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| audience behavior - The Cher Show | |
| Last Edit: mikem 05:19 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
| Posted by: mikem 05:16 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: Bat out of Hell - Leon_W 04:24 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| I had a similar experience with my audience neighbors at The Cher Show. The woman next to me literally said, "Oh my god" at least 15 times in the first 5 minutes of the show, including a run of "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" when Stephanie J Block first came on stage, interspersed with "I can't believe this," woo-woos, etc, etc. It was very annoying, but she was SO excited, and frankly the show didn't require a huge amount of concentration. When the lights went down, she was literally bobbing up and down in her seat in anticipation. I knew if I said something, it would probably embarrass her and ruin the experience for her. I got the feeling that this might have been her first Broadway show, and she just didn't know how the audience usually acts. Fortunately, she calmed down considerably after the first segment of the show, to a point where it was only mildly distracting. Then, during the finale "concert" segment, another neighbor, who had been silent throughout the show, sang "Believe" in an extremely off-key, loud voice along with Stephanie J Block. Since it was supposed to be a concert, it kind of added to the concert atmosphere. And she was also SO excited (and so silent for the first 95% of the show) that it didn't bother me that much. As for the show itself, I wonder how much it might have changed if it had had one more out-of-town run. I read that Teal Wicks's part got considerably smaller after the Chicago run, with Block taking over earlier in the show, and at least one of her songs being removed entirely ("After All," which is one of my personal favorite Cher songs). I didn't see much point in Wicks's role at all. It should have gone straight from "Baby" Cher to Block. The "three Cher" concept didn't really work for me, and making it two Chers in linear fashion would have been much better IMO. |
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| re: audience behavior - The Cher Show | |
| Posted by: palebutsolvent 01:09 pm EDT 08/26/19 | |
| In reply to: audience behavior - The Cher Show - mikem 05:16 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| I had a recent appalling experience at Yiddish Fiddler. The gentleman sitting behind me clapped and sang along to the songs (in English no less) as though it was some sort of sing along. I had to move. | |
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| re: audience behavior - The Cher Show | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 05:58 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: audience behavior - The Cher Show - mikem 05:16 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| Since it was supposed to be a concert, it kind of added to the concert atmosphere. I think that for some people, jukebox musicals do seem like concerts - but in their entirety. So they behave more like they would at a concert. I can't speak to the behavior mentioned above at the Play That Goes Wrong. But for jukebox musicals, there really may be the mistaken impression that it can be treated more like a concert. I saw a production of A Chorus Line back that the beginning of August. After the tap sequence and where SPOILERS Paul falls and is taken off to the hospital (does anyone out here not know this?) When the music starts up again, it's the tune of "Who am I anyway/ Am I my resume" etc - and a guy sitting near me started to hum along. Well, nice for him, I suppose... |
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| re: audience behavior - The Cher Show | |
| Posted by: bicoastal 04:27 pm EDT 08/26/19 | |
| In reply to: re: audience behavior - The Cher Show - Chromolume 05:58 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| Some years ago in L.A. there was a very successful small production of HAIR that ran for quite a while. A friend and I went and there was a guy behind us singing out loud with every song. At intermission I said I didn't want to be rude but could he please stop singing since he wasn't in the show. He replied that he was "the HAIR chorus boy". I said there is no chorus boy in HAIR, so please don't be that. Then he said that at a lot of performances there were repeat visitors who treated the show like a sing-a-long and I guess it worked for the cast because it seemed to be a thing. I suggested that since there was only him, that maybe he could not sing during the second act and, happily, he complied. | |
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| re: audience behavior - The Cher Show | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 08:36 pm EDT 08/26/19 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 08:33 pm EDT 08/26/19 | |
| In reply to: re: audience behavior - The Cher Show - bicoastal 04:27 pm EDT 08/26/19 | |
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| I did a summer run of Forever Plaid some years back, and a number of times we could hear people in the audience trying to sing along. It could be very annoying. But the worst were 2 incidents where overzealous clapping (to the beat of a song) really became untenable. One was a kids' production of The Wizard Of Oz, where indeed the audience was invited to clap along with something like "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead," but we had one audience with a school group that then started clapping along with EVERYTHING. We got to "If I Only Had A Heart" and the poor kid singing couldn't compete, and I did something I still can't quite believe I did - I stopped the show. (The band was visible in front, just below the stage.) As gently as I could, I thanked the audience for their involvement, but spoke up for the actors who were working so hard onstage, and suggested that the clapping might be better AFTER the songs, instead of during them. That seemed to work. ;-) The other time was another school group situation, during "Reviewing The Situation" in Oliver. Whenever the uptempo parts kicked in, this one group just started clapping along. Which was not only disrespectful to the (adult) actor trying to sing the song, but with the tempo changes it was really hard to keep things together. But in this case I was down in the pit and couldn't do anything to stop or control it - we just had to soldier on. It was awful. |
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| The Cher Show in Chicago | |
| Posted by: PlazaBoy 05:34 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: audience behavior - The Cher Show - mikem 05:16 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| Interesting to hear that Teal Wicks's part was reduced. She was my least favorite in the Chicago try out. I enjoyed the other two women but overall did not like the show. Did the first act still end (and second begin) with the French Revolutionary production number? That seemed to be the core of Teal's section of the show. I could be misremembering. The entire show was a flashy mess in my opinion. |
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| re: The Cher Show in Chicago | |
| Posted by: HadriansMall 07:32 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: The Cher Show in Chicago - PlazaBoy 05:34 pm EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| Yes. The first act ends with Sonny and Cher arguing before the Napoleon number and the second act opens with the Napoleon number. | |
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