"Who do you think you are!?!" LuPone throws jerk out of the theater

[SzczerbiakManiac]

This is an audio-only recording of Patti LuPone stopping "Rose's Turn" to read the riot act to some as$hole taking pictures from the audience during a performance of Gypsy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw6-Tp4UVVA

While it is technically inappropriate for an actor to break character while on stage, I fully support Patti's actions. Theater-goers today have gotten completely out of control and do not comply with basic courtesies. (Don't get me started with people talking on cell phones during a performance!) Shaming them seems like the only course of action that will be effective.

What do you think?

[wendybeth]

I think she was right on. It's an incredible distraction, for both actors and theatergoers, and I don't blame her a bit.

[Alex]

While I enjoyed it, and in person would be great if it were a one time thing. But if this were to start a trend of a show stopping every time a camera goes off or the actors are distracted by something in the audience I'd quickly come to be pissed at them just as much.

The theater should just try to deal with it quietly but forcefully but I know that wouldn't always be possible.

And, of course, there's the fact that the person who recorded this from the audience was also breaking the rules and, even if less distracting, is also an ass.

[lashbear]

That was just Show-stopping ! No. Really. :D

Patty LuPone IS a Diva.

[lizziebith]

I found her outburst quite satisfying. :D

[Strangler Lewis]

I think Katharine Hepburn did a similar thing twenty years ago.

[alphabassettgrrl]

It only takes a few well-publicized happenings for people to get the message. Fear of humiliation will keep some of them behaving.

[Chernabog]

I heard this yesterday -- SO freaking cool. I heart Patti Lupone.

[ozron]

Working in an interactive show, we often have audience members who go overboard in their "interactions". However, we also have the luxury of staying in character and dealing with them.

Just last weekend, when one inebriated woman kept making loud interjections, one of the cast finally bellowed, "Will you shut up! I'm trying to tell the woman I love how I feel!"

She got the message, and the show never missed a beat!

[flippyshark]

And at my interactive theater venue (Sleuths Mystery Dinner Theater in Orlando) - tonight, JUST after the murder had occurred, an audience member had a seizure. The show was halted as an ambulance was called. It took the cast a while to reestablish what was part of the intended mystery and what was actual emergency. (I hear the guest was just fine, thankfully.)

We often have to hush, ask, cajole, nudge or blatantly demand polite consideration from certain drunk or obnoxious members of the audience, and we are usually helped a great deal by the other paying guests. Not long ago, one intoxicated lady was so offended by one of our characters asking her to be quiet, she picked up her key lime pie and threw it at the actor.

Perhaps we shall add a new line in such situations - "Please be considerate of others, or we shall be forced to go Patty LuPone on your ass!"

[Gemini Cricket]

I mixed feelings about this.

1. The person should not have been taking pictures and some should have stopped them before LuPone had to do it herself. The house manager should have been the one to kick this person out.

2. An actor should never break character ever. Ever. Who does LuPone think she is to stop the show just because she thinks she can?

3. It's an actor's dream to wish they could do this.

4. LuPone is a wonderful actress but is a horrible monster of a diva. I personally can't stand actors whose heads are so big they take up all the flyspace on stage.

5. If this becomes a common thing that actors will now do, I will barf.

Someone passed out in the audience during a performance I was in. We kept the show going. During the incident, we were given the high sign that everything was being taken care of by the house personnel, we felt confident that we did the right thing. We made an announcement at intermission about it and the show went on.

A friend of mine stopped mid scene during a production to reprimand someone in the audience for talking. I don't blame him for doing it, but it was freakin' awkward. In the end, it made him, the actor, look bad. I can't really describe why, but it made him look like he had a big head.

[alphabassettgrrl]

One hopes this sort of reprimand is reserved for particularly egregious cases- people who just don't get it and have been tapped on the hand before.

Most problems can be dealt with by front-of-house crew, and should be. Medical emergencies are here; usually no need to interrupt the show. But every so often you get someone who's drunk or generally beliggerent and they cause problems.

While I can see how it would be problematic for actors to deal with problem patrons, I can also see some small place for it.

[bewitched]

While it is amusing to listen to someone get their comeuppance, personally, if a had I been at this performance, I would have been really pissed off...at Patti LuPone. Sure, someone taking pictures is distracting but to totally interrupt a performance, in the middle of a song, the LAST song of the show ("Rose's Turn"), ruins the whole damn thing. What, she couldn't have dealt with it for 10 more minutes?

If this person had been taking pictures the whole time, she should have sent a message to the front of the house to deal with it. TOTALLY unprofessional IMO.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

The inevitable parody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-IFEsPM6g).

[Chernabog]

The inevitable parody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-IFEsPM6g).

lol... that was gayer than gay.

[Snowflake]

Reminds me of the great Canadian tenor John Vickers during a performance of Tanhhauser (I think) when an audience member was incessently coughing. "Stop your damned coughing" he yelled, the audience applauded and the opera resumed.

[Tref]

I may be in the minority, but I think LuPone showed a complete lack of class and civility. LuP could have easily solved the problem by notifying the management or dispatching an usher to collect the offending camera. If I had been in the audience, I most certainly would have left and asked for my money back, but then, I never would have been at a show starring Patti LuPone in the first place. My God. Never. Never.

Mercy.


Never.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

LuP could have easily solved the problem by notifying the management or dispatching an usher to collect the offending camera.Just a quick note on that point. "Rose's Turn" (the song she was singing) is the last number in the show. She would not have had an opportunity to tell an usher or stage manager until the show was over.

[bewitched]

Just a quick note on that point. "Rose's Turn" (the song she was singing) is the last number in the show. She would not have had an opportunity to tell an usher or stage manager until the show was over.


Hence my comment, "What, she couldn't have dealt with it for 10 more minutes?"

[Deebs]

While it is amusing to listen to someone get their comeuppance

Oh, not to me, it makes me horribly uncomfortable.

if a had I been at this performance, I would have been really pissed off...at Patti LuPone.

Me too.

If this person had been taking pictures the whole time, she should have sent a message to the front of the house to deal with it. TOTALLY unprofessional

Exactly.


If I had been in the audience, I most certainly would have left and asked for my money back

I don't think I would have gone that far, but I would have been uncomfortable and annoyed.


but then, I never would have been at a show starring Patti LuPone in the first place. My God. Never. Never.

Mercy.


Never.

Hehehe



Reminds me of the great Canadian tenor John Vickers during a performance of Tanhhauser (I think) when an audience member was incessently coughing. "Stop your damned coughing" he yelled, the audience applauded and the opera resumed.

I wonder if the great Mr. Vickers ever had an uncontrollable tickle in his throat?

Several years ago, I had plans with a group of friends to go see Dance Theatre of Harlem at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Trouble was, I was getting over a cold, which had a nasty lingering cough. I felt fine, but I sounded like Harvey Fierstein. I didn't want to cough and be a distraction during the performance. I went anyway. I loaded my pockets full of lozenges. It was fine.