Why perform live anyway for an audience that looks at its phones, eats popcorn, guffaws loudly at a sophisticated throwaway line ("watching little things grow") and jumps to its feet to applaud any piece of junk? Broadway had become decadent. Needed to be shook up. Unfortunately, it happened this way. Maybe something good will come of it. When I saw Death of a Salesman several years ago, a woman near me was looking at her phone during the tape recorder scene. It wasn't lost on me that what was happening on the stage was also happening in the audience. And of course the light on her phone was what got my attention. Decadence. I'm not missing it. Maybe it will go away and audiences will improve and the material will too.
