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Post by basi1faw1ty on Jul 28, 2018 17:38:43 GMT
Matinee of Titanic the Musical at the Alhambra. Had a phone go off playing the BBC News alert jingle/noise at the start of act 2, due to a man not being quick enough turning his phone off. His wife/sister/carer/whoever it was snatched it from him looking very irate. All was fine from then on... But then a child of about 9 or 10 sat next to me began drinking very loudly. And when there was nothing left in her cup, she kept sucking on her straw, and all you could hear was this horrid gurgling noise. How can you make sucking on a straw sound so jarring? There must've been something wrong with the mother cos it took her 10 minutes to tell her to shut up. If she had continued for a second longer, I would've had to resort to using the Death StareTM. Fortunately it never got to that.
NB: Good behaviour alert! At the interval, a child on the front row started clearing up bits of paper from the floor that the actors had thrown into the audience in act 1.
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Post by richey on Jul 28, 2018 18:16:31 GMT
Mobile going off about ten mins into act two of Aspects Of Love at Hope Mill this afternoon, followed a few minutes later by a new one for me. A badly behaved delivery van right outside (very audible as Hope Mill is such a small venue) "beep...caution vehicle reversing...beep...caution.."
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2018 19:45:48 GMT
Spread back, Monkey. Some chaps don't realise they're doing it and will withdraw, sometimes you'll remain in awkward contact but at least your space is occupied by your legs, and only rarely will they actively shove to try forcing your legs into an ever smaller gap.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2018 20:10:39 GMT
Man in front of me at the Pet Shop Boys FACETIMING his friend so she could see the show.
I have now seen it all.
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Post by lynette on Jul 28, 2018 22:44:15 GMT
Phone light flashing last ten mins of the opera. Her taxi was waiting apparently she said as she pushed past us at the curtain call.
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Post by LaLuPone on Jul 28, 2018 23:01:08 GMT
Man in front of me at the Pet Shop Boys FACETIMING his friend so she could see the show. I have now seen it all. I had that at an Idina Menzel concert last year and thought the same, so bizarre!
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Post by Mr Snow on Jul 30, 2018 12:03:41 GMT
Last Friday night, how appropriate that a silent bomb was detonated in Row M of the stalls during The Lieutenant of Innishmore. The carnage and smell were awful. Mrs Snow said I hadn’t been paying attention and it was just the remains of a Pret Broccoli Cheese (and wrapping) consumed just before curtain up. But she’s wrong, two people just couldn’t create that amount of mess.
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Post by Jon on Jul 30, 2018 17:22:21 GMT
Man in front of me at the Pet Shop Boys FACETIMING his friend so she could see the show. I have now seen it all. To me, that’s the same as recording a show, the person on the other end is essentially getting to watch a concert for no charge
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 7:24:56 GMT
Man in front of me at the Pet Shop Boys FACETIMING his friend so she could see the show. I have now seen it all. To me, that’s the same as recording a show, the person on the other end is essentially getting to watch a concert for no charge Yes, although it stems from a bit of a grey area. Back before video calls I remember the excitement of friends being at gigs and asking them to call me during my favourite song. Returning the favour doing the same. It felt ok doing it then, but there is something implicitly wrong about FaceTiming an entire gig I feel. Least no ones had the gall to do it in a theatre, yet.
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Post by vdcni on Jul 31, 2018 8:03:04 GMT
Man in front of me at the Pet Shop Boys FACETIMING his friend so she could see the show. I have now seen it all. Which night was that, that might have been my husband! Though he only did it for one song. His friend is in Australia and I'm not convinced she was paying that much attention given she was getting ready to go to work!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 14:02:08 GMT
Friday night. He facetimed a lady who looked a bit unimpressed and then a guy who appeared to be in bed.
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Post by vdcni on Jul 31, 2018 15:23:03 GMT
Not him then thankfully, we were there on the Thursday.
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Post by MrsCondomine on Aug 1, 2018 10:18:19 GMT
From the ever-giving LondonTheatreDirect website:
"Motown: The Musical Customer Reviews 5 / 5 (1241 customer reviews) sally barrett 27 hours ago It was an awful experience. We were really enjoying the show until we were chucked out for clapping and cheering. Pushed out if the door, disguising behaviour be the staff." C R Y I N G How loud were they to warrant being thrown out?! How many drinks deep? There are SO MANY QUESTIONS. I feel like I should offer some really nice behaviour from Jean Brodie on Saturday - a lovely couple, letting us go past to their seats, told my friend and I we looked like we should have been two schoolgirls in the production. Nice for us, being nearly thirty (Either that or we actually look spotty and unworldly )
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Post by ctas on Aug 1, 2018 11:32:24 GMT
Bit of a night at the Old Vic on Monday. Act One a child threw up — not the bad behaviour as sometimes you just suddenly feel unwell and I’m definitely sympathetic to that — dealt with very swiftly by the front of house team but a bit distracting. Act Two was the real one though - a different couple sat by me and then proceeded to open a bag of McDonalds takeaway! Crunched their chicken nuggets and got things in and out of the noisiest paper bags ever through all the quiet emotional scenes of the play. It was so infuriating.
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Post by kimbahorel on Aug 4, 2018 16:30:59 GMT
At Broken Wings was sat 2nd from last row in stalls and there was no one in the row behind us. Then part way through Act 1 I heard this noise from behind me. It was the usher clambering around the seats doing something it looked like she was on her hands and knees. I just looked at her she sat back down.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2018 8:33:36 GMT
Not him then thankfully, we were there on the Thursday. Did you do anything to stop your husband?
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Post by theatrescribe on Aug 5, 2018 16:55:16 GMT
New one for me yesterday - guy a few rows in front gets his phone out to take a picture during climax of Exit the King (complete with illuminated glow) - guy in row behind him leans over and cuffs him in the back of the neck!
Highly enjoyable, he quickly put his phone away... Not sure if anything happened after the show though!
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Post by tcodd1 on Aug 5, 2018 17:12:28 GMT
Shrek at Milton Keynes Theatre this afternoon. Worst audience I’ve ever experienced - alright, many of the audience were children, but unsurprisingly it was the adults causing the distractions!
Was sat towards the back of the circle in the centre - great view of the show, but also annoyingly the perfect viewing point for mobile phone usage! Throughout the show, I counted 9 separate uses of phones - picture taking, texting and Whatsapping. The lady in front of me spent more time Snapchatting pictures of the show than watching it! Tapped her half way through the first act and told her to put it away. No use. Why do these people go to the theatre to use phones?!! SO infuriating! Put them away like the announcement told you to!! Ushers were non-existent and did nothing after myself and others complained...
Other problems included constant rocking and fidgeting, (causing everyone’s seats to move), talking CONSTANTLY (many of these people being parents talking over their children sat in between them), and numerous bags of goodies being opened and rustled throughout the whole show.
What has happened to theatre etiquette?!
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Post by tysilio2 on Aug 5, 2018 17:34:33 GMT
At Titanic in Liverpool on Saturday a group of 4 in front of us, 2 30something males, older man and similar woman. Drinking beer during both halves ( not a problem) fidgety and talking ( irritating but bearable). 2nd half older man falls asleep to be woken by the load bang on stage but then gets his phone out. I leant forword and asked him to 'turn it off please' then wondered if i'd done right. He did put it away but i got a bit of a glare apparently especially at the curtain call.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2018 19:48:23 GMT
After not having a great week having ended up in hospital with a water infection, I decided to treat myself to seeing Matilda at the Birmingham Hippodrome last night. It was an amazing show but some of it was clearly spoiled by a child with issues which kept shouting out. The child was a bit better when the show started but seemed to shout out in virtually every number, he was shushed a few times by numerous people including me as well as more quietly by his parents.
The child obviously had issues and they say we should make allowances but is it any different to someone turning up drunk who may be an alcoholic as that is classed as a disease. Plus seeing children perform so remarkably probably made this child's actions more noticeable and the tickets weren't cheap I paid £65 so lots of the families there would have spent over £200.
The child was taken out by his family with about 30 minutes to go plus there was a near fight in the bar over queue jumping at the interval.
I wish there was an easy solution to people with issues attending shows - it helps their development especially children but should a lot of others have their enjoyment spoiled by one person who sadly cannot help their actions. I almost wondered if they could listen to a show through headphones whether it might help them.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 7:34:29 GMT
After not having a great week having ended up in hospital with a water infection, I decided to treat myself to seeing Matilda at the Birmingham Hippodrome last night. It was an amazing show but some of it was clearly spoiled by a child with issues which kept shouting out. The child was a bit better when the show started but seemed to shout out in virtually every number, he was shushed a few times by numerous people including me as well as more quietly by his parents. The child obviously had issues and they say we should make allowances but is it any different to someone turning up drunk who may be an alcoholic as that is classed as a disease. Plus seeing children perform so remarkably probably made this child's actions more noticeable and the tickets weren't cheap I paid £65 so lots of the families there would have spent over £200. The child was taken out by his family with about 30 minutes to go plus there was a near fight in the bar over queue jumping at the interval. I wish there was an easy solution to people with issues attending shows - it helps their development especially children but should a lot of others have their enjoyment spoiled by one person who sadly cannot help their actions. I almost wondered if they could listen to a show through headphones whether it might help them. The occurrence of 'accessible' or 'relaxed' performance seems to be increasing. They aren't regular though, so for a family to attend sometimes doesn't work. Also without knowing what 'issues' the child has (I'd assume ADHD from your description) it could be that the family choose not to accept it as a limiting disability and persevere with 'regular' events to try maintain some normality.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 8:13:41 GMT
A lot of theatres have posted videos on YouTube to help children with autism, ADHD etc prepare for going to the theatre. I’ve watched quite a few of them and I think they work really well. They’re informative about the particular theatre and I think could be helpful.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 18:43:08 GMT
The occurrence of 'accessible' or 'relaxed' performance seems to be increasing. They aren't regular though, so for a family to attend sometimes doesn't work. Also without knowing what 'issues' the child has (I'd assume ADHD from your description) it could be that the family choose not to accept it as a limiting disability and persevere with 'regular' events to try maintain some normality. The child was mentally and physically disabled so it could have been very severe autism.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 18:45:47 GMT
Relaxed performances are good ideas but if you get a lot of people with similar conditions especially children all together wouldn't they likely disturb, annoy, distress each other.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 19:21:14 GMT
Wow.. Despite my forum name, I'm not sure I'd have the balls to shush a mentally and physically disabled child.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 23:41:24 GMT
Wow.. Despite my forum name, I'm not sure I'd have the balls to shush a mentally and physically disabled child. Most of the time, I don’t even shush out of fear of making more noise shushing than the person making the noise. I just give person an angry look mainly, but if the person was physically/mentally disabled I wouldn’t do it.
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Post by Lemansky on Aug 8, 2018 8:34:27 GMT
We were surrounded by people talking at Les Mis last night. One lot stopped after being shushed twice, but the others continued throughout, it was incredibly distracting.
We also had some latecomers arrive after the show started and when they got into their seats (middle of the row of course)they realised that they were one seat short as a lady had come from further back and taken one of the seats. Amazingly it took a little while to get her to move, and of course when she did leave she disrupted the whole row again.
I also have to admit to some bad behaviour on my part. My phone has been playing up this week, problems with the battery I think, but I definitely turned it off before the show started. During Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I heard a familiar noise and realised with horror that one of my reminders had gone off. Luckily during the applause I managed to turn the phone off again, but I did sit there completely mortified for the rest of the show! No idea how it turned itself back on again, but I think I'll have to take the precaution of putting it on silent and flight mode before switching off from now on.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Aug 8, 2018 16:57:48 GMT
Les Mis last night. Loads of distracting talking but worst of all during the middle of Empty Chairs someones phone went off. Had the embarrassed look of 'I turned that phone off' but a real school boy error eh
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Post by Lemansky on Aug 9, 2018 9:58:08 GMT
Les Mis last night. Loads of distracting talking but worst of all during the middle of Empty Chairs someones phone went off. Had the embarrassed look of 'I turned that phone off' but a real school boy error eh Ha! Obviously the only thing to do is to ditch the phone completely from now on. My husband did say that I had to go on a month theatre ban due to my carelessness!
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Post by showgirl on Aug 9, 2018 12:56:56 GMT
Les Mis last night. Loads of distracting talking but worst of all during the middle of Empty Chairs someones phone went off. Had the embarrassed look of 'I turned that phone off' but a real school boy error eh Ha! Obviously the only thing to do is to ditch the phone completely from now on. My husband did say that I had to go on a month theatre ban due to my carelessness! Or you could go on a one-month husband ban due to his unsupportive and unsympathetic response?
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