Rose’s Turn: Patti LuPone Responds to ArtsBeat

she gets an A+.

Although Patti LuPone is a taste I have never acquired, I am with her on this one. I would add two things: (1) Ms. LuPone notes that the item drew 47 comments but not that not all of them sided with her – an omission that does not invalidate her point, but should be noted; (2) the commenter on the original item who noted that the ushers need additional training is correct. It should further be printed on the ticket, and audience members should be advised at the time of purchase and again just before the show, that the management has the absolute right to eject offenders, and if need be their entire party, at any time during the show, without refunds. And management should follow through. Period. This rudeness persists because the offenders are allowed to get away with it!

You go girl!

I have to agree with Ms. Lupone on this one. She is a performer of great distinction (her performance in Sweeney Todd on Broadway was electrifying) and shouldn’t have to contend with this type of boorishness. I attended a Taj Mahal concert at the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York ,as part of the wonderful jazz festival held here each year and the man in the seat in front of me viedotaped the entire performance with a small camera/video recorder. In an otherwise dark theater, the light from the monitor was distracting. Concert goers should leave their electronic devices at home or shut them off during the performances. If they feel it is their god-given right to take photographs, they should dispense with the flash and the monitor to mimimize the imposition on others. Simple courtesy……..
DOB

Good for you Patti. I have at times been amazed at the lack of respect these losers have for the performers and other audience members. The house managers and ushers need to come on stronger at the beginning and let people know they will be asked to leave if they can’t behave. When confronted with rude partrons, the performers (and audience members themselves) have a right, perhaps a duty, to call them out.

Brava. That ‘s why I’ve stopped going to the movies. Manners are still better in the theatre since people have paid more for the ticket.

i wish more performers would stop their shows and chastise these rude, boorish offenders who threaten to destroy public entertainment for the rest of us.

i rarely go to concerts anymore because i find it difficult to see (and i’m 6′ 3″) above the hundreds of outstretched arms intent on capturing what they are witnessing with a cellphone camera. sadly, they are not really experiencing the performance they are hell-bent on archiving electronically.

not to mention movies which i no longer attend either. the idea that people think it absolutely normal (and their inherent right) to make and receive telephone calls during a film is the height of abhorrent behavior.

and, as ms. lupone points out, even the ghastly glow of these electronic devices is distracting and unsettling. i recently attended a children’s dance performance and while she never made a sound, the incessant glow from the cellphone of the woman sitting next to me served to distract me from the joy of seeing my granddaughter on stage.

and lest readers think i’m some old grandparent, i’m a very young 49 and still regularly attend concerts at clubs such as the fillmore at irving plaza, the bowery ballroom and so on.

unless of course, there is a strong indication it will be marred by the insensitive, selfish behavior of my fellow attendees.

Welcome to the club. College profs have been putting up with this BS for the better part of a decade.

I paid my money, and I’ll do damn well what I please as an audience member. If I want to talk or tape or film, ehtier out in the open or sereptitiously I will do it. Look back at the days of Shakespeare when the audience participated in conversation, and now we have prima donnas who strut like a Perez Hilton on a stage acting as they want and feeling immune from appropriate reaction. Here’s what I will do in the future, I will have eggs and rotten vegatables with me and I will offer you a serving it you confront me, ot if you demonstrate haughty aires on a stage that I am financially supporting.

Stay home. Or turn off yr electronic toys. If you’re too important, in yr opinion, not to turn off the toys, then amuse yourself in private.

What a woman!
Love to Ms. LuPone (from a huge fan).

Since cell phones are accidentally turned on fairly easily, people should simply not bring cell phones into theaters, churches, etc. Anyone who needs truly to be on call should not go to the theater that night at that time.

(Also, there is a market for cell phones that are incapable of ringing — ever. I would love to buy a cell phone that has only two ring options: silent and vibrate. Does anyone know of such a phone?)