sks

Loveitaly - that's a great point about communicating these thoughts to the theaters!

ellen_griswold

Soo glad to know i'm not alone in my frustration!

Don't think i saw this posted:

How about people that SING ALONG! I too, know most of the lyrics to broadway shows but i paid to hear the professional cast, and not the audience! Puleeeeeze!!!

lcuy

I haven't been tot a movie theatre in such a long time..Chair kickers, gum snappers, candy rustlers, and phone abusers have just ended my pleasure in going. I now wait till they come out on DVD, and can watch them in peace!

Another problem I've run into- three times! this year- is people who sing along at live performances. Once was at a fairly intimate performance with a well known acoustic guitar player. Tthe woman next to us sang along in this horrible and loud voice. When my husband asked her politely to stop she said, "I paid to come sing along". When he said the HE didn't pay to hear her sing, she got pretty obnoxious. Luckily all the people on the other side and behind her all told her to shut up at that point, but it was so unpleasant.

And I say this as a girl who got tossed from the original Batman movie (1960's?) because my friend put her feet on the back of a chair in an empty theatre.

I guess things could be worse though..remember when people could smoke in movie theaters?

my2cents

At the risk of sounding redundant -- I too am so happy I'm not the only one bugged by this! I recently attended a joint performance of classical and religious music by two local community choirs; they were giving preview performances of the program they'll be singing at Carnegie Hall in June. There were 2 sets of parents with very small children (2 yrs old and under) where the children were either cranky or bored. One of the tots was crying and instead of taking her outside they proceeded to just let her cry while they tried calming measures...for a long, long time... The other child was getting restless so his parents pulled out one of those electronic Leapfrog reader things where you drag a pointer across words in the "book" and an electronic voice "reads" it out loud. The little boy (and the mom) proceeded to read out loud along with the Leapfrog voice! This went on throughout most of the last few songs of the first half of the program.

Both sets of parents ignored the baleful looks and shushes from the other audience members. During the intermission many of the audience members descended upon the people in charge to complain and ask that someone with authority talk to oblivious parents. That seemed to work because during the second half they took their children outside at the first sign of restlessness.

That kind of selfish and oblivious behavior is rude to both the audience members and to the performers. What I don't understand is why people don't just hire a babysitter or find someone to watch them for a couple hours? Why pay to bring someone that young to such a performance? It has to be torture for a child that age to try and sit through something like that and it can't be much fun for the parent either. Seems like a big waste of money to me.

starrsville

There are some theatres that have started "Mommy movies" during the day where mommies can bring kids and infants of all ages to watch the newest releases. They don't dim the lights all the way. Of course, there are crying babies and talking children - but that is the audience for these matinees.

I had a kid kicking the seat behind me (at a regular show) and looks to the parents didn't help. A sibling was running behind the seats and hopping up and down the steps to the side. The interactions with the parents got a bit tense. Dad finally stormed off to report US - but came back solo to retrieve his family and leave the theatre.

Like I said before - they just ain't got no raising!

robhart

So ... it was off to the theater again tonight. Last night, "Steel Magnolias" with the Twizzler munching couple. Tonight: "Glengarry Glen Ross." There were only a few instances of audience members with the munchies. Two seats away, a guy pulled out a bag of peanut M&Ms, ripped them open and began to crinkle the bag around. Luckily, his girlfriend was horrified and got him to put them away. A couple behind me kept popping something out of those foil-and-plastic wrappers (like Dentyne Ice gum comes in) Crinkle, crinkle. And the woman next to me gets points for trying, since she had already unwrapped her candy and put it in her purse. She loses points for having to unzip the purse, rummage around in it, and zip it back up every three minutes.

The play is very absorbing and the cast is excellent; I wish I didn't get so easily distracted by the antics of my fellow audience members, but I can't help it. I wondered, too, why so many people feel the need to snack all the way through a play. I enjoy a little something during intermission, but I can go an hour without chomping down on something. Plus, "Glengarry" is a short play -- the first act is 45 minutes. C'mon, you can make it without those M&Ms.

wliwl

I was once a rude theater patron!

It's so embarassing. Here's what happened. My husband dropped me and my 2 kids off at the theater (West Side Story). He went to park the car. It is in a not-very-good neighborhood (not in NYC) and he is cheap enough to park on the street instead of lot. We were seated by the ushers. I was a little confused, because the seats were not good and we had paid a lot for the tickets. I went back down to a different usher to verify that we were in the right seats. He confirmed that we were. The show started. No husband! I was nervous. Quite awhile later, still no husband. I could not imagine where he was (well, actually I was imagining all the worst things, he got mugged, he had a heart attack, a car accident...) I get up (in between songs) and go to the lobby. Speak to an usher. She's clueless. I return to my seat. A little while later the usher comes up to us at our seats and is whispering to me, trying to get more info about the situation. The people around me are totally annoyed (I don't blame them but I'm worried!). Later she comes again and tells me she found my husband - we are in the wrong seats. She wants us to move in the middle of the performance! I tell her we'll wait until intermission. She was adament! (LOTS of shushing at this point.) So eventually we all got up and changed seats (from balcony down to orchestra). Now we've annoyed the people in this new section too.

Anyway, it was so embarassing, I was so angry (but relieved to see my husband wasn't in emergency or somthing!) I demanded a full refund for the tickets the next day (which I eventually got).

I wish I could appologize to all those sitting around us.

PamT

Happens at church too! All the time, kids in church that won't settle down and the parents don't take them to the nursery but instead let them carry on during the service. Don't get much out of the sermon that way! Course on the other hand, I have a father that is deaf and when he comes to church with us he is so fidgety and continually "crinkles" his bulletin, burps, etc. HE doesn't hear it, so he has no clue. Then I try to get his attention to shush, and he of course doesn't whisper, but talks aloud - again because he can't hear. He always tells me if I was deaf I'd understand how it is for him. Just another "take" on it. Pam

nytraveler

Starrsville -

My grandmothers expression for the uncouth and clueless was "raised in a barn".

(I never really understood if this meant that the parents were cows rather than people - or that the kids were so awful they weren;t allowed inside the house!)

TC

Recently attended a performance of Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang in NY. Yes, its a "children's" show, but the three year old twins, sitting behind us eating bags of popcorn "in order to keep them quiet" (per their mother) were obviously too young for the show. The show didn't start until 8pm and these poor children were already tired. I felt sorry for the children and the audience seated nearby. Poor judgment on the part of parents in my opinion. Wouldn't a matinee have been a better choice?

Speaking of cell phones, several years ago I was at a matinee performance of Death of a Salesman in NY when Brian Dennehy broke character and stopped the show to ask a lady in the third row if she would like to answer her ringing phone. The phone had been ringing loudly for several minutes while she blythely ignored it.

sunny16

I was once at a christening and I complained to my husband about a fussy kid (not one of the ones being christened) - I said someone should take him out of the church until he settled down. That's all I said. Turns out the brat's dad was the butthead standing next to me, and he actually stood there during his other kid's christening and asked me if I wanted to take it outside. You gotta love the (lack of) class, LOL!

SharonG

I'm old enough to remember matrons at movie theaters. They had big flashlights, wore white uniforms and we were terrified of them.

dovima

Worst experience:

Going to a performance by a famed flamenco singer and having a young doodoohead of a twenty-something answer a call on his cell phone during a particularly sombre, soulful ballad. Several people shushed him and he was , like, all "what's the prob, dude?".

Best experience
A friend once invited me to a screening at a cinema club where the members were privileged to see movies before commercial release. Such a rapt, respectful audience - and the intelligent conversation during the question and answer period after, led by a local movie critic. It was fab.

Scarlett

Today at the movie theater (Star Wars) a man got a cell phone call and almost everyone in the theater turned around and said something like Give Me A Break! he got up really quickly and left

Kal

Life!
Friends and relatives who leave us waaaay too soon.
Canceled vacations.

O O O

Life!
The joy of having known the friends and relatives who left us waaaay too soon.

All in all, doncha just love it?

Al_LaCarte

Scarlett,

Did the "core" audience whip out their light sabres to chase him out?

Okay, I'll bite, how was it?

AL

Scarlett

Al, I took an oath not to tell

But there was something that looked suspiciously like a light saber up towards the front..as well as the sound of this heavy breathing

Al_LaCarte

Oh, Scarlett!!! You taunt me. You tease me.

Keep it up.

AL

Kal

AL,
Is that a light saber in your pocket or are yah just happy to see Scarlett? :-"

dsm22

my2cents, there is nothing worse than practicing for 4 months only to have your concert ruined because of screaming children. It is really annoying when you pay someone hundreds of dollars to come in and record it, and get extra sound effects you don't want too.


There was a teen age boy running around our mall all day yesterday, with a light saber, and a Darth Vader helmet that makes the heavy breathing noises.

Apparently he had been there since the night before to see the opening screening. Yeah, no girlfriend. I wonder why?