Noises off!
Audience outbursts have some people asking, whose show is it, anyway?
If invited to play with the Boston Pops, Paul Simon would be wise to avoid his hit song "The Boxer," and go with "The Sound of Silence" instead. Otherwise, audiences at Symphony Hall, site of a fistfight during a recent Pops concert, might take Simon's lyrics too literally . Assuming they're paying attention at all, that is.
The so-called Brawl at the Hall may be an extreme example of audience misbehavior -- it was reportedly touched off by one concertgoer's refusal to quit yammering while the band played on -- yet by no means is it an isolated incident. While few rise (or fall) to the level of balcony fisticuffs, other disruptions, from the rustle of candy wrappers to conversations better suited for the lobby, can be more than minor irritants. They can effectively ruin a show for patrons and performers alike.
Factor in triple-digit ticket prices, and
Consider the plight of Uta Renz , a Boston Symphony Orchestra subscriber of seven years' standing, who's rethinking her options in light of what she calls "my worst experience ever" at a BSO concert last February. In a letter to BSO managing director Mark Volpe two months ago, Renz described what happened.
"To our left sat a blond woman who . . . continued whispering and tapping people after the music began," Renz wrote. "At one point, she opened her cellphone and waved it around . . . as if taking a photograph of the orchestra."
Rebuked by the woman after asking her to put away the cellphone, Renz complained to an usher. The woman was escorted out of the hall, Renz went on, but returned later and continued bothering others until the concert was nearly over.
Last week Volpe responded with a letter to Renz calling such situations "challenging" and admitting his staff "should have handled the matter more effectively." Renz was also offered two free tickets to a Tanglewood concert. However, she's still debating whether to scale back her BSO subscription or drop it altogether.
"At these ticket prices," Renz says, "if they don't take the decline of civility more seriously, I'm voting with my feet."
Symphony Hall isn't the only arts venue pondering rules of etiquette and how to enforce them. New Repertory Theatre artistic director Rick Lombardo says it's a hot topic among theater managers.
"One problem we're starting to see a lot is BlackBerries," says Lombardo, referring to the portable wireless devices everyone seems to be carrying these days. "People will start text-messaging in the middle of a show, thinking they're being quiet and not disturbing anybody. But anyone sitting behind them can see the screen glowing, and so can the actors onstage. It's incredibly distracting."
At one Manhattan play he recently attended, Lombardo says, two audience members nearly came to blows over a more prosaic problem: a bag of potato chips one was crunching within earshot of the other.
"I really think things are getting worse," Lombardo says. "In the old days, people would be chagrined if someone told them to be quiet. Now there's this feeling of, I can do whatever I need to do whenever I want to do it."
Avid Boston theatergoer and WGBH trustee Peggy Charren agrees that this sense of entitlement is having a negative effect on how audience members conduct themselves. Charren, who attends scores of plays every year, says it's not that more people are talking during shows these days. It's that those who do talk get more belligerent when asked to be quiet.
"They have this idea that if they want to make noise sitting in the fourth row, they can," she says. "When someone taps them on the shoulder, they seem genuinely shocked. That's why I wasn't surprised by what happened at the Pops."
Entitlement cuts both ways, both Lombardo and Charren point out. People paying top dollar to see a play don't want any distractions, either. "There's a divide on both sides," Lombardo concedes.
According to Boston Lyric Opera director Janice Del Sesto , opera fans are a different breed. Because the action onstage is so intense, she says, audiences tend to transfer their emotions to what's happening there, not upon one another.
"The most aggressive behavior happens when someone gets carried away by a familiar aria and starts singing along -- and gets tapped on the shoulder by a neighbor," says Del Sesto. "Mostly we have a pretty calm and happy audience, though."
Whether the Pops fight, footage of which popped up all over the place, signals a growing problem is unclear. What seems more certain is that as arts organizations strive to become more audience-friendly, rules of conduct get trickier to enforce. Ten years ago, when cellphones and pagers started becoming a problem for theater managers, Stagebill published a list of rules governing theater etiquette. Among them: Do not wear too much perfume or cologne; mind small children; turn off all electronic devices; unwrap candies before the curtain goes up; and do not talk, hum, sing along, or "beat time with a body part."
In her latest version of "Emily Post's Etiquette" guide, manners guru Peggy Post added a chapter titled "Performances and Public Places." One topic covered is what to do when someone sitting near you in the theater won't shut up. (Basic advice: Assess situation, politely remind offender to be more mindful of others, get help if other tactics fail.)
"People have always been rude," Post says, speaking from her home office in Florida. "I doubt it's any worse these days, except maybe they're more frustrated. Are there more incidents? There seem to be , but maybe they're just in the media more."
As for Lombardo, he says his organization is inching toward the "gentle reminder stage" of educating audiences on the rules of decorum.
"If that doesn't work," he adds, "threats are possible."
Joseph P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.
Readers sound off
We asked boston.com readers to comment about rude behavior at public events. Here are a few of their posts:
lnf: "People go to the symphony or the movies or the theater to watch the performance. If you want to talk, chat, have a conversation, exchange I love you ' s in a constant stream for three full segments of the performance, you deserve to be told to shush, shut up, or leave. If you need to whisper something urgent, say it, and shut up again. If you need to have a full-on conversation, take it outside the auditorium. . . . If I wanted to listen to people chat, I'd go to
madriver: "People who go to a live performance want to enjoy the performance, not listen to someone talking. A simple 'shh' should let the offenders know they're disturbing others. But I go to the theater a lot and find there are a lot of people who have absolutely no consideration for others."
willy4658: "I have been in concerts where there was almost a brawl. Audiences have no respect for the performers or the audience around them. I went to a concert last year and six people sat and talked the entire show. It ruined my enjoyment of the night. A waste of $55!"
billin: "It seems an interesting fact that people who are inconsiderate tend to also be aggressive and violent when their rude behavior is pointed out. Maybe it's just me, but it's been my experience that people who yell into their cellphones in enclosed areas, or chatter on endlessly during movies or performances, get angry and violent when they're asked, however politely, to please stop. Perhaps there should be a new term entered into our dictionary for such people, as they seem to be growing in number."
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