Changes in Audiences?

[MaybeMaybeNot]

I am wondering if anyone is noticing a change in audience behavior,  or if it is just an L.A. phenomenon. In the last few years,  I find myself seated near people who think they are watching Netflix at home.  There is frequent talking and sometimes food wrapper crinkling, sometimes singing along. When it happens, it is just very hard for me to hear and focus. The Ahmanson has been fine,  but it happens frequently at the Pantages 

During the last stop of Les Miz, the idiot behind me who had been chatty periodically during the first Act, returned late for Act 2. She had to walk in front of me (in the front row), to get to her seat. Fine, it happens. But then she had to tell all her friends what a shitshow the theatre was (hint: Lady, it's not the theatre), then they passed around a loud crinkly snack between them. I missed "On My Own" because it was so distracting, and, of course that is a highlight of the show.  I had already skipped the previous stop on the tour because it felt futile, and I should have just skipped again. 

I have already reduced my attendance of tours because of it.  I am sort of wondering if I just throw in the towel. These are expensive experiences for me, and I don't like having my memory of a show being how distracted I was.

Are people noticing this in other cities? How are audiences on Broadway?

I did email the Pantages four years ago or so, asking them to include a reminder that talking is distracting when they do the pre-show announcements. I was told the pre-show announcements are from the producers, and they can't do anything about it. However, they acknowledged that is been a problem since Covid, particularly in the movie tie-in titles.

[TonyDown]

There was a viral video of a man that went off during intermission at a group of young women at Mama Mia in NYC, due to their outrageous behavior.

Here in LA I hesitate to attend events as much as I used to.

I dread how people behave at the theater and symphony, not to mention cell phones going off.  During Eddie Izzard's Hamlet, an audience member took a call and carried on his phone conversation as he strolled up the aisle to the lobby.

The Hollywood Bowl is often a bunch of drunks not terribly interested in decorum.

IMO it's a different world now, left to the young. Let them deal with it.