep, I've given up on the cinema and it's a matter of time until the theatre goes the same way.

StartupRepair · 06/03/2022 23:28

I always think people just do not get out enough. They think the whole world is their living room.

User478 · 06/03/2022 23:32

We were sat behind one of the young cast members mother's during a performance of Matilda. She knew every word and every bit of choreography and boy did she want everyone to know it. During the interval there was a loud discussion about where they were taking the kids in the show for an aftershow party just in case we didn't know she was so-and-so's mum.

I also worked front of house for a while at the Lion King and you would not believe the number of people who complain about "people in the audience moving around and singing" during the opening number.

LaurenKelsey · 06/03/2022 23:38

I took my class of 6-7 year olds to see a performance of the Nutcracker ballet. Parent volunteers attended with us. The rules for theatre behaviour were clearly stated beforehand. Well, as soon as the lights dimmed, the parents all took out snacks which they noisily passed around to share. Apparently the little dolls couldn’t get through the performance without their snacks!

DillDanding · 06/03/2022 23:41

This is why we now only go to a posh cinema where people seem to know how to behave.

I wouldn’t hesitate to admonish people though, and have done several times. I can be quietly scary and it’s always worked. If it didn’t, I’d be speaking to the ushers.

SushiGo · 06/03/2022 23:43

Moulin Rouge yesterday was painful 😫

The cast were so great and there is a blurred line with a jukebox musical I terms of not getting top annoyed if people sing along but if you start having conversations over the top of it I will tell you to shut up...

OppsUpsSide · 06/03/2022 23:50

I think it depends a bit what you go and see. I would expect the audience to sing along at Mama Mia.

Lineofconcepcion · 06/03/2022 23:50

I've stopped going. The final straw was kids at the opera from an Oxford private school rustling crisp packets and talking all the way through and then booing during the encore.

Dreamstate · 06/03/2022 23:51

I spoke up once, even had to get cinema staff in and afterwards the ladies deliberately waited for me as I came out the cinema screen and preceded to verbally abuse me.

Its so pathetic 🙄 people can sit quietly for an hour and enjoy the show or movie. By all mean laugh at the funny bits but full blown conversations..urgh!

Not to mention noisy eaters, why da feck do you wait u til the movie starts to open your noisy packets. Like you had the whole ad and trailer part to do that.

I wish good was banned to be honest.

Doorbellssleighbellsschnitzel · 06/03/2022 23:55

It pisses me off no end. So bloody selfish.

peachy3 · 07/03/2022 00:00

I am the person in a cinema/theatre to tell people to shut up. I cannot stand it nor can I understand why you would pay for tickets to see a show and just talk all the way through it. It really gets my back up.

NOTANUM · 07/03/2022 00:05

Completely agree. Wicked was strange - super expensive tickets and one guy across the aisle looked at his mobile every 5 minutes. That meant the entire back row lit up. Then there was the entire row in front of us who left after 20 minutes.
All very strange.

Kite22 · 07/03/2022 00:05

YANBU at all.
There was a thread on here recently about a woman who had gone to the paper to complain about been asked to leave the theatre after ignoring requests to sit still and stay quiet at a performance of Bat out of Hell.

I think some of it is to do with all the celebrity shows and the 'find a star' type shows (Pop Idol, X Factor, etc) where the audiences are encouraged to whoop and cheer and scream when someone they recognise comes on and so forth. Then they book a show in the theatre and some don't even realise what is wrong with that behaviour - they seem to think that is 'normal'.

It has become so much more common to have people not knowing how to behave in the theatre over the last 10 years or so.

Lineofconcepcion · 07/03/2022 00:10

@Kite22

YANBU at all. There was a thread on here recently about a woman who had gone to the paper to complain about been asked to leave the theatre after ignoring requests to sit still and stay quiet at a performance of Bat out of Hell.

I think some of it is to do with all the celebrity shows and the 'find a star' type shows (Pop Idol, X Factor, etc) where the audiences are encouraged to whoop and cheer and scream when someone they recognise comes on and so forth. Then they book a show in the theatre and some don't even realise what is wrong with that behaviour - they seem to think that is 'normal'.

It has become so much more common to have people not knowing how to behave in the theatre over the last 10 years or so.

In fairness it isn't just in cinemas/theatres that people don't know how to behave 😱
Infinitemoon · 07/03/2022 00:13

YANBU. I have given up on the theatre. I remember when you could only eat and drink in the interval. It was a rush to the bar and then a speedy few gulps to finish your drink before the bell.

The last time I went I paid over £100. A women arrived late next to me. She then proceeded to take out food for the entire performance. It is hard to enjoy anything with someone munching their way though an entire tube of Pringles!

To the front of me three women had brought in a bottle of bubbly and were clinking, giggling and pouring drinks like a hen do or something.

I am not keen to pay again as it isn't just a one off. People have no consideration for others anymore.

tcjotm · 07/03/2022 00:14

Don’t the ushers say anything? With theatre/musical etc productions here they are strict. It’s clearly signposted that you’ll have to wait until a suitable time before they allow entry to late comers.

I find a good death stare works wonders on noisy people. I don’t sit and seethe, that lets them think they can get away from it. If in front of me I tap a shoulder gently and then shake my head when they turn. Key is to do the reprimands absolutely silently, thereby modelling the behaviour you want to see 😂

Cinemas though are hopeless. I don’t bother.

bigyellowTpot · 07/03/2022 00:16

yes I hate this. took my dd to a show a couple of years ago show was ruined by some drunk guy 2 rows behind us constantly talking at his partner sat next to him. I was fuming and told him to shut up at one point but he just carried on regardless. I think people like this should be thrown out as people have paid a lot of money to see these shows

FluffyBooBoo · 07/03/2022 00:18

I didn't realise that 'Jersey Boys' was a pantomime, until the woman at the end of the row started answering back to the cast... Including a 'no he didn't!'

Phlewf · 07/03/2022 00:18

Oh god. I was sure this was about me. I was at the theatre last week, first time since spacing restrictions were removed. I only realised when a man sat right beside me. I moved my bag right under my seat for space and my bag caught my coat which which, somehow, hooked my leggings and basically pulled them down to my knees , just as the lights dimmed. So I squirmed for the whole for the 1st act trying to detach everything while covering my modesty with my top. No joy. I thought at the interval I’d grab my partners coat, and when they strangers left sort myself out. Accept they didn’t move at the interval and partners coat was over the back of his chair and he didn’t move either. It was excruciating.
I could hardly watch the play because I was terrified someone would come along and I’d need to stand. At the end I waited till the place was practically empty getting strange looks. I haven’t the figure for it but I’m only wearing dungarees and a teddy to the theatre from now on.