What’s going on in our theatres? A recent spate of rowdy behaviour – notably at jukebox musicals – raises the question: have audiences simply forgotten how to behave?
A drunk woman in the seat next to me is softly caressing my hair as though stroking the ears of a particularly mild-mannered spaniel. It’s a strange sensation, but I can’t really complain because I’m at the theatre. You’re not meant to talk. Just as I rouse myself to say something, she stumbles to her feet and lurches her way to the exit. “Finally!” mutters the woman in front, who made the mistake of asking her to be quiet a few minutes earlier (when my neighbour was dancing in her seat and yelling “That’s right!” after lines she particularly enjoyed), resulting in a whispered row. Order is restored, and we settle down once more to watch Frozen, a moving family show about sisterhood and redemption.
But your average West End audience is not always one big happy family. Especially not right now, when complaints about drunken, chaotic and argumentative audience behaviour have been reaching fever pitch. “It feels like every bloody day there’s a new debate coming up on Twitter about theatre etiquette,” says one theatre usher. “And I hate to stereotype, but the worst incidents seem to happen at jukebox musicals.”
