<p>I took a day off yesterday and went into the city for a matinee. The audience was ancient. I am 56, so you have a frame of reference. The play was wonderful. The audience was not so. Let’s not even discuss the 14 cell phones that went off or the group in the back who were eating potato chips or the people who were drinking bottles of water and crunching the plastic bottles. Two audience members got into a fight. You can’t imagine the number of people who had “bathroom breaks”, and one of them fell going up the stairs. Then, there was the person who felt the need to shout out to the actors the secrets that were going to come out in the plot later on anyway. Getting out of the theater is always my favorite part. I’m not sure what I enjoy more–the people who have to stop and block everything while they check their cell phone messages or the ones who have to stop and discuss the play, how they liked/hated it and their dinner plans. Meanwhile, I’m hanging on the step behind them, hoping I’m not going to lose my balance. At the very last, two old biddies WITH WALKERS got into an altercation at the door. Note to self: no more matinees.</p>
<p>People think that the entire world is an extension of their living room.</p>
<p>At the very last, two old biddies WITH WALKERS got into an altercation at the door. Note to self: no more matinees.</p>
<p>Wow-</p>
<p>Luckily, I haven’t seen this kind of behavior much in my town- but then maybe I don’t get out as much as I thought?</p>
<p>I have a matinee to attend on Sunday too!</p>
<p>This was in New York?</p>
<p>Did they bus them in from the retirement home? That happens around here. Certain days of the week are NO NO’s. The audience is full of the seniors. And this is EXACTLY what they do back at their assisted living or senior community in the rec room. Seen those commercials for The Villages? Don’t go to any shows 100 miles from there on certain days.</p>
<p>Old people today just have no manners. I can tell you, they won’t be going to any matinee on my dime.</p>
<p>New York Broadway. I work in a school, and believe me, kindergartners would have done better. I felt so sorry for the actors. You would think that spending $126 for a ticket would assure a better group!</p>
<p>I went to the movies with my S during spring break. (Crazy Heart) A trio of girls came in and sat behind us. They talked non-stop though all of the previews and on into the first few minutes of the movie. Finally, I turned around and said–calmly-- “If you are going to talk, would you mind sitting somewhere else?” There was silence, then a storm of giggling. Then a minute or two later after some whispering they got up and moved, making sure to hit me in the back of the head with their purses as they passed. (I know it was deliberate because magically they did not hit S.) They proceeded to talk non-stop through the movie in their new seats, but at least they were not behind us.</p>
<p>Sorghum, funny :D</p>
<p>Went to see Mamma Mia with my friends. The man next to me was alone and struck up a conversation with me. Fine. Mentions that his girlfriend would not come with him. Musical starts and he leans over giving a running narrative (movie vs. musical). I leaned clear over in my seat to the other side and pretended not to hear him. He finally stopped. No wonder his girlfriend wouldn’t go with him!</p>
<p>The blame falls squarely on the theater’s management, not for the behavior, but for allowing it to continue. Write them a letter. Tell them you won’t be back, and why.</p>
<p>Didn’t Hugh Jackman & Daniel Craig take a patron to task recently when their cell phone went off during a performance?</p>
<p>Rude people should have to sit in the corner- until it is over.</p>
<p>I remember we splurged & sent to Phantom in NYC. The people behind us spoke loudly in some foreign language for the entire first act. I wasn’t able to flag down an usher until the intermission. The usher apologized and promised to talk with them, but they had left by then. The performance was otherwise delightful, but I was pretty irked!</p>
<p>We don’t get nearly such poor behavior when we go to our neighborhod community theater & tickets are MUCH cheaper! I guess it may have been part of the tour & the people didn’t somehow realize it wasn’t in their language?!?!?! Really wish people would observe basic decorum and the ushers would do their job by shushing or asking rude folks to leave/desist.</p>
<p>One night, I went to a small local movie theatre (think 50 seats). Two senior citizens were in the last row talking loudly throughout the previews and when they were continuing to do so as the movie started, I turned around and calmly said that if they did not stop talking I would get the management to make them leave. They shut up after that.</p>
<p>I think this may be strictly a Wednesday matinee phenomenon. We saw “A View from the Bridge” on Wednesday afternoon last week (Liev Schreiber = fantabulous), and I was appalled at the audience’s behavior. I frequently attend Broadway shows, usually in the evening, sometimes Saturday matinees, but rarely Wednesday matinees, and this was like nothing I had ever experienced before. No altercations between the walker-encumbered (though that alone might have been worth the price of admission), but tons of inappropriate laughter at serious moments and talking back to the characters (these from attendees who seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties) and one elderly woman, clearly not aware she was observing a play instead of real life, who continually gasped in horror and commented loudly at turns in the plot–whoever was in charge of her had an incredible nerve bringing her to a theater where patrons had paid dearly for their tickets. I would have been thrilled if one of the actors had let the louts have an earful!</p>
<p>I’m not sure what management can do about this. Once everyone has been asked to turn off their phones and the show has started, any action by ushers would be even more disruptive. I don’t suppose a “No Idiots Allowed” sign would help…</p>
<p>Yea, I’m not sure what would have helped our situation either. I tried shushing and glaring at the people who were talking during our performance, but they were totally oblivious (probably planning how soon they could do their next NYC thing). <sigh> Didn’t really want the ushers to make even MORE noise, but really!</sigh></p>
<p>This is bad enough, but at a Broadway show? My college freshman (Broadway fanatic) would have been appalled.</p>
<p>Good friend works in a small history museum – she says she would rather have 45 school groups then a senior citizen bus tour any day! Kids in groups are way better behaved and much easier to deal with.</p>
<p>All of the above behavior would drive me totally nuts, and anyone under 80 should know better. But I would give anything to be able to take my elderly mother to the theater. She and my father are, after all, the reason I know the lyrics to every Rogers and Hammerstein song. I have even been thinking that she might not be able to manage the trip from her nursing home to the local botanical garden five minutes down the road. I give the women (would we want to be called “biddies”?) with walkers a pass. At least they’re still able to be out in the world, and more power to them. There’s some pretty heavy-duty stereotyping of seniors going on in this thread.</p>
<p>My H and I went to an artsy Asian movie where there were a lot of senior people. As you could imagine many of them probably never even traveled there, so they were amazed with many things shown on the movie. We only gathered that because they were “whispering” it to each other. The problem was they thought they were whispering, but they were in fact speaking in a very loud voice. My H and I got a good giggle out it. We could see us becoming like that somedays.</p>
<p>Not the theater, but we were on a Smith College tour 2 days ago. There were about 4 prospective students and assorted family members, and then a group of maybe 10-12 prospective students with one adult who were part of a tour (it was evident from materials they were carrying). These 12 girls talked loudly the entire time; H and I had to repeatedly stare them down and at one point each of us said to them, “Ladies, you really have to keep it down, we can’t hear the tour guide.” Even the students who were right next to the tour guide couldn’t hear her, these girls were so loud. They spoke in another language so I am not privy to what they were talking about, but it did not appear to be related to discussions of the campus or buildings. At one point, our tour guide and a different tour guide stopped at different ends of a big hall and our tour guide asked if we had any questions. These girls started waving at their friends with the other tour guide and the tour guide thought they were raising their hands to ask questions, so she asked what their questions were. “Oh, nothing” and then they continued to wave and giggle. They didn’t even have the decency to recognize that they were being rude and disrespectful. They were classless boors and really made the tour an unpleasant experience for the rest of us. Have the decency to keep the conversation to a minimum and at a low voice so that everyone can hear the tour guide. This isn’t the time to play giggly girl. Save it for the bus.</p>