Whatever happened to ‘polite audience applause’?
In fact – whatever happened to polite audiences?
Several things prompted me to raise the subject, so see if any or all of them ring a bell of recognition in your head.
I’m aware how difficult, expensive and often heart-breaking it is to create a new stage musical. Sometimes you hit the jackpot (Les Miserables, Phantom, Cats), sometimes you hit the rocks (anyone remember Simon Cowell’s ‘I Can Sing’ or ‘From Here To Eternity’?).
Which is why so many musicals of the last couple of decades have been based on ‘known product’ (The Lion King, Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman, Frozen etc.) or are ‘jukebox musicals’ packed with songs the audience already knows.
This latter trend has led to a lot of audience members treating an evening at the theatre like a karaoke night at their local… at £150 a ticket.
They turn up worse the wear for drink, have another in the theatre bar before the curtain goes up andduring the intermission.
They insist on joining in every song and/or dancing in the aisle, which understandably annoys the more sober members of the audience who paid the same price for their tickets as the selfish ones who mistakenly consider themselves ‘part of the show’.
This leads to confrontation and unbelievably – according to a recent survey by The Stage newspaper – audience members and staff being physically assaulted on hundreds of occasions. This is, of course, totally unacceptable and has to be urgently addressed and stopped.
Over two recent weekends I watched two very different ‘live’ performance music shows on BBC television – one very new; one more than 40 years old.
And the reaction of the audience in each show was remarkably different.
On Saturday, March the 27th, BBC One broadcast a show entitled “The Big Night Of Musicals” from a huge venue in Manchester, hosted by the amiable and very able Jason Manford.
As you might expect from the title, the show featured performances from various West End shows.
What I found both interesting and irritating was that immediately each song started, the audience were up on their feet, ‘whoopin’ and a-hollerin’, applauding wildly and/or singing along.
Any audience member unable to stand up or thought it might be sensible to hold their applause until the song had finished, wouldn’t have been able to see what was happening on stage.
I have to admit that after 20 minutes of this ludicrously over-enthusiastic reaction to every song, I switched channels.
We all know where this behaviour started.
On TV shows like “X Factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent” audience members are, before and during the show, actively encouraged to go wild the moment a contestant (A) Proves they can sing in tune and (B) Can manage a mid-power ballad key change – however wobbly!
People growing up watching this behaviour think it’s the norm, which is why this selfish phenomenon has spread to theatres and other venues.
The following weekend, BBC 2 screened the 1970 concert “Frank Sinatra At The Royal Albert Hall” hosted by Princess Grace of Monaco.
Old Blue Eyes’ arrival on stage was, I admit, greeted by cheers and loud applause.
But then the audience settled down and after each superbly sung, brilliantly orchestrated number ended, they applauded politely.
Towards the end of the show, as the audience recognised the opening bars of “My Way” they reacted with cheers, then let Frank do the heavy lifting with the vocals, not daring to spoil the magic by joining in.
I was once told that theatre seats are traditionally red, because it drains the anger out of the audience before the performance.
If someone created theatre seats that drained the alcohol out of an audience along with their self-indulgent behaviour, I would greet the news with…what else…? Polite applause!