A typical Friday night in the West End warzone: an actor, in the middl…
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작성자 Maira 작성일04-18본문
A typical Friday night in the West End warzone: an actor, in the middle of an emotional scene from hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, has stormed off stage for a second time as a fight breaks out halfway down a row of seats in the auditorium.
Ushers scurry in to eject the combatants.
Members of the audience crane their necks to see the action.
This is not the show we paid for — but it's the kind of drama that has become wearily familiar to me.
I've sat through the annoying: like the man who, last week, kicked my chair in time with my favourite songs at the .
And the downright dangerous: ushers suffering physical abuse as they tried to calm crowds.
Just a week or so ago, police were called to a ‘mini riot' at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where The Bodyguard — a so-called ‘jukebox musical' featuring the songs of Whitney Houston — was playing.
Just a week or so ago, police were called to a ‘mini riot' at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where The Bodyguard — a so-called ‘jukebox musical' featuring the songs of Whitney Houston — was playing
There was trouble from the off, when a handful of people who wouldn't keep quiet had to be ejected during the first scene
There was trouble from the off, when a handful of people who wouldn't keep quiet .
.
Videos of two women being ejected by security went viral and Thornton put out a message on Instagram the following day, apologising for having to abandon the performance and saying that she had ‘fought very hard' to continue singing, but that it had been impossible.
It was unsafe.
All of which begs the question: do the producers of these popular musicals have only themselves to blame?
Earlier this year, The Stage reported that the Ambassador Theatre Group was working with producers to tone down advertising campaigns that could encourage rowdy behaviour, such as posters boasting that a show is ‘the best party in town' or gets the audience ‘dancing in the aisles'.
As a theatre critic — occasionally reviewing for the Daily Mail — I probably don't see the worst of it, as I usually attend Press nights when the audience includes various critics and often the cast's family and friends.
But I go to the theatre frequently enough to know that crowd behaviour is often shockingly bad.
A typical Friday night in the West End warzone: an actor, in the middle of an emotional scene from hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, has stormed off stage for a second time as a fight breaks out halfway down a row of seats in the auditorium
When I took my mother to see Jersey Boys for her birthday last year, Frankie Valli's falsetto was drowned out by the audience's tuneless howling.
One star recently tweeted: ‘It's hard enough trying to pitch the final word of My Eyes Adored You without 30 people trying to get in before me.'
And at an Oxford performance of , we moved seats to escape a man who was not only chattering throughout but also, inexplicably, playing air piano.
I'm told that more and more ushers are wearing body cameras and having to learn de-escalation techniques, such as keeping their tone and body language neutral, as they deal with increasingly combative audiences and vile abuse.
A new survey from the Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) reveals that almost 90 per cent of theatre staff have witnessed bad behaviour, with more than 70 per cent saying it had worsened since the pandemic lockdowns.
Almost a third said their venue had been forced to call the police at least once.
I felt something had changed post-Covid when, at one of the first shows I saw after theatres were allowed to reopen, a theatregoer cornered an usher to yell about a minor mig8vn point of dissatisfaction.
It struck me that people had lost their respect for normal social rules when it came to interacting with others after months of being stuck at home.
Many appear to have adopted a ‘living-room mentality' — forgetting they are surrounded by fellow human beings rather than relaxing on their own sofas.
I've watched, horrified, as people have taken off their shoes and socks and rested their feet on the back of the seat in front of them — or, God forbid, the stage.
Some noisily devour three-course picnics, put drinks and coats on the ledge of the orchestra pit above appalled musicians, or scroll through social media on their mobile phones.
Is there anything more annoying than the glow of someone's phone in front of you during a performance?
The constant stimulation provided by social media is giving people such short attention spans they can't even get to the interval without checking their feeds.
A performance of The Bodyguard was stopped early after audience members sparked chaos
Ushers scurry in to eject the combatants.
Members of the audience crane their necks to see the action.
This is not the show we paid for — but it's the kind of drama that has become wearily familiar to me.
I've sat through the annoying: like the man who, last week, kicked my chair in time with my favourite songs at the .
And the downright dangerous: ushers suffering physical abuse as they tried to calm crowds.
Just a week or so ago, police were called to a ‘mini riot' at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where The Bodyguard — a so-called ‘jukebox musical' featuring the songs of Whitney Houston — was playing.
Just a week or so ago, police were called to a ‘mini riot' at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where The Bodyguard — a so-called ‘jukebox musical' featuring the songs of Whitney Houston — was playing
There was trouble from the off, when a handful of people who wouldn't keep quiet had to be ejected during the first scene
There was trouble from the off, when a handful of people who wouldn't keep quiet .
.
Videos of two women being ejected by security went viral and Thornton put out a message on Instagram the following day, apologising for having to abandon the performance and saying that she had ‘fought very hard' to continue singing, but that it had been impossible.
It was unsafe.
All of which begs the question: do the producers of these popular musicals have only themselves to blame?
Earlier this year, The Stage reported that the Ambassador Theatre Group was working with producers to tone down advertising campaigns that could encourage rowdy behaviour, such as posters boasting that a show is ‘the best party in town' or gets the audience ‘dancing in the aisles'.
As a theatre critic — occasionally reviewing for the Daily Mail — I probably don't see the worst of it, as I usually attend Press nights when the audience includes various critics and often the cast's family and friends.
But I go to the theatre frequently enough to know that crowd behaviour is often shockingly bad.
A typical Friday night in the West End warzone: an actor, in the middle of an emotional scene from hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, has stormed off stage for a second time as a fight breaks out halfway down a row of seats in the auditorium
When I took my mother to see Jersey Boys for her birthday last year, Frankie Valli's falsetto was drowned out by the audience's tuneless howling.
One star recently tweeted: ‘It's hard enough trying to pitch the final word of My Eyes Adored You without 30 people trying to get in before me.'
And at an Oxford performance of , we moved seats to escape a man who was not only chattering throughout but also, inexplicably, playing air piano.
I'm told that more and more ushers are wearing body cameras and having to learn de-escalation techniques, such as keeping their tone and body language neutral, as they deal with increasingly combative audiences and vile abuse.
A new survey from the Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) reveals that almost 90 per cent of theatre staff have witnessed bad behaviour, with more than 70 per cent saying it had worsened since the pandemic lockdowns.
Almost a third said their venue had been forced to call the police at least once.
I felt something had changed post-Covid when, at one of the first shows I saw after theatres were allowed to reopen, a theatregoer cornered an usher to yell about a minor mig8vn point of dissatisfaction.
It struck me that people had lost their respect for normal social rules when it came to interacting with others after months of being stuck at home.
Many appear to have adopted a ‘living-room mentality' — forgetting they are surrounded by fellow human beings rather than relaxing on their own sofas.
I've watched, horrified, as people have taken off their shoes and socks and rested their feet on the back of the seat in front of them — or, God forbid, the stage.
Some noisily devour three-course picnics, put drinks and coats on the ledge of the orchestra pit above appalled musicians, or scroll through social media on their mobile phones.
Is there anything more annoying than the glow of someone's phone in front of you during a performance?
The constant stimulation provided by social media is giving people such short attention spans they can't even get to the interval without checking their feeds.
A performance of The Bodyguard was stopped early after audience members sparked chaos
