Booze in theatres

[Conniebygaslight]

We go to various theatres probably about half a dozen times a year to see different things, musicals, comedians, plays, audience with....etc.
Every single time over the last couple of years there has been groups or couples who are constantly shouting out from their seats, always women (usually middle aged) and always off their faces drunk. They completely spoil the show.
We've had women fighting in the foyer, or passed out drunk and/or just generally being very loud and obnoxious./aggressive
We went to see comedian last night and again the 2 women behind us were ridiculous and we had to move.
When did boozing in theatres become the norm?
For reference I'm a middle aged woman who is also a drinker but I can manage a night at the theatre without one.
AIBU to say that alcohol is becoming part of everything nowadays and nowhere is safe from drunken louts?

Theatres need to up their game, and if people are being disruptive, stop the show, and escort the perpetrators from the premises, using force if necessary.

I've never experienced this in a theatre. I am one of those who will sometimes get a drink in the interval - not if there's a long queue for the toilets! One drink is just a pleasant part of a special occasion.
I don't often go to the cinema as I have seen loud people, not drunk but chatting and eating, including children.

@MarkWithaC It didn’t erode mine! We have to face facts, some people are oiks. Entitled oiks. Who pays to hear professional singers swamped by a cats chorus next to you? I do feel some theatre staff aren’t up to this sort of agro but they need to think about their staffing a booze policy. If folk are drunk on arrival, it’s no show for them. Literally.

I've never seen anything like this and I love the theatre, from the huge ones down to the small local ones!
I always grab a glass of wine while there but that's it-never seen anyone drunk! For a start, I don't want to pay £8 for a thimble-full of Sauvignon!

The only issues I’ve had a lot at the theatre are annoying and entitled parents taking their too young children to watch things that’s aren’t really for kids ( or have a min age which they have clearly ignored ) and letting them talk / sing along like everyone thinks they are cute.

never had a drunken problem!

YANBU, but it's just general behaviour has got bad since Covid, people forget they aren't in their own houses. It really puts me off the theatre, with people not putting their phones away, talking, arriving late.

Problem is some people don’t know when to stop drinking.

Then there’s the problem of people drinking on an empty stomach, that makes absorption of alcohol quicker.

I've not personally witnessed any alcohol fuelled bad behaviour in a theatre. however my daughter when working front of house in a west end theatre had a glass of wine thrown at her by a customer, who was aggrieved that the water jugs weren't refilled quickly enough, glad to say she was removed from the theatre, and on another occasion at a different theatre a drunk woman sitting near the front at a well know musical was also removed as she was standing up and singing loudly, the lead cast member had even been gesturing at her to stop. It's outrageous that staff and other theatre goers have to put up with this. If a person can't moderate their alcohol consumption and behaviour, quite frankly a theatre is not the place for them.

@Peonies12 Arriving late armed with multiple glasses of booze! Hate it.

Appreciate I have quoted myself her, but for clarity, I'm not advocating violence!

It's nothing to do with drinking AT the theatre.
Lots of theatres only open the doors an hour before curtain and as PP said...its people arriving drunk. Last year couple infant if us arrived 20 minutes into first half having gone to the wrong theatre first. We're already very drunk and kept talking to people they knew in other rows... loudly

I think part of it is demographics.
Young people these days are more about image and Instagram and lots don't drink....but the ladettes and lads of the 90s are now in their (our) 40s and 50s....and some still see a good night out as getting smashed...but they don't want to be in bars with all the young people...they are drawn to the comedians of the last 20 yrs...and the juke box musicals of their favourite bands that encourage a party atmosphere.
Then having been introduced to theatre though comedy and raucous musicals and they think every show is like Mrs Brown's Boys

I remember going to a show during the time pandemic restrictions were still quite tight, so they required us all to arrive 1.5 hours early to show our “vaccine passports” then admitted us to the theatre where we were essentially ‘kettled’ for an hour in the overcrowded bar area with nothing to do but drink. It was irresponsible as we were an entire auditorium’s worth of people trapped in a small covidy place and obviously no one was masking as they were drinking bottles of wine (the bar was rammed so ladies were each buying entire bottles of wine in one go) They had an hour+ to waste consuming it and then they took more into the theatre and acted like a pack of drunken primates. I’m a boozer myself but this was ridiculous. Put me off that theatre so now I skip it unless it is a show I can’t see otherwise.

@FTPM1980 Yes, it’s almost exclusively middle aged folk. Rarely young! They buy booze and drink all the way through the performance and spill it! It’s a nuisance and disturbs others. Completely objectionable. I’d not allow booze in the auditorium. The ROH manages this policy.