Screaming in the theatre am I just out of touch?

[Itsmuchtooloudinhere]

We went to a dance show today as my autistic daughter loves dance, music and theatre. We go fairly often with no drama as normally she likes the energy of it all and sees it as a big treat.

Today the audience literally were screaming through the whole thing - not just when performers came on and applauding at the end but during the performance too. Even as an NT person it was overwhelming. DD lasted for 5 mins and we had to leave 😭 it was awful!! We were obviously in the minority though as everyone else was clearly loving it. There was a lot of street dance in the show (though it wasn't billed as exclusively a street performance) - is this a streetdance thing? I feel really bad that I planned this as a nice treat for DD and it's been a really stressful/upsetting experience.

That's good to know. I quite fancied it but will give it a miss now.

🤣🤣

My daughter and her partner went to a show recently that was just like this. Constant, incessant screaming. They couldn't stand it and left after 15 minutes.

Yes, it is a street dance thing.
I went once, that was enough, never again.

I'm confused by this.

It sounds like you were there to see them come on stage, leave the stage and during the performance, in order to know people were screaming the whole way through. Yet you had to leave after five minutes.

Oh Lord we used to get this with our DDs dance shows- teen friends/ family screaming, whooping and yelling to their friends/ family who they had come to see - not just in the faster street dance numbers but also in the ballet/ classical music numbers. FGS! Totally spoilt the experience not to mention all the money it cost for our DDS to take part. Seriously people have no idea of theatre etiquette...

Came to do a Sistine Chapel joke. Beaten to it.

Were the performers famous / reality contestants or anything?

I experienced this kind of thing at a) SIX and b) Heathers (lots of Carrie Hope Fletcher fangirls). I hate it. Both have large teenage fan bases who idolise the show and / or the performers.

I wouldn't feel bad - you know to avoid that kind of thing next time, or go for a relaxed performance. I'm NT and certainly haven't enjoyed every show I've seen!

@Mummieslncorporated it was a show where there were 15 individual short acts in the first half, and similar in the second. So we saw 3 of the first 15 acts - so know that they screamed all the way through each of these. Hopefully that makes more sense ☺️

@KnottyKnitting that sounds awful at the kids dance shows. My daughter's ballet show is all very prim and proper just a bit of polite applause at the end and people awing at the cute little ones. Can't imagine people screaming at that! 🤣

generally in the culture of street dance performance, whooping hollering of just overall verbal participation from the audience is the norm?

I went to les mis recently and 3 people loudly opened cans of drink in the really quiet beautiful songs... they had 2 hours of loud ones to choose from !! I despair... we were also treated to a loud ring tone while Fantine died...

I’ve been three times and not had this.

😂Wasn't that the woman who alleged she shrieked suddenly at the sheer beauty of the place?

Ah, gotcha. Yes, that makes sense now.

I would have been raging inside at this. See also: noisy sweet wrappers. FFS.

was this a local dance school performance or a professional company? also, I think the style of dance also has a lot to do with it- freestyle and street dance type schools they tend to scream and whoop through the performances, theatre style dance schools (ballet, tap, jazz etc) not so much if at all. I have no patience with the screaming / hollering- it’s unecessary

Lucky you 🤣

I worked tens of their performances and every one had bonkers teen screamy audiences, no matter which line-up.

Oh my god I loathe this. It's definitely a thing with lots of dance schools and more so street dance.

DD's dance school actually stopped the summer show after 10 minutes in to tell the audience all off for not whooping/cheering enough.

They were saying it's for the kids and that they all love it but it's just bloody overwhelming for audience and for them! What's wrong with just applause and cheers at the end of each dance?
I was sat there seething.

I watched the Billie Jean King tennis cup this weekend and couldn't believe the chanting, screaming and vuvuzela's throughout the whole thing. I think everything these days is louder.

@Fridaynightmare this sounds awful! I didn't know this was a thing at this kind of event. It's very different to dance schools round us which are all very sedate 😂

DD's dance school actually stopped the summer show after 10 minutes in to tell the audience all off for not whooping/cheering enough.

They were saying it's for the kids and that they all love it but it's just bloody overwhelming for audience and for them!

Wouldn't there be lots of grandparents in the audience? Whooping and other loud noises can be quite painful for people with hearing aids.

I attended a residential summer school where some of the younger attendees (twenties, not teens) were doing the whooping, shrieking thing on the last night when the winners of the raffle and competition prizes were announced. Quite unnecessary, it wasn't the Oscars!

The cinema is horrendous for people chatting these days 🙈

More in response to some other comments than to OP's specific example - I was in weirdly loud audiences this year at Beauty and the Beast in the West End and Harry Potter at the Royal Albert Hall. Not screaming, but random lengthy mid-performance applause, widespread audible laughter at the mildest of jokes. It's a v small sample size to draw on, but I wondered whether the pandemic has made some people forget what's normal. I guess it only takes a few loud people for that to spread across an audience, too? It ruined Beauty and the Beast for me tbh - had paid £80-odd per seat and arranged childcare as knew my children would struggle to sit still and quietly, and it felt like going to a local panto and I had to put up with other children around me behaving exactly as I'd known my own would.

In contrast I also went to the proms, where there are helpful ushers to ensure audience silence during the performance. I want them everywhere!

its generally the show that is made quieter eg. Bangs taken out and things like the house lights being left on low. It doesn’t mean the audience are quieter as many of the audience members will have additional needs so wont necessarily know to be quiet