Sorry chaps - huge rant coming on but I am seething and need to get this off my chest.
I went to see Grease last night, was really looking forward to it - it was a holiday treat for troutpout and I, going into Manchester for a night out.
Now Grease...it's not Chekhov, I know that: it's a mainstream musical with mass appeal. I expected the audience to indulge in a bit of foot tapping, clapping along, maybe a bit of singing. I have never experienced anything like it. Most (1/2 to 2/3rds of the audience - and the theatre was almost full) just seemed to have no idea how to behave in a theatre. People were talking all through it - not quietly, but like you would chat in a pub with loud music where you have to raise your voice to make yourself heard; people had brought in several alcoholic drinks apiece, which they proceeded to neck down - so then of course they had to keep getting up to go to the loo; some would pay attention long enough to sing along tunelessly at the tops of their voices - then talk all through the dialogue; the audience was lit up with small blue glowing screens - people were texting on their mobiles all the way through; some people were obviously incapable of even sitting still - kept getting up and going for a wander round the auditorium, or nipping out for a cigarette; people were taking flash photographs and had to be reprimanded by the ushers.
We moved after the first half because the man next door but one to tp talked incessantly in a loud voice - his girlfriend chatted back but did at least stop so she could sing along (badly and loudly) to the music. They must have paid £30 apiece for tickets, the same as us - why when they seemed to have no interest in actually watching the show? But where we moved to we had 4 women in front of us who also nattered on loudly through all the dialogue - a man nearby asked them to be quiet but they didn't take much notice.
It completely ruined it for both of us (and presumably the small minority of the audience who had gone along to enjoy the show). I felt sorry for the performers - especially the poor girl who played Sandy who was completely drowned out by tuneless wailing when she sang Hopelessly Devoted. It was like karaoke night down your local theme pub, not a theatre.
Don't people know what is acceptable behaviour any more? I wondered if some of the audience actually knew it was real people up there on stage or whether they thought it was computer generated. Honestly, it was so depressing - there seems to be a culture of people now who just have absolutely no consideration for anyone else, and no idea how to behave.
I know I sound like Mrs Angry of Macclesfield - but I am just gobsmacked and still seething.
It seems to me that a lot of people nowadays (oh I sound old) have lost the ability to sit still and concentrate. Even on a bus or a train - there was a time when you would sit and look out of the window and think your own thoughts - but now you have your mobile and you can be talking, texting, surfing the net, playing games, listening to music. Add the attention span of a gnat to a lack of consideration and empathy for anyone else - and you end up with an audience like the one we had to endure last night.
Sorry, warned you it was a rant.