London audiences are out of control

[Simon G]

My favourite was Desperately Seeking Susan. It was a musical of the 1984 film which also happened to be Madonna's acting debut set to... the musical hits of Blondie.

I don't know what they were smoking when they came up with that one. But it kind of disappeared almost as soon as it opened.

And a few years ago in London there was another musical that closed as soon as it opened called Leonardo. About, yes, you guessed it Leonardo Da Vinci. It became infamous for it's lyrics, one being and I swear I'm not making this up...

mille grazie, up your arsey

[dirac]

It became infamous for it's lyrics, one being and I swear I'm not making this up...

mille grazie, up your arsey

Sondheim must have been pea green with envy.

(And you're right, Alexandra, I suppose I was picking nits a bit.)

[Alexandra]

Nit picking is part of spirited discourse

I think one example of the genre (Simon gave us above) is fine, but I hope this thread will not turn into a list of naughty bits from the contemporary repertory

Regarding "Leonardo," maybe it was for similar reasons that Cromwell closed the theaters!

[Anthony_NYC]

I'm still thinking about the alcohol issue. Are London theaters this article actually allowing it to be brought into the auditorium, or are they just ignoring it? Is this widespread in London nowadays? Is it going on in New York City or the other big American theater towns?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe most Broadway theaters do now allow the audience to bring beverages back to their seats with them. The alcohol only bothers me in that I can find the smell of a good gin terribly distracting in a warm theater. But ice! They must ban ice, or serve only martinis.

[bart]

About, yes, you guessed it Leonardo Da Vinci. It became infamous for it's lyrics, one being and I swear I'm not making this up...

mille grazie, up your arsey

This may not be what it sounds like. I belleve that the Arsey (or Arsi) is a little-known tributary of the Arno. To sail "up our [not "your"] Arsi" was a pleasant and quite respectable way for Florentines to spend a Sunday afternoon. They usually brought their Bibles and other elevating literature and nibbled low-calorie health foods.

(Of course, I'll believe almost anything. )

[Helene]

Alberta Ballet follows "The Fiddle and the Drum" -- which will be part of the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver in February -- with "ELTON" next May:

http://www.albertaballet.com/page/elton/1000552

[Alexandra]

And there were Peter Schaufuss's ballets about Elvins ("The King!") and Princess Diana. That one died a quiet death in Birmingham, if I remember correctly, on its way to London. On third thought, perhaps drinking WOULD help

[bart]

How ae theaters coping on Broadway? An update from the Steven McElroy in the (Steven McElroy): "Act I, Scene I: The Cellphone Must Not Go On."

Making silly preshow messages isn’t even necessarily fun for those presenting the show. “You would think after all this time people would walk into the theater with their cellphones turned off,” said Robert Falls, who directed a 1999 “Death of a Salesman” that made news when its star, Brian Dennehy, told an audience member to please just answer an incessantly chirping phone. But Mr. Falls acknowledged that it had become necessary in recent years to put more time into the announcement whether a director likes it or not. “It’s ridiculous, and I’m not even sure if it’s effective,” he said.

Mr. Sklar-Heyn concurred: “You ask anybody in the industry, and the preshow announcement is a slight nuisance to any creative team. Directors want the first moment to be the production and not a voice-over in the audience.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/theater/...e.html?ref=arts

[Moderator beanie on.) I altered the title of this thread, which original mentioned only London. This is a larger problem, and the posts have been coming in from all over. Now it reads: "London audiences are out of control -- and it's not only London."

[papeetepatrick]

Interesting article, although I can't believe anybody would write 'heavy New Yawk accent' (the pronunciation in the accent he's referring to is more like 'Noo Yoh-ak', and nobody ever writes that, but nobody ever says 'New Yawk' except out-of-towners or in the song 'New Yawk State of Mind'..

Surprised how involved they've gotten with this issue of the announcement (unless it's just ineffective, and I have found that ringing cellphones have gotten noticeably worse over the last couple of years.). the anouncement is necessary, and should probably be louder and more aggressive to make sure it's really paid attention to. there's no way the message can be gotten across with gentle means--all very charming what they did in 'Our Town', but it comes as little surprise that it wasn't so effective. I like Bill T. jones's idea, though, if it worked (do we know if it did? if so, posters do sound nicer than announcements, but they could be forgotten a lot more easily too.)

Actors stopping and lecturing the offenders is good. They should do as much as they need of it if the announcements don't work. As for 'wanting the atmosphere not to be ruined by an announcement', I don't see that it even does so; after all, you've just come from the outside world, which has nothing to do with the theater, and, with some exceptions, the theater is not yet the play before it starts (except as in Jones's 'nightclub', but in most theater it's just the usual audience chatter and milling around). The cellphones really are disturbing, but I never would have thought of the announcment as being the least so. It's just a necessity, and even announcements of understudies are not always welcome, but I dont' find that they 'interrupt mood' before something has even started.

Anyway, there is other noise, and actors have let audiences have it for that. When Katharine Hepburn did 'Coco' on Broadway, some audience member was making a lot of noise talking, and she stopped and gave a lecture about 'I'm trying to WORK!', which would have been a moment to savour, and I bet it was longer and more memorable then Dennehy's or the other actor mentioned in the article.