Is there something that drives you crazy when you go to the theater?
Reader Richard Young is annoyed when audience members laugh inappropriately at big dramatic moments. “I’m involved with the plot, suspending disbelief, and someone cackles at something not even remotely funny. Then everyone thinks they have to laugh.”
Young asked for an opinion from Playhouse chief Ed Stern who said the actors love the laughter in dramas because they interpret it as making someone feel uncomfortable with the material, the result being that nervous laugh.
I’m sure the actors are right – they’ve made the audience members uncomfortable, and yes, Young is right, too, that can pull you right out of the moment. At least you know it’s live theater.
I remember a zillion years ago when actor Burt Reynolds had just posed nude in a women’s magazine – Cosmopolitan? -- and was appearing in summer stock. The ladies’ catcalls were pretty outrageous in what I recall was a decent production of “The Rainmaker.”
When the gals didn’t quiet down for one of co-star Lois Nettleton’s big scenes, Reynolds stopped the show, came to the front of the stage and scolded them. It was a great moment.
And sometimes no reaction is just as bad as inappropriate reaction. I few years ago, when Playhouse was producing “Gypsy,” cast members were taken aback at the lack of reaction from the audience. (The subject came up, emphatically, at an after-party.)
When it’s live theater, the performers gotta feel the love.
The first time I saw “The Producers,” in it’s pre-Broadway Chicago run, the buzz in the audience for the 15 minutes leading up to curtain reminded me why Chicago is known as a theater town. The anticipation caught up the entire crowd. In Chicago, theater is an event.
The communion between artists and audience was just magical at that matinee.
Before we go back to pet peeves – do you have any favorite personal experiences at the theater, the good, the bad, the ugly? If you’ve told it at a dinner party – tell it here!
Okay, here’s my pet peeve: I want to join the cell phone police.
It’s bad enough when a cell phone rings, but I have been in theaters when the audience member takes the call. Beyond belief. I am all for confiscation.
Jackie Demaline
