On Demand
Bravos and No-nos in the theater
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Theaters and concert halls have always been home to disputes over noisy candy wrappers, errant cell phones, and uncontrolled whispers. But some say that as theaters try to put on a more welcoming face for audiences, patrons are getting too comfortable in their surroundings. Ellen Gamerman, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, talks about the changing standards of audience behavior.
- About this program
- Staff Bios »
- Contact Us »
- Latest Episode
- Internship
- Tapes and Transcripts
- Show Archive »
Features & Series
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
See Tori Amos Live!
Join us Tuesday, Dec. 9 at The Greene Space
Singer and pianist Tori Amos joins us to talk about reworking and reinventing seasonal carols on her new holiday album. And, she performs for a live audience in The Greene Space! Click the link for ticket info.
More
Comments
Refresh
Google the youtube video of Patti Lupone yelling mid-song because someone took a picture. Scary.
Yes, they were vagabonds during Shakespeare's time, but haven't we evolved?
It's rude and shows such a disregard for the hard work from the actors and everyone involved into putting together a show, but what do you expect when the great white way has turned into Disney Land.
Oh please! Bad behaviour is bad behaviour! When I go to the theater I don't want it to be as if I am going to the movies. It should be a special experience. LEAVE THE CELL PHONES AND FAST FOOD AT HOME!!!!!
The glow from a sea of hundreds of cell phones from what appears to be 20 something during a free opera concert in the park where you can hear your neighbors on the grass saying things like "guess where I'm at?" or "where are you?" ruins the opera, the summer night, and makes me want to give it up to the hordes of ill-mannered boors.
In any event when boomers and youngers get together, whether at concerts, in theaters, or at political debates -- anywhere, the common way that people have learned to express positive reaction is to "whooop".
This goes on all the time and I find this to be a mindless, annoying and so declasse.
My recent experience at a NYCB performance at the David Koch theatre was extremely annoying -- people talking to one another CONSTANTLY during the performance. It became impossible to concentrate and enjoy the dancing or the music. Infuriating, and rude.
i was at a performance of satyagraha with my husband, at the met this past winter, and the couple next to us started making out in a way that would have been completely inappropriate anywhere except maybe in a dark nightclub.
most shockingly, they weren't young- they were a couple in at least their 50s. (20 years older than us!)
satyagraha?! i was terribly offended- gandhi is like a saint to me- it was like seeing people make out in church...
thank goodness for karma.
I once had a woman with what appeared to be her grandson (the movie was rated R and the boy appeared to be under 10) enter a movie late, set up a grand picnic, carry on a conversation (the boy didn't understand what was going on and getting more and more scared with the movie). I asked more then once if they could be quiet. However, that wasn't the end of it. Once the boy settled down, the woman started clipping her fingernails. In disgust I left the film and waited for it to come out on dvd. Going out just isn't worth it.
I'm old school. Part of theatre's magic is the silent audience in the dark listening intently to the story. Theatre generally is more about language and character relationships than movies or television, and demands the audience listen more actively.
And isn't Cherry Jones' acting or Jule Styne's, score more artful than the yacking of the couple behind me?
A less experienced crowd?? I wear nicer clothes to weed my garden than what I saw at a recent performance of Guys and Dolls. Add to that the crew in front of me who kept playing musical chairs mid-song, the older woman who had seen it 30 times to my left who knew all the words and wanted to be sure we all knew she knew them and the group of bachelorettes behind me who talked incessantly and what I got was a less than satisfying experience for my full price ticket. These are all the same reasons why I rent movies and avoid movie theaters. The only problem is I can't see a broadway play in my living room.
I work at a Broadway show running a followspot. I am behind and above the audience which gives me a good vantage point for seeing people texting, taking photos and even recording the show. There are numerous example every show. It is inconsiderate to the performers and the people around them. EVERYONE behind the offender can see their gigantic PDA screen.
What ever happened to good old common sense and old fashioned manners. Dress properly, no eating or talking during the show, and if you need to make a phone call leave the theater! This is not difficult. Talk about the dumbing down of America.
As an actor, it is extremely distracting during a performance to have a flash go off or hear someone talking during a scene.
It's not about being "haughty", it's about respecting the hard work. Actors give their all and it just hurts when the audience disrespects that.
Your guest may say the "theatre" needs to lighten up, but what about the people around you, who are also there to see the show? Maybe they don't want to smell your fried chicken, or your feet! Instead of a big question about the state of live theatre and audiences, it seems like an issue of common courtesy to me.
It seems to me that this is less often an issue of not being educated on theater etiquette, and more a result of the individualistic attitude of self-gratification and disregard for others. Many of these people, when alerted that they are disturbing those around them, respond negatively and continue their behavior.
When I pay 120 dollars for a theatre seat I don't want to sit through the performance listening to someone's candy wrappers or experiencing the glare of their blackberry screen...There is an alarming amount of bad behaviour out there which makes me dread having contact with the larger public...People need to be educated about being considerate of others. Unfortunately NYC seems to be the epicenter of rudeness.
Once attended NY Phil concert in Propect Park, where the blanket behind us included F. Murray Abraham whose noisy demeanor (he wasn't alone) elicited a hail of grapes from our sector. Ineffectively so, if memory serves.
Speaking as an actor, the sound of the silences is as important as the actual audio audience reaction. You can't play to noise.
Perhaps the nature of theater itself should change in response?
Doesn't a patron have a right to SOME propriety in a theater or concert? If we allow the current behavior, do we think it will stop there? No way!!
texting is WRONG, eatting is wrong-you should be as still as a mouse. Perhaps some people can more easily tune out these distractions. For others they can be VERY distracting and break the spell being shown on the stage. This person probably goes out more than most. For some people it maybe 1 time in a year out at the theater or the opera.
Brava Patti!!!!!
LADY!
I CANNOT IGNORE THE SMELL OF FRIED CHICKEN DURING A SHOW OR A MOVIE!!!!
Honestly, the image hundreds of dimly glowing cell phone screens floating the darkness of a New York park at night sounds kind of awesome to me.
The woman who thinks anything goes -- I don't know her name. Is there a website which posts warnings about concerts and plays she attends? I want to go to other concerts and plays.
P.S. Good for Patti LaPone.
I WONDER HOW YOUR GUEST WOULD FEEL IF I KEPT INTERRUPTING HER WHILE SHE'S RESPONDING TO YOUR QUESTIONS!
LET'S SEE HOW SHE WOULD LIKE IT!
SHE'S THE ONE WHO'S COMING OFF SMUG.
I remember playing a great performance of Mahler 9 when some jerk muttered "Solid" seconds before the piece was over. It's a piece whose ending should really have a big buffer of silence before any applause ensues. He completely robbed the audience of experiencing the end of that symphony the way it was intended to be.
The attitude of the phone guest and the phone callers is why the theater is dying. The rest of us normal people don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to have a bunch of frusty jerks look down their noses at us.
Didn't people use to piss in the theater during Shakespeare's time?
I cannot believe that the female guest would be so unthinking and uncaring about others in a p0ublic space. I go to theatre, opera and concerts and the behaviors that she deems acceptable is not so for the majority of attendees. If they want to eat popcorn, fried chicken or whatever they should stay at home. We others are spending hard earned money to be there and enjoy the performance without extraneous activity. This is not being
Classist.
There is a growing lack of etiquette in our society but concerts and dramatic performances have really suffered. It is expensive to attend and I am NOT there to hear the comments of the other attendees. I avoid certain movie theaters in my community because people treat it like an interactive experience. Forget ushers in movie theaters, I have shushed many people and there is no support from the staff.
I think YOUR staff member may be implying that this attitude is elitist or perhaps culturally intolerant but rude is rude. Sorry.
Bring back the "cone of silence".
As a former professional actress, I can say I wouldn't have minded having my picture taken during a performance. In fact, if you go to a kid's performance, there are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and more all up by the stage taking photos, and the kids usually handle this with aplomp. If they can deal, professionals can.
I am a performer and the taking of pictures with most digital cameras, even without flash, still offs a bright red light which is very distracting while performing. The press do not use these kinds of cameras. I think you may owe Ms. Lupone an apology for implying she should live with the times. I suspect that a distracting red light was flashing in her face.
Most actors are just glad to be in a production and as such, will just become desensitized to an ill behaved audience. Remember during vaudville when audiences would throw things on stage. I don't like when people make noise or interrupt my concert experience and it isn't my responsability to learn how to ignore it but I usually wouldn't say anything.
I've noticed lately at other live or ticketed events -- conferences, film festivals, author appearances, it's become increasingly common for people to check their PDAs. I was at a panel discussion at the Open Society Institute and the guy next to me kept switching between his blackberry and his other phone. I guess it's okay -- but it creates an overall air of distraction. We're not really there to see the performance, or to hear the music or the speaker, or the front of the room, we're there the way we're in private space. I don't like it! It's become totally acceptable to be oblivious to other peoples' space, and also, to the experience of live performers and speakers, who do feed and groove on the audiences' attention and energy.
I do not go to the theater, to movies, to the ballet anymore-- forget the free summer shows. People's mutual consideration has evaporated, so I'd rather stay home and feel the full impact of what I'm experiencing rather than listening to the inane comments of others.
One word:
DEVOlution!
p.s. attendees aside, how can the Soundcheck staff person show SO LITTLE RESPECT for artists/performers? I think she's in the wrong business.
My husband and I sat next to a man at a classical music concert who HUMMED ALONG with the music until we couldn't stand it anymore and my husband said to him, as if possibly he wasn't aware of his own behavior: "Sir, you're humming!" I'm happy to say he did stop. Is it possible to hum and not realize it??
mAYBE CAUSE IT COSTS $10 TO GO TO THE MOVIES.
AND $100.00 TO GO TO THE THEATER
On the one hand, I do somewhat miss the days when we had to "dress" for the theater. On the other hand, I do like the fact that I can dress casually to stand on line at TKTS on a hot summer day, get tickets, walk around then see a great show. BUT people should behave appropriately in the theater.
This conversation would be more compelling were it not for the condescension and intolerance of your guest. Why on earth would you have someone so smug and contemptuous on your show?
This superior argument is ridiculous.
Respect the actors - give them your full attention - and respect the people around you who have paid money to see a performance.
It seems to me everyone is so starved for attention nowadays that they live in a bubble where they become quickly bored because the moment is not about them.
I would hate to be sitting next to that woman you have on your show, she’s probably a real slob.
Most of us, Ellen, do not have such superhuman powers of concentration that we can ignore all those distractions that have been mentioned. If I'm paying the amount of money that theater tickets cost these days, you better believe that I expect people to keep it [the cell phone] in their pants. And to eat before the performance, not during it.
I think the main difference between movies and theater or THEATRE (with an RE...) or other live performance is that there are live people performing in front of you. We all saw how Christian Bale reacted when someone got in his sightlines while filming. Actors are "filming" every night. It's just plain disrespectful to treat something live the same as something two dimensional. There are live people pouring their hearts and souls out in front of you and you owe it to them to pay attention with respect. It's not a class thing, or a snobby thing, it's a human thing. I want to know has this woman who is OK with everything ever performed in front of people? Has she ever had to retain that amount of focus and artistry in the moment? It's not easy and it deserves respect and admiration. There are all sorts of performance, and if you want a raucous evening of eating, drinking and entertainment, there's awesome cabarets, comedy and open mics all over the place. Why can't there be one place where it is OK to sit quietly and pay attention to something on stage that is being performed for you? Why isn't that OK?
Perhaps we should reevaluate how easily we are bothered. Check out a Buddhist approach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buTrsK_ZkvA
Your in studio guest (the woman) Is trying to cast this a a class (economic) not class (behavior) issue. How insulting. The biggest bores I know are rich self satified ones. How can she be so off base. A bore is a bore and there are more of them out there than there used to be.
She sounds like a person who will take the opposite side of any agument just to get on the air. Don't you screen your guests? You couldn't find anyone smarter than this dodo?
As a theater professional, who believes that the theater creates a "sacred space" - even "fluff" shows like most broadway musicals - it was depressing to hear your guests approve of various offensive behaviors that are plaguing the theater (both live and film).
Encouraging good behavior is neither classist, nor puritanical; it is merely asking people to respect not only the performers on stage, but their fellow audience members, who have just as much right to an uninterrupted performance.
Yes the image of a hundred cell phones in a dark park might be intriguing - but not while I'm trying to pay attention to the play onstage.
I now completely understand why I avoid Manhattan and all of its CULTURAL (ha-ha) "gifts". We left the City 13 years ago and offer daily thanks for our dull, civilized lives.
John...are you really so desperate to fill up the hour?
mmm
boorish 20something --0
So are you saying that we should try public urination during a show? Quit equivocating.
By the way, you admit to thinking that the glow of hundreds of cell phone screens at night is awesome. You should treat yourself to staring at a spinning album on a turntable.
If you are too young to know what an album or a turntable is, ask your parents.
23] janet from NYC June 09, 2009 - 02:36PM
We recently saw Charles Aznavor at City Center. Suddenly there arose around us an amazingly strong odor of "Street Gyro/Mystery Meat". All were turning around seeking the source of this pungent scent. As we were in the 4th row, we are most certain that Mr. Aznavoor was also privy to the smell. Aghast, my husband & I realized that the source of the malodorous scent was coming from the woman next to us who was voraciously attacking a Gyro sandwich at intervals during the show. With sauce dripping down her face and pieces of raw onions falling out of her mouth, she was oblivious to the thoughtlessness of her eating. At the end of the show, she left her leftovers and dirty wrapper on the floor along with a plastic fork. Ignorance or Thoughtlessness? Either way, eat before or after, but not during the show!
I imagine that there are others in your audience who, like me, recall the 2nd Svenue yiddish theaters of the 1930s. Eating, talking, gales of laughter and hysterical sobbing were all part of the experience. I can't imagine Molly Picone reacting as Patti Lapone did to anything equivalent to the photo flash. The different experience is all that of time and place. Prosperity brought with it a sense of sophistication that is less tolerant. I am so offended by popcorn odor that I avoid movie houses, whereas chicken soup and schmalz were potent stimulants in my youth. A couple of years ago audiences at the Peoples' concerts in Washington Irving H.S. often yacked through great artists' performances. This year hardly a whisper was heard. At a largely freebee performance of a contemporary version of Checkhov's Ivanov called "Nick" on West 52nd Street, the audience was quiet and attentive. Inspite of being invited to bring drinks to their seats there was no audience misbehavior that could offend anyone, whereas at a performance of "Found" in the Village that invited audience participation the place was jummpin' on and off stage. All time and place!
The group, Sweet Plantain, sounds as if it owes a considerable debt to Aqualactica, which originated in Buenos Aires. (www.Aqualactica.com).
I'd be interested in knowing the relationships- musicially, historically, in personel or in formal training between these groups.
I hope Ms. Tomer took the devil's advocate role for its own sake because she only sidestepped the core issue: is live theatre enhanced or diminished by audience interruption?
She attacked the responses to rudeness, "how high do we sit in judgment?" and on the traditional British spelling "theatre," (the horror) rather than offer a credible defense of the rudeness itself.
Suggestion for Ms. Tomer: Write and perform a one-woman show. Invite your audience to be as disruptive as possible. Then report back whether this rudeness enhances the experience.
I think thats rude of people to talk or snap pictures in the theater. Even to eat!! People don't know what manners are!!!! Think the public needs to respect the performers on stage.
I found the discussion completely unsatisfying because your staff member kept blaming me for my lack of focus. Normal people are affected by those around us; I can't voluntarily not hear, smell, see, feel stimuli from my environment. How insulting to be accused of being judgmental when the guest herself was the sanctimonious one.
No, the patron doesn not need to eat every five minutes. Offenders for the most part are not oblivious to those around them; rather they know very well that they are intruding on others' experience and they simply don't care.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.