Chatterboxes and Worse

[+ Lucky]

Last night I attended a live concert of music. In my town, it is the norm for people to talk during a movie, especially old folks. The kids are on their cell phones. But don't you go to a concert to LISTEN? I didn't pay to hear the seatmates sing! I usually shut my mouth, but every once in a while, I ask them to pipe down.

Here's another take from the NY Daily News:

Theatergoers are

changing coarse

 

By JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ

DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER

 

 

'I would have gone home crying. But that's the theater.' — Julianna Margulies

 

The theater has always had ushers.

 

What it needs now is referees.

 

Thanks to rude behavior of fellow patrons, audiences are mad as hell - and not going to take it anymore.

 

Instead, they're taking matters into their own hands. It's vigilantism, Broadway-style.

 

After Friday night's performance of "Festen," Off-Broadway producer Michael Duling, 24, confronted two men seated behind him who'd "commented loudly" during the show, effectively polluting the experience.

 

The men, Duling reported on the theater chat site talkinbroadway.com, yelled at the stage, "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!" during veteran stage actor Larry Bryggman's climactic speech. Julianna Margulies, who was in the scene, Duling noted, "did not look [too] happy."

 

And she wasn't.

 

"Larry handled it beautifully, but I would have been mortified," says Margulies, who is making her Broadway debut. "I would have gone home crying. But that's the theater."

 

At the curtain call, Duling "got up, ran downstairs," he reported, "found them and told them off."

 

Near fisticuffs at "Festen," a drama about a troubled family, is just the latest instance of vigilantism. Two weeks ago, at "The Most Happy Fella," a woman who arrived after the show began set off another patron, who caused such a ruckus during intermission that security was called.

 

"She was LATE! Who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheba?" shrieked the most unhappy patron.

 

"People have just gotten ruder and cruder," says Sam Rudy, a longtime theater publicist.

 

New York City psychologist Bonnie Jacobson, who specializes in group dynamics, describes the situation as "an epidemic breakdown of boundaries. People have completely lost sight of what personal boundaries are."

 

Last season, an audience member who made a rude comment at "The Paris Letter" was doused with water by another theatergoer. Add another mask to comedy and tragedy - a scuba mask.

 

"My dad used to take me to the theater, and we'd get all dressed up," says Margulies. "There was a respect. Now, people don't know that they shouldn't put their feet up on stage."

 

Or, worse, throw their voices up there.

 

Originally published on March 28, 2006

[Guest alanm]

Here is the quote from Tom and Michael on their "Festen" experience.

My guess is that "caddy" means catty.

 

 

"I think I enjoyed the show. Hard to tell because I was in attendence with one of the most bizarre audiences I've ever seen. The two older caddy gay gentlemen behind me felt it appropriate to comment LOUDLY about everything...for example a fairly skinny, but curvy, girl has a line "Am I too skinny" and the audience member replies "ha...too skinny!" in a sarcastic tone. Fine, seen stuff like that before. He then proceeds to crinkle his program for the rest of the act directly behind us.

 

Act Two begins with a new character entering into an empty room saying "Hello" and probably 1/4 of the audience, in unison, reply back "Hello". Then every one giggled. Bizarre.

 

Then, the backdrop hit the table and the show had to stop for about 3 minutes. Too bad, because the momentum of the show was really building...it was an intense moment. The older caddy gay men behinnd (I would write "queens" but don't want to get myself into trouble) kept saying things louldy about the "computer generated set". The audience seemed very confused by the hold up, but the show started again...

 

In the climax of the show, during a quiet and interesting monologue one of the men behind me YELLED, "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I have NEVER heard of such a thing. The poor actor stopped, took a breath, and continued...slightly louder. Julianna Marguiles did not look to happy as she glared out into the audience. I would too...rude rude rude men.

 

I did't stay for the curtain call because as soon as th elights came back up I turned around and the men were gone...so I got up, ran down stairs, found them, and told them off.

 

It was, by far, the most bizarre night I've ever had in the theater. The men behind me, the technical glitches (no biggie), and the audience calling back a the beginning of act two...so wierd."

[Guest zipperzone]

My pet bitch is the rude people who talk during a movie. I find it is most often a group of about 4 or 5 middle aged women out for a "girl's night out". They rustle their cellophane candy bags, dive into their humungus sized popcorn containers and loudly discuss every aspect of the film.

 

I have absolutely no qualms about turning around and telling them in a very loud voice "Shut the fuck up". Once usually works, but if it doesn't I say it louder - usually they get the message.

[indyeric]

What I can't stand is people who go to a classical music concert and then whisper or noisily turn the pages of their program. This has happened to me at both Carnege Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.

 

--Eric