Clapping too soon

Definitely not new, it's been driving me mad for years.

Whooping at “riffs” can go in the bin too.

It's when people start cheering when a song begins we'll know it's gone too far.

Does anyone remember the fanatical Ramin fan? Once when I was at Les Mis he leapt to his feet cheering after Bring Him Home and was rewarded by some very odd looks from the cast. I think they knew him.

I remember him and can confirm the cast knew him and he was not very popular amongst them.

That bit at the end of Phantom when Meg is on stage alone and picks up the mask usually fools a few audience members into applauding too early.

How nice to find like-minded folk! It irks me too.

Of course, it's nowt compared to the good ol' USA, where entrances are greeted with rapture, as is every intro the audience recognises, and mid-song clapping is de rigeur.
Soon enough, the lead will only have to fart loudly or flash a wink for the front stalls to erupt.

I know I'm in a minority, especially amongst general theatre goers, but I honestly don't understand why anyone needs to clap until the end of the show. Nobody claps a soliloquy in a play, and I find it breaks the mood and the suspension of disbelief. It isn't a concert - a song in a musical is part of a a composite whole, not a stand alone item. But I'm aware that this just makes me sound grumpy!

A lot of songs have "buttons" to inform the audience its over and folk should now clap. Although folk now just clap whenever.

Generally, I'm in favour of removing the button and trying to have one continual drama. Also, it means a much shorter performance.

I heard cheering at start of songs at &Juliet .... although this behavior does seem to be more at jukebox musicals where an audience member is trying to show off that they recognize the song.  

I was going to mention buttons and ovations. The majority of buttons come organically through previews. The audience doesn’t applaud when they should, so let’s move on swiftly. I’ve sat through some very awkward “ovation holds” as the audience stare back at them blankly!

A button is basically an extra note played at the end of the song to accentuate the fact it's over. I'm a Follies fan if it wasn't already painfully obvious and since it's full of pastiche of a certain era which was full of buttons there's some great examples to be found there: Beautiful Girls, Don't Look at Me and Waiting for the Girls Upstairs all have them if you want some clear examples. They're just there to tell the audience, "Okay, now you can applaud!"

Lots of buttons in 'old school' musicals - Anything Goes and My Fair Lady are good examples.
I LOVE THIS THREAD!
Agree with lots already raised - who are these persistent clappers in the audience, arms ready, hands on standby, ready to start a clap before it peters out? "Johnny Be Good" in BTTF and "Took the words right out my mouth" in BOOH are my two pet hates for clapping, especially as the instigators are usually well lubed up by then.
Plus, at BTTF I had two annoying folk directly in front of me doing that really annoying "there's a punchline here so I'm going to laugh just ever so slightly too early because I know its coming" and thus ruin it for EVERYBODY else who might be seeing the show for the first time.
I hate these feckers.

I've heard that Sondheim and Styne deliberately - and against their better judgement, from a dramatic/character POV - put a button on the end of Rose's Turn in Gypsy, because if the audience didn't get to clap, they'd be worried that they wouldn't focus on the following scene. So I really do understand that I'm in a minority, but I'm also the kind of person who watches a film credits through to the end in the cinema and then likes to sit in silence for a bit before gradually 'waking up' back to the real world. In other words, I like to get totally immersed in something and hate having anything remind me that it is an artificial experience. I'm delighted, though, that people enjoy themselves so much at the theatre and want to express it. that's a lovely thing!