| Earliest audience snoozing ever? | |
| Posted by: | TimDunleavy 09:30 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| Opening scene of TALES FROM RED VIENNA at Manhattan Theatre Club this afternoon: two people enter a dark, shadowy room in silence. The only sound is the tick-tock of a grandfather clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock... Then, after 30 seconds of tick-tock, the man sitting behind me starts SNORING. I kid you not. They don't call it the Manhattan Theatre Convalescent Home for nothing. | |
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| re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? | |
| Posted by: | portenopete 09:57 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Earliest audience snoozing ever? - TimDunleavy 09:30 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| I frequently see people asleep in the front rows as the Act I curtain RISES! At that point you can't really take it personally. If they're silent, then what's the problem? I prefer it to fidgety, obviously bored patrons who do all they can to let you and their fellow audience members know that they are NOT enjoying themselves. I have now reached the age where I am starting to nod off if the show doesn't rivet me from the first moment. And my problem is....I DO snore! I got kicked at a movie last year. Quite justifiably :). | |
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| re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? | |
| Posted by: | lowwriter 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
| In reply to: | Earliest audience snoozing ever? - TimDunleavy 09:30 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| Last night at Anthony and Cleopatra at the Public a man behind my row came at the last minute and proceeded to snore off and on throughout Act One. He left at intermission. Now I know someone will want to write that they don't blame him for falling asleep but I found the show more engaging than I expected. | |
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| re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? | |
| Posted by: | twocents 12:19 pm EDT 03/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? - lowwriter 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| When will people learn to drink coffee or soda at 7 PM? Tickets are expensive! | |
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| re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? | |
| Posted by: | blfan 09:03 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? - lowwriter 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| When I saw A&C, a man in the front row fell asleep in Act One, with his legs stretched out onto the stage. He (and I) left at intermission. | |
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| Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Earliest audience snoozing ever? - lowwriter 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14 |
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| What is the proper etiquette? Should the neighbor actively wake them? I find it to be a more volatile situation than a phone abuser, which involves deliberate bad behavior. When people are woken up, they can be startled, make noise, or even be a little frightened for a moment until grogginess wears off. I have nodded off once in a show, due to exhaustion not the production, and when I woke up (probably 10 minutes later, I doubt I snored since no one around me seemed bothered) I went home. | |
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| Do strip club count | |
| Posted by: | dramedy 01:30 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Etiquette? - FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| I remember years ago at the gaiety above Howard johnson there was a patron falling asleep and stripper clapped his hands real load a yelled wake up. There was a lot of laughter to that. | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | Jonesy 12:35 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Etiquette? - FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| If I'm next to the person, I shift around in my seat and it's enough to wake the person up while maintaining plausible deniability. With seats so tight in theatres you even rub shoulders and still can claim you weren't trying to wake the person up. | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | Katie 11:09 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Etiquette? - FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| If someone is snoring loudly, I tap them gently to wake them up and then whisper "You're snoring". They're usually grateful. If someone's just asleep, obviously I just leave them, unless they're falling asleep on my shoulder. Our bodies have evolved to interpret sitting still in a darkish room as a cue for sleep and given so many people are chronically sleep deprived, it's not suprising to see people nodding off, even at a good play. If I'm tired I will sometimes find myself dozing off for five minutes in the first act and, like AlanScott, it even happened once when I was in the front row! It is almost always at straight plays. I think the lighting at musicals is stronger plus there's more stimulus on stage. | |
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| A lot of people are medicated | |
| Posted by: | dramedy 12:54 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - Katie 11:09 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| And side effects of high blood pressure pills and anti anxiety pills is sleepiness. I had a friend that always fell asleep and se was around 55 on high blood pressure pills. I had to wake her often during some shows. | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 10:35 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Etiquette? - FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| It can be a tough call. It's only happenened to me twice in New York. Back in Apr., 2007 at Part 3 Salvage of The Coast of Utopia, a 16-year old kid (seated next to me) began dozing and snoring loudly just a few minutes into the performance. I nudged him a little to wake him up. Then several times afterward I nudged and eventually poked him to keep him awake. The kid never got angry. He was just tired and bored. After the performance he told me that he didn't want to see the play at all -- he was only there as a school requirement. More recently (in fact on Sun. evening, Mar. 9th) at a performance of Tenderloin, I was sitting in the 3rd row at the York. There was an elderly, handicapped (and very large) gentleman seated next to me. During the Artificial Flowers number, he began snoring loudly. Because of his age and various disabilities, I was hesitant to wake him. Since he was overlapping his seat into mine, I made it a point after each number to applaud strongly and laugh heartily at all the funny lines in such a way as to shake him up a bit. This kind of worked up to a point. Fortunately he left at intermission. | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 01:37 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Etiquette? - FriendofDorothy 12:52 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| I hate to remember the night that I kept nodding off while sitting in the front row at a play starring two extremely famous and extraordinarily respected actors. I was just very tired, and back then I never drank coffee. And that first row was very near the stage. I kept nodding off and then trying to force myself awake and then nodding off again. Fortunately, I was quite awake during the second (probably thanks to my dozing in the first act). I wonder if they were appalled to see me still there when the lights went up for act two. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do. Even if I had thought to myself during the first act, "I need to get out of here rather than keep nodding off," it would have been worse to get up when I was sitting dead center in the first row. ;) | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 12:02 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - AlanScott 01:37 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| On my first trip to London in 2000, my friend and I unwisely got tickets to see a musical called LA CAVA in the West End on our first night in town. We got tickets, I think, at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square and ended up front row center. It sounded like a good idea at the time. But, after a red-eye flight into Heathrow, and a day of sight-seeing around London, we were dead on our feet by showtime. We nodded off constantly during the show and I was so embarrassed that I wanted to send a note back to the cast and explain. I remember that the show (what we saw of it) was actually very interesting, although I no longer remember what it was about. The upside is that I learned from the experience and, on many trips since have never scheduled anything important on the evening of the day I arrive. Better safe than sorry. | |
| Link | Jere-Rigged |
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| Your mistake was not taking a nap | |
| Posted by: | dramedy 12:58 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - JereNYC 12:02 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Usually I can't check into the hotel until 2, so I do a bit of sightseeing and then check in for a two or three hour nap,before dinner. That really helps. | |
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| re: Your mistake was not taking a nap | |
| Posted by: | Ann 01:45 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Your mistake was not taking a nap - dramedy 12:58 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Oh, I never take a nap the first - I just soldier through. From then on, I don't notice the jetlag at all. | |
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| That probably would have worked too... | |
| Posted by: | JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 01:20 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Your mistake was not taking a nap - dramedy 12:58 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
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| But, as I said, it was my first trip to London and I had no idea how bad the jetlag was going to hit. I have never experienced anything before or since quite like it. My guess is that adreneline kept me going most of the day, but, as soon as I sat down at the theatre, my body had a moment to relax and it all caught up. Luckily, this was not an issue the rest of the time we were there, as a good night's sleep at the hotel was all we needed to adjust to the local time. Live and learn... | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 09:50 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - AlanScott 01:37 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| I drink a large cup of black coffee beginning 1 hour before show time -- this always works for me (although the side effect is that I need to use the washroom right before the show begins and at intermission, which can be a challenge at the Court Theatre especially). | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | AlexanderKat 12:17 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - BroadwayTonyJ 09:50 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Unless you have an aversion to them, try picking up some caffeine pills before the show at Duane Reade. One caffeine tablet should do the trick without effecting your night's sleep (or your bladder). I've been taking them before attending evening theatre performances for ages and they work well for me. | |
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| re: Etiquette? | |
| Posted by: | mamaleh 07:40 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Etiquette? - AlanScott 01:37 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| That's why I always keep a small bottle of water on my lap when I go to the theater--especially when the odds of my nodding off rise on a day I've woken up very early to get a rush ticket. I can't stand it when I find myself getting sleepy, no matter how engrossing the show is, so when that situation arises I make sure to sprinkle my face with water and/or take small sips every couple of minutes. It usually works. | |
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