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.

Woman behind me brought her young DD (maybe 5/6) to theatre to see Wicked. Child cried and whimpered throughout the whole show. I'd travelled interstate for it, and the experience was completely ruined.

Probably the most famous one was where a stand up comedian (Aus), stopped the show and told a a mother with a crying baby to leave & wouldn't start again until she'd gone. She caused a massive fuss nationally as she complained parents needed a night out, too! The unanimous response was to get a babysitter, or accept baby = restrictions.

My friend was the director. Smallish town where everyone knows each other.

You'd know if someone was using one of those though as they would have the theatre issued headset.

I used to work at Symphony Hall. Back in those days no food or drink whatsoever was allowed into the auditorium apart from a paper cup of water (a steward would get you one) or theatre issued (free back then) Sela cough sweets in special rustle proof wrappers.

Every time we sold a Magnum ice lolly we would warn the person buying that they were not allowed to take them into the auditorium and we were not allowed to sell at all after the 5 minute call.

How times have changed.