Maybe it’s a sign of getting old and crotchety but last night I attended the show Faith Healer at the Booth Theatre and I was extremely annoyed at the audience. I’m all for theatre for the masses - I firmly believe that shows should be reasonably priced in order for more folks to be able to attend - but please, how about a little decorum? How about making a little effort?

Here’s a list of audience participation that got me riled up:

1. Cell phone going off half way through the performance.
2. Person behind me loudly crumpling a water bottle.
3. Folks all around opening and rustling candy wrappers.
4. People talking during the performance.
5. Someone in back rifling through papers and dropping them on the floor.

Not that this made me angry, but do folks not dress up for the theatre anymore? I’m not expecting formal wear or black tie, hell, not even a suit and tie but geez, the guy next to me was in cut off shorts and then proceeded to take off his trainers. And a majority of the crowd was super casual - I know, I know, that’s how it used to be in ye olde days. Of course it doesn’t distract from the performance and I’m happy that these folks are at the theatre but it always seemed to me that going to the theatre was a special night out and you made an effort to look nice.

Ah well, enough of my rant! Review of Faith Healer to follow.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.