TOD: I have been driven out of movie theatres because of people bringing their living-room/TV manners there. This has not quite happened in the theatre yet. But there are a few disturbing trends that I see occurring there. I've yet to see people hawking snacks in the aisle yet, but I'm always a bit edgy when someone is threading through a precarious aisle behind me holding a glass of red wine, wondering when that glass is going to slosh that stainable beverage on my sports coat. The fact that most of Broadway has become tourist trap musicals or disguised rock concerts, I could see why they might have started selling crap in the aisle.
Though I have often relaxed my own dress standards somewhat in recent years when going to the theatre, I still insist on at least nice slacks, shoes, and shirt...usually still a sports coat, even if no tie. I just like to think there are still some occasions special enough to dress up for. When I've seen people show up at funeral visitations in T-shirts and shorts, this casual dress in the theatre does not surprise me.
Food and drink in the theatre I could live without, but something like bottled water (with a cap) doesn't bother me too much.
Much more disturbing to me than dress and food issues are electronic gizmo issues and ignorance. I hate people who can't turn their bloody phones off for a few hours and are constantly checking them right up to curtain, flicking them on at intermission, and, of course, worse is seeing the those little square patches of light during a performances and in some cases recording the show with them. I'm a defender of any actor who stops a show to rail at this rudeness to performers and audience to castigate these offenders with the appropriate humiliation and shame they deserve. We have the technology to block phone signals and should use them in theatres, movie houses, restaurants, and churches. How someone can pay a $100 bucks or so for a ticket to something and not give it their undivided attention is beyond me.
I also hate the phenomenon of the utterly undeserved standing ovation. Pure audience ignorance. They think if the performers just show up, they deserve a standing ovation. Nor am I fond of the audience applauding every bloody blackout. It's like applauding the end of a movement of a symphony. Wait till the intermission or the end of the play and don't interrupt the narrative flow. Yes, there are those moments where a performer has done such a great turn, he deserves exit applause, but...like a standing ovation...they are few and far between. Of course, part of the problems of blackout applause is often bad directing, where a director is unable to keep his play moving...particularly in classics like Shakespeare where, rather than have one scene starting even as one is exiting, they have a blackout or a lull, giving the audience a chance to fill that empty moment with unnecessary applause (and thereby adding time to what is probably an already long show).
I know nothing about New York audiences, but I have generally found British audiences better behaved, more knowledgeable, and attentive than American audiences. The rudest audience members I seen in Britain are usually foreigners, mostly Americans...though there are several Europeans who could bathe before they come to the theatre.
