To ask what poor theatre etiquette you’ve witnessed?

[AllaMova]

Admittedly, I had never experienced poor theatre etiquette until I saw Phantom of the Opera in the West End last week.

A woman next to me kept lunging forward and then flinging herself back in her seat throughout the performance, which was very distracting and made my seat shake each time. Then, she kept whispering to her companion.

A man kept kicking another man’s seat. I didn’t notice until the man in front turned around and told him off doing so. (Not that I blame him in the slightest!)

Another woman a few rows in front of me got her to text several times. An usher intervened, but she kept doing it.

Some people also arrived late and missed the start of the show and distracted everyone else in the process of finding their seats.

I can’t believe all of this happened during one single show. Until that point, I had been so lucky.

Visiting the Uk in December, we booked for Moulin rouge which we have seen before so we just got the cheapest seats, up in the gods. Our row was bar stool height seating and we actually had a really good view. The row in front of us was much lower, as people walked to their seats they were roughly up to our knees. However, the guy in front of me and DD decided to stand up part way through the show and then proceeded to kind of rotate from the waist, leaning right forward. He was in and out of our view every few seconds! It was bizarre and we kept thinking he’ll stop in a minute but eventually DD tapped his shoulder and said if you really must stand can you at least stand still! He slunk back down into his seat.

Not theatre, but I once went to watch a standup show and had the pleasure of sitting in front of someone who seemed to be in a race to get to the punchline before the comedian. Constant utterings and misplaced laughing at their own conclusion.

pissed me off no end!!

I went to see a play where the lead actor was obviously drinking off stage and got progressively more drunk as the play went on.

People should be chucked out on the first offence. We're far too tolerant of shitty behaviour. Once someone checks their phone once, I'm on edge and can't concentrate on the performance as I'm waiting for the cretin to do it again.

I took a group of 7 year olds to see Pocahontas for DDs birthday. Didn't think the fostered child would get hysterical at John Smith leaving Pocahontas behind. Some issues with abandonment due to her past. So there I am assuring her he goes back for her, they lived happily ever after. After I'd settled her down I could see a woman giving me disapproving looks. Not sure if she was annoyed by the noise or my lies.

I Need an end seat. Mostly I just accept the fact that I can rarely go to the theatre because it is so difficult to get an end of row seat with leg room.
The only theatre that will help is the Barbican.
The other London theatres want written proof of PIP. I don't qualify for PIP. So I just don't go.

'Cretin' is an offensive ableist slur just so you are aware.

Which is ironic given your post.

With cricket matches being so long and also not always the same length, I get the impression people only have that day off/said they'd be back at such a time not knowing it would run longer than that.

I saw Jersey Boys and two women nearby acted as though it was a concert, not a show. In every song they stood up and danced and went Woooo! Wooo! really loud. Each time, staff told them to sit down. The last time they did it, they were turning round saying Come on! Come on! to people around them. The staff came over again and some people behind them were telling them to shut up and they behaved themselves after that.

Ah this happened recently as a family member of mine is currently performing in Kinky Boots. I had 2 ladies next to me who were drinking, filming it and just making loads of noise and chatting throughout. Ok it wasn't like everyday chat, just about how much the show was great but still very annoying. In the end the people on the other side of them complained. The complainers got moved and the two women got told to be quiet. I think they'd have been asked to leave had it not been 10 mins to finale.

Not the same because it wasn’t the theatre but I went to see Peter Kay 2 years ago and this woman got so drunk, we were all the way in the back he was basically an ant to us, and he would say something like “do you ever do this thing where you blah blah blah” and this drunk woman was screaming “omg yes peter i do!!!!!” She was annoying everyone, she was screaming stuff like “Peter, tell the joke about….” We were about a mile away I don’t know if she thought he’d here her or what but it was horrendous

Agree.

I have had people taking selfies, for which they have to hold it up above their head to get the flattering angle and keep it there while they play with head angles, rearrange their botox into a pout and flick their hair about everywhere, entirely obscuring the view.

I'm sure they post it on their SM to show how very "culchured" they are, going to the theatre!

Then they sit in the dark scrolling and not even watching the performance. Clearly there just to get the photo op.

A man at the Met Opera in New York whose hearing aid whistled through the entire performance and who got angry with his wife and denied it was whistling when she repeatedly asked him to sort it.

I do understand the frustration about people coming late, but equally find it annoying when people with seats towards the end of a row arrive early, park themselves in them then huff and eye roll as every other person in that row on that side has to ask if they could please squeeze past them to get to their own seats. Just have a drink in the bar and come in once the bulk of the audience has arrived!

That’s awful. This lot were, like me, middle aged women. Yours is a lot worse though. It was odd though to be threatened and I dud have to have a word with myself not to turn round, if they’d not been thrown out shortly after I’d have gone to the usher. I just wanted to turn round and tell her how utterly rough and uncouth she was that getting me was even a thought that came into her head. Who says that sort of stuff??! Imagine having her as your mum.

Id have done the same with teenagers , good for you.

Oh yes the thickos that talk back to the performer. They are special.

I no longer go to concerts, cinema or theatre. I can’t stand the bad behaviour. Tickets are expensive but the behaviour is cheap.

Dextrose energy tablets or a bottle of oj. Both are near silent. As a diabetic theatre goer…

It's a good point, but in this case it was (I should have said but didn't think of it) a one-day international. So 50 overs in total, and it looked like we were way too far behind to catch up.

Huh? How was he supposed to know this was medically related? Based on this thread I’d say this man was well within his rights to reasonably assume this was just a teen using her phone?? I would have told her off too.

not sure why you had to turn this into a man-bashing exercise

It's my experience that people are far quicker to jump into fights they think they can win. It's unlikely that he would have told off a man in the same situation. That is my point.

I was at a west end play and the couple next to me arrived late, she was so drunk she fell asleep immediately with her head back. Didn't really bother me, but it was ridiculous.

At the last live event I went to there were what I assumed to be a family of three in the seats adjaent to me who spent the whole performance talking and showing each other their phones. Why come out if the live performance is just background to your day to day interactions?

Watching The Mousetrap and the American couple in front started loudly debating the plot and who could have done it. I became extremely polite in tone and told them in no uncertain terms to shut up and watch the play and leave that discussion to the interval. Funnily enough they complied!

Lion King- parent sat behind us allowing their kid to kick DDs seat, then he put his feet up on the back of her chair and managed to kick her in the back of the head, at which point I told him off and his mother was extremely offended.
Matilda- I know it’s a musical with kids in it, and the audience has a lot of children, but the parents in front of us who allowed their kids to get up and down, up and down out of their seats constantly standing up and blocking our view (they were about 7 or 8 so not tiny tots) then the whole family proceeded to munch their way through an entire packed lunch including crisps, sausage rolls, and endlessly rattly food packets of this and that were complete twats.