| Serious question for those who like mid-show standing ovations (long) | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 01:33 am EDT 07/16/18 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:29 am EDT 07/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm sorry to say that it's probably not hyperbole. - KingSpeed 11:41 pm EDT 07/15/18 | |
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| And I'll add that I don't want to suggest that it wasn't wonderful to be there today and that the performance wasn't spectacular. But I've been at a bunch of pretty great closing performances at which nothing like that happened. I mention some of those below. I'm wondering if anyone thinks that this final Peters Hello, Dolly! was probably so much greater a performance or event than any of the ones I mention below. Some might reply, "Hello, Dolly! is a show that invites such responses." Even if I buy that, six mid-show standing ovations still seem a bit much. But it's not just shows like Hello, Dolly! I remember it being reported here that at the final performance of the Roundabout Sunday in the Park With George, not only did the audience stand for "Move On," they then remained standing through the end of the show. As I said elsewhere, I find this sort of thing really disrespectful to other audience members who may not want to or even be easily able to stand. You're blocking people's view of the stage, forcing them to stand. And if the person in front of you is tall and you're not, you may not be able to see much even if you stand. As far as I'm concerned, folks who do this kind of thing have no right to complain about latecomers disrupting performances and forcing you to stand. Yes, it's somewhat different, and, yes, you're usually not alone when you stand to applaud a song, but still you're blocking people's view and forcing them to stand. When I saw Something Rotten! during previews, a fair number of people stood for that silly number. It makes me think of Pavlov's dogs. It was also reported here recently that there were several standing ovations at the first performance of Songs for a New World at City Center so it's not even always a final performance or big-star kind of thing. It's that for some people in some circumstances applause and even extended applause is no longer considered enough. I don't believe that people get so excited that they absolutely can't help it, they HAVE to stand. It's not possible for them to remain seated. I do believe that some of them stand because they have to if they want to see the performers. Does anyone want to offer some justification for this kind of behavior? To be specific about the shows I mentioned in the first paragraph, I was at the final Cariou-Lansbury Sweeney (still one of the two greatest performances I've ever seen of anything) and the closing performances of the original productions of Pacific Overtures (no standing ovation even at the end), On the Twentieth Century, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods and Passion. I was at what was supposed to have been Tyne Daly's final performance of Gypsy (no one knew she'd come back in a return engagement, which happened just because the London run was canceled due to the Gulf War) and what was supposed to have been Bernadette Peters's final performance in Sunday in the Park With George (she came back unannounced for the Pulitzer committee nine days later and then, if we count this, for the performances that were shot with invited audiences but for which tickets were not on sale to the general public). I was at the final Broadway performance of Dewhurst and Robards in A Moon for the Misbegotten and a lot of other final performances, but i'm just trying to mention those that people will realize were exciting performances to attend. I was at the final performance of the original production of Parade, at which an unusual reaction did happen at the end of a number: "Come Up to My Office" stopped the show despite it having been staged to discourage any applause at all. But the audience wasn't having it that way at that performance, and the actors had to stand there for a longish amount of applause at a place where they usually just proceeded directly back into dialogue. Of course, many numbers stopped the show in a big way at some of the performances, and performers had to stand there or find something to do. I remember Kay McClelland having to pace back and forth for a long time after "Moments in the Woods" at the final Into the Woods performance. And sometimes there was extended entrance applause that caused performers to have stand there and find something to do when they just usually continued on. At one final performance, I think an actress was so startled and unsettled by receiving about a minute of entrance applause that it threw her off for the whole performance (or so it seemed to me as I thought this actress seemed very off in comparison with the earlier times I'd seen her). But extended applause is one thing. Again, there was not a mid-show standing ovation at any of the final performances I've mentioned attending. Not one. And as I said, there was not a standing ovation even at the end of Pacific Overtures. And at the final Saturday matinee of Channing's last Broadway run of Hello, Dolly! there were no standing ovations during the show visible to me from my seat in the fourth row of the Lunt-Fontanne balcony. The audience went wild, but did not stand even for the title number, at least not upstairs. At the end, we all stood, but not during the show. (Actually, I am starting to wonder if perhaps a few isolated pockets of people did stand for the title number and I've forgotten, but if so, not many.) At classical concerts, it's generally considered incorrect and even impolite to applaud between movements of a symphony or concerto or sonata. This was not always true, it's a relatively modern development and perhaps a foolish one. Anyway, classical concerts can be pretty darn exciting, but generally you don't even applaud till the end of a piece (which perhaps partly explains why that sometimes goes on for very long times). I don't particularly wonder about the "why" of this. I think we generally know why. I just wonder if anyone thinks this is a good thing and, if so, the why of that. Soon we're going to be standing for entire shows, which I guess is very Elizabethan, but we'll be standing for different reasons. |
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| Previous: | re: I'm sorry to say that it's probably not hyperbole. - ryhog 02:04 am EDT 07/16/18 |
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