Annoying audience members in the theatre

[beverleybass]

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??

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

I wish theatres would do a "silence" showing. Where you aren't allowed to chatter, eat, browse your phone etc and it is enforced and if you choose that showing it is made very clear that that is what you have picked, what it means and that you will be ejected with no refund if you break the rules.

The snobbery on this thread is dreadful. I hate it when people are selfish and disruptive. People on this thread saying things like "I thought in the more expensive seats it's would be better" need to have a word with themselves. I grew up poor...any trip to the cinema (never the theatre as that was way out of reach for my family) was treated with utter reverence. We knew it wouldn't be repeated any time soon.

@Beeinalily well you’d be absolutely right. It was so stupid and I don’t know how much the person beside and the people behind noticed. I hope the fact that was bright red and looking uncomfortable means they realise I’m not some wannabe flasher just a bloody clown. Like everyone else I hate all the toilet/bar visits and disruptive behaviour but I took it to a new bloody level.

I think all seats are expensive now Soul11Soul. I don't think anyone is saying people with less money are to blame quite the opposite.

This happens to us way too often for my liking, it’s got to the point where we have started to visit the cinema/theatre less frequently.

My 2 biggest hates are parents who go to a kid film and just sit on their phone the whole way through so the light is shining brightly.
The other one is the theatre where they sell the light up wands/swords etc and kids sit all the way through the show bloody waving them about in front of you! Who ever thought selling them at the theatre was a good idea should be sacked!

Before covid we went to the cinema and a group of teenagers ruined it for everyone for the whole film. Many people including myself went out to complain and all the staff did was have a word with them but let them stay. When the film finished they got up first and did something dangerous that hurt many of us including my child.
Everyone was furious, I complained to the ticket office on my way out and demanded a refund for the cinema tickets and all our sweets we had bought. I also informed everyone leaving after me that the line for the refunds was behind me. They ended up refunding everyone, when all they had to do was remove the group to begin with.

@CognitiveDissolver

Twice, but reverse, and in the cinema, not the theatre. Perhaps I should add that I do go to the opera before I am accused of being crass...

Anyway, once with a friend who looked at her (digital watch with a light) a few times. Its a habit of hers and I barely notice.. But she really just glanced at it for seconds, and not often. The woman two seats away from us boomed out giving her a telling off. I nearly jumped out of my seat. Very, very loud and went on for quite a while. Far more off putting than anyone glancing at a watch. At the end I actually said to her I found her shouting at my friend really off putting and unwarranted, and that it ruined the film for us as we were nervous of setting her off again.

Also in the cinema, I ate maltesers and the woman next to me got really annoyed and gave me a row. I told her to suggest to management that they banned the sale of maltesers and eating in the cinema if she was that bothered, but until it was, I would continue to eat quietly. (I think she thought I was a child though as I'm quite young looking for my age).

Your friend was in the wrong. Flashing lights of any kind are distracting as fuck. Glancing at it for a 'few seconds' is enough to take the rest of us out of the experience that we paid for. Hopefully she's more considerate now.

If anyone's on Theatreboard, there's a long running thread about bad behaviour - quite an eye opener, all the fights, noise, drunkenness, vomiting, etc.

I rarely go to musicals now because it's a lot of money to waste when there's a big chance the evening will be ruined by other audience members. I think it's not just a theatre problem, but in all areas of life there's been an increase in self-serving people who don't give a shit about their impact on others.

But I do wonder why theatres don't do more. They usually are quite strict about mobile phones. I' saw someone asked to leave after being told to switch off their phone a couple of times. But not much is done about noise, and obviously theatres make money from bar sales, so that's not going to stop, but they could at least close the bars during the performance, so that people aren't in and out all the time and getting drunker and drunker.

The people in front of us (a couple) insisted on sitting with their arms over each others shoulders, which in effect meant that their arms were resting across our knees for the entire performance

I once had half someone's grandchild on my knee. He got on hers not long after the start because he couldn't see but ended up half on me. My attempts to dislodge him by moving my leg didn't work. Although when his hands started wandering about my person I shoved them off, which did not go down well, however it did mean she moved him away from me. (I know he was just a kid and nothing untoward was intended but someone else's kid's hand between my thighs...).

And as soon as there was a suitable moment I did speak to her. Also didn't go well.

As for pp saying speak to ushers, at all our local venues that would mean having to go and find them and if you are in the middle of a row, you have to wait for the interval.

@User478

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.

My daughter is currently FOH there. It's getting worse. They have had to eject several drunken people recently.

Oddly enough behaviour was impeccable at Book of Mormon last week.

I am aghast at the person talking through Some From Away, how could you, its such an incredible show and so moving.

I think after having paid £200 per ticket for Hamilton I'd have lynched anyone who tried to sing along (except in the two permitted bits after King George says Everybody and In My Shot when Laurens says Everybody Sing. )

Jukebox musicals are the worst. I love Beautiful but it was spoilt by two women singing along incorrcetly (the songs are arranged differently).

On the other than we went to a matinee at Stratford recently - two large school parties who behaved absolutely impeccably. I wanted to find the teachers afterwards and compliment them but I couldn’t.

I agree things have got worse recently but its not a new problem. I remember seeing Macbeth (hardly a bundle of laughs apart from the porter) around 40 years ago and the actor playing Macbeth stopped the show at one point to tick off a group of youngsters who were distracting the audience. Good for him, but ... he did break the fourth wall so I couldn’t think of him as a Scottish king for the rest of the performance but as XY the actor.

Depends what you are watching and the audience I think. I watched Belfast at the local cinema and you could have heard a pin drop. Lion King in the West End - two twats rabbiting on behind us.

Mind you, the best one was when I watched something in the round, very intimate setting at the Old Vic. A stupid woman in the front row was tapping on her phone the whole time, lit up really bright in a dark setting also, I was in the second row and it was really obvious to me, and the actors on the stage just in front of us, so incredibly disrespectful. One of the actors ad-libbed - told her off and actually incorporated it as part of the play and she put the phone away. A wonderful performance!

For me the worst thing is being constantly kicked in the back. I always seem to sit in front of people who can't sit still and don't seem to realise that the seats aren't concrete and if you kick the seat in front it is felt by the person in the seat.

@Dreamstate

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.

Yep, similar. The only time I asked someone to keep it down in the theatre she threatened to hit me!

@Nocaloriesinchocolate

On the other than we went to a matinee at Stratford recently - two large school parties who behaved absolutely impeccably. I wanted to find the teachers afterwards and compliment them but I couldn’t.

I agree things have got worse recently but its not a new problem. I remember seeing Macbeth (hardly a bundle of laughs apart from the porter) around 40 years ago and the actor playing Macbeth stopped the show at one point to tick off a group of youngsters who were distracting the audience. Good for him, but ... he did break the fourth wall so I couldn’t think of him as a Scottish king for the rest of the performance but as XY the actor.

I've always found that at Stratford. Groups of giggling chatting school kids parading in and an "Oh no" feeling that it is going to be disruptive and then the play starts and they are wonderful. Spellbound in fact and listening to them leaving and talking about how amazing it all was is really lovely.

@Nocaloriesinchocolate

On the other than we went to a matinee at Stratford recently - two large school parties who behaved absolutely impeccably. I wanted to find the teachers afterwards and compliment them but I couldn’t.

I agree things have got worse recently but its not a new problem. I remember seeing Macbeth (hardly a bundle of laughs apart from the porter) around 40 years ago and the actor playing Macbeth stopped the show at one point to tick off a group of youngsters who were distracting the audience. Good for him, but ... he did break the fourth wall so I couldn’t think of him as a Scottish king for the rest of the performance but as XY the actor.

You could try emailing the theatre and asking them to pass on your message to the schools sitting in that area. My dc's school had something like this in the newsletter last week, where a museum had passed on feeback from a member of the public praising the school party's behaviour.

It’s been an issue for ages - at least since “celebrity” theatre became a thing.

I saw Kevin Spacey in Richard III at the Old Vic (which shows you how long ago this was! - 2011). A group sitting directly behind me had foreign visitors with them, to whom they gave a whispered translation/explanation of every line. The visitors asked questions and the explainers (of whom there were several!) responded. They were behaving as if they were sitting watching telly together at home.

I realised after the first act this wasn’t just “getting settled in” chat and it was going to carry on for the whole performance. They ignored a few glares from people around them. Then a few loud shushes. This shut them up for maybe 2 minutes and they were off again.

After another 10 minutes of constant talking I turned around and said, not at all quietly, “shut the fuck up. Will you just SHUT THE FUCK UP.” I didn’t hear another peep out of them for the whole of the first half. They left at the interval.

I probably sound like a theatre snob, but I find the more mainstream musicals with well-known songs tend to be the worst for this. Stuff like Mamma Mia and other jukebox musicals…. people just don’t seem to grasp that it’s not a singalong. The evening performances at weekends are the worst, as people have come to London for the day, usually had a boozy lunch etc so are pretty tipsy by the time the show starts. I went to Les Mis a while back and it was like being at a hen night. Loads of latecomers, people talking and giggling through the serious scenes. If you fancy a drunken singalong, go to your local pub for karaoke. You won’t be out £75 for a ticket.

I remember a group of tourists talking loudly right behind me during a very intense midnight performance of Macbeth at The Globe - not exactly a chatty situation!

I understand there might be some cultural differences in theatre etiquette, but surely the ability to read the room should be universal?

@CognitiveDissolver would like to have heard the other peoples side. Why did your friend have to keep checking her watch ? Was it really only 2 secs? could she not have survived by switching it off for the hour or two the film was on for. Why didn't you eat quietly in the 1st place ? Did you need to eat all the way through the film ?

It really drives me wrong that people feel the need to eat and drink all the way through a film, Like really can you not survive without eating for an hour or two for the duration of a show or film. It fills me with dread when i see people come into the cinema laden down with junk food. While its great that we can go back to the cinema and theater, we have missed it and i really enjoy a good think from Covid is that new films are released via Disney Plus or Sky earlier now so we can watch our films in peace and quiet in our own homes

I saw the Sterophonics at Shepherds Bush Empire last year and people in front of us were videoing the whole gig on their phone. Not even just one song. So everyone behind them was basically watching the show through these dickhead's phone screen.

"I’ve tickets to see Jerusalem with Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook in June so I am anticipating rapt silence!"

Jerusalem is a masterpiece. If the audience is anything like I was they'll be sitting in stunned silence. We're going in April #MarkRylanceIsGod

@Angryvolunteer

It’s been an issue for ages - at least since “celebrity” theatre became a thing.

I saw Kevin Spacey in Richard III at the Old Vic (which shows you how long ago this was! - 2011). A group sitting directly behind me had foreign visitors with them, to whom they gave a whispered translation/explanation of every line. The visitors asked questions and the explainers (of whom there were several!) responded. They were behaving as if they were sitting watching telly together at home.

I realised after the first act this wasn’t just “getting settled in” chat and it was going to carry on for the whole performance. They ignored a few glares from people around them. Then a few loud shushes. This shut them up for maybe 2 minutes and they were off again.

After another 10 minutes of constant talking I turned around and said, not at all quietly, “shut the fuck up. Will you just SHUT THE FUCK UP.” I didn’t hear another peep out of them for the whole of the first half. They left at the interval.

I went, along with many a teenage girl, to see Richard Chamberlain in Hamlet at the Birmingham Rep. It must have been 1969. Oh the wonder of seeing Dr Kildare in person. I think we were all far to in love with him to make a sound.

This was the Old Rep with the sound of the trains at New St Station clearly audible. Happy days.

A much more common thing which seems to nearly always happen to me is that the people in front come in late and are really massive, so you think you have a great seat and just as the show starts, there is rustling, shuffling and then a large man's head and shoulders blocking most of the stage. Or you are really settled and then a group come in late by the wrong entrance and the entire row has to stand for them and have feet/coats trampled and drinks knocked over by late twats.

If I have sweets at the cinema I make sure to eat them during the adverts and trailers, by the time the film starts they are long gone.

I fail to understand why people need to bloody eat! Have your meal first, then come out. Why is it that people can't sit for 3 hours without having to cram food in constantly. The smell, the rustling... there's just no need for it. I miss the old fashioned intervals where you could just get an ice cream in a tub!

We went to see Bond at a more upmarket cinema and it was just as bad.... the smell of the food was horrendous and I wrote a very sniffy email to the manager saying that the experience had left me feeling nauseous and I wouldn't be spending £25 per ticket again when I could endure the same smell at Cineworld for half the price.

On the other than we went to a matinee at Stratford recently - two large school parties who behaved absolutely impeccably. I wanted to find the teachers afterwards and compliment them but I couldn’t.

we had a similar experience at the Globe a few years ago. I quite enjoyed hearing the girls & boys (about 13-14) discussing the topics in the Taming of the Shrew, but i did manage to talk to their teachers too.

Another time there was a party of around 10 German teenagers and I'm guessing the language was a bit much for them (turned out later they'd only studied the play in German) and people were getting antsy and their fairly young teacher had lost control. So i just told them, in German, that if they weren't going to be quiet they should stand outside. Not a peep after that.