Bachelorettes, Brawls and Body Cameras: A Night at the Theater in London

We attend a couple dozen theatrical performances a year here in the Detroit area (and as many in London as we can squeeze in when we're there). The same things happen here as noted in this and similar recent articles. What I haven't observed is a difference between mine and the younger generation. I assure you that people my age are just as capable of drunken behavior and talking/phone use during the show as anyone. Nothing will change unless theatre owners and management regularly and consistently remove patrons who break the rules. Pre-performance selfie with stage in the background? Fine. Once houselights are down, your phone should remain off. If your behavior infringes on another patron's ability to enjoy the show, out you go. I appreciate that a venue sells drinks as it's easy profit, but I for one would prefer no drinks in the seating area. I can't tell you how many times a trickle of drink has gone down my back or along my shoes.

Last summer we attended a performance of “The Boys In The Band” on Broadway. The couple seated next to us were inebriated (plus a cocktail in each hand.). After a round of selfies with the set they asked me what the play was about...They and a large section of the audience were apparently there to see the tv stars cast . With every entrance screaming and thunderous applause ensued resulting in spilled liquor, missed lines and pauses in the play. And when the dialogue got tough late in the performance my seat mate was standing interacting verbally with the cast.

I have lived in NYC since Jan, 1976, and I am a devout theatregoer. I average about 70 performances a year, including both on Broadway and off-Broadway. I have never encountered issues with rowdy drunken people at the theatre, nor I have heard of any such incidents from fellow friends who are also devoted theatre fanatics. The biggest annoyance --when it happens-- always seems to be a cellphone that goes off unexpectedly. While I have not been in London for the last ten years, I have made about 40 theatre-going trips since 1976. Starting around 2000, I did notice an alarming increase in public drinking and overt drunkenness notably among young people on the streets of London, and especially in the Shaftesbury Avenue/Piccadily/ Leicester Square areas , which is where the London theatres are situated. It seems now that the pub drinking culture --which years ago sadly poured out onto the sidewalks--has now poured INTO the London theatres with unfortunate disruptive behaviour. If theatregoers weren't allowed to bring drinks into the theatre, and if the theatres reduced the amount of alcohol being sold, perhaps this problem would become diminished.

Genteel? The West End? Ever been there?

Bachelorette parties on stilettos and lads' nights out at the theater. What could go wrong? Are they going to the theater theater, or to pop revues? Maybe it's the quality of productions that needs a look... And a bachelorette party at 46. Okay. I know girls just wanna have fun.

We saw “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” at the Aldwych Theater in June 2019. The audience behaved splendidly and we all cheered and sang haughtily with 'Tina' at the end of the show. Hope that was not a wrong thing to do. Fun night.

Taking off the bunny ears is the English equivalent of a hockey player throwing his gloves on the ice. Just another symbol of a declining civilization.

I went to school in London in the 1980’s and my husband and I returned many times to enjoy the theatre which was always great. Unfortunately, we stopped going in the early oughts because public drunkenness in the area was so out of hand. Now to read that it has moved into the theatres themselves is so saddens.

"What is new, she said, is a culture clash between older audiences, who want silence, and newer ones, who attend the theater for a fun night." BOTH generations want a fun night ... which at the theatre generally means being silent and listening to the actors perform.

They don't server alcohol in the second half of football games for a reason. If the game is lopsided the losing team's fans will get very rowdy, and the more dangerous and obvious reason, that many of those at the stadium are driving after the game. To serve alcohol at the theater seems absurd. How is one supposed to pay attention if rip roaring drunk?

If one pays thousands to fly to London, hundreds to spend the night, then the hundred for a theater ticket is just a fraction of the sense of entitlement to behave however. Decorum doesn't bound those deserving a bit of a bang for their buck. Boorishness? Who's to say what's boorish or flat out boring when the fare is disney, movie rewrites, and rock shows in search of a proper costume. "Mousetrap", "Phantom", even "The Importance of Being Earnest" are dated and hardly worth the price of admission lest the respect of a high art. Face it, the dumbing down all around is a grass roots movement.

Theatre was dying slowly in London a few decades ago but was revived by putting on more populist shows that appealed to a wider and younger audience - now the plebs have turned up, seems theatreland isn't happy! Same plebs pay the bills I'm afraid so you can't have your cake and to eat it too!

“Plato complained about “catcalls and uncouth yelling” during performances in ancient Greece.” There will always be more idiots in this world.

I’m with Mary Ryan (commenting before me). My new husband is British & I’m spending a good deal of time over there. The public drunkenness is U N B E L I E V A B L E. Afternoon at York train station, late morning at others, drunk young women being appallingly over the top. The staff are GEMS!

The excessive drinking bit is definitely a UK-specific problem. I went to see Don Quixote recently and was flabbergasted by what could only be described as binge drinking -- by young and old --during the two intermissions. They even offerred pre-paid orders so theater-goers could have their bottles of Prosecco waiting for them. Oh, and this was a Wednesday.

And don't forget the surge in "emotional support animals". At a San Diego play last week, a woman brought in a huge, mastiff-type dog which lay at her feet, completely blocking the row, and looking rather uncomfortably squashed with barely enough space to lie at its owner's feet. Every time the action on stage got loud, the dog would sound off with a huge, "Woof!" The owner spent much of the show bent over the dog trying to keep it quiet. It seems like there is less common sense today, but I'm told that to think so only indicates that I'm getting old! Sigh.

Yup. Don't spoil it for me. Don't talk loudly. I don't need to know that _you_ are having fun! And, don't even think of taking out your phone — no sound, no bright waving smartphone screens in a dark auditorium.

For the benefit of my fellow Americans who may now know this: "managing director" is the British equivalent of CEO. So when Mr. La Borde claims the answer is "above his pay grade", he appears to be suggesting only the Queen or perhaps God can answer the question.

An other strong example of the difference between British and French culture . Nobody behaves like that in Paris or Marseilles , even at the popular shows on the boulevards. Even the idea of a bachelorette party is hideous for French people. 46 wearing a "Bride to be " sash ? We see the British drunk in the French resorts on the Riviera, though .

Well at least these plays last only a couple of hours. Worse to me is being stuck in a hotel in the provinces -- Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, etc. -- on a Saturday night with a bunch of drunken hens on the same floor. The risk of this is something I take into account when booking hotels in the UK.

Certainly, getting a drink spilled on you at some point as a theatergoer seems inevitable by now. In the 1990s, I was astonished at ice cream sold in the aisles in London even at a Stoppard play, even while I balanced it with my glossary in the other hand, and at the intense drama "Taking Sides" about Furtwängler. In 2016, I was still a bit surprised there was even raising the souvenir cups of wine they sold in the aisles and drinking L'Chaim at the Broadway "Fiddler on the Roof" three years ago, and I raised my cup of soda on L'Chaim with my cousin and a lot of people who had cups. By seeing "Tootsie" this April, I'd totally given in and had wine at 2 pm since it was right there; casual elegant at the theater was over, and only machine washables at musicals in case of red wine spillage from now on. A serious issue when things go wrong, but this is so charming: “any noise was just the woman, in a very British fashion, repeatedly apologizing for the upset.” Tune of “What’s Love Got To Do With It” You must understand Though the cup in your hand May look real secure, That the lid’s not airtight, So please hold it upright To be safe and sure. There’s a hole in it, so a straw can fit But if somehow you drip on your neighbor’s couture Oh oh oh - What good’s a to-do, a to-do of it All’s good, here on this side of the ocean. Don’t make a to-do, no to-do of it. Say sorry once, you won’t start a commotion.

avoiding alcohol in public is not only a good manners, it's also a safety practice. friends don't let friends drink and and embarrass themselves. you and insurance companies will thank them in the morning, if you make it that far. however, if we going to talk about brawls and safety, a more fitting title should be "bachelors (ex., football louts), brawls and armed security". on the other hand, bachelortettes might be relevant for drunken sexual assault.

So much for decorum!

A bachelorette party?? No, it's called a Hen Party in London.

The Brits are notoriously bad drinkers. In my city, Barcelona, we hate them. They have been banned from coming in groups, in a Spanish few villages after their bad behavior. they often can be seen late at night screaming and peeing in the streets. Why can't they stay at home? Who needs them. (the bad ones)

Count me in with the old people who want a quiet audience. If I pay for a ticket and go to the effort of going out, its because I want to see the show. I do not want to see a bunch of drunken idiots ruining the evening for everyone. Bring on the camera and the searches.

When I was over in the UK for a time, what fascinated me most was the near-obsession with ice cream during intermission....I can't think of a bway theater that does ice cream....not that I want it here. When it comes to alcohol, I feel like the Brits are more willing to let it all hang out....over the holidays I saw bare buttocks from ladies adjusting their undergarments and businessman vomit in the streets than I have ever seen in NYC.

Those shrieking, drunken hen (bachelorette) parties in Britain are absolutely miserable, as are their bellowing (often stupidly costumed) male equivalents. Getting stuck on a train or in any other enclosed space with them is a special kind of hell, as is watching them stampede down the sidewalk in a howling mass. Why they would want to enter a theater, where they are supposed to - at least in theory - sit and pay attention to something other than the next round of drinks is beyond me.

"... (the) general feeling among ushers was that the audiences for so-called jukebox musicals were the worst behaved." Tells me everything I need to know...

As the Wicked Witch of the West said, "What a world! What a world!" My wife and I have a wonderful memory of seeing Me and My Girl in London almost 30 years ago. It was full of wonder in every way. I hope theater goers today can have the same fun experience.

"These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples; that no audience, but the Tribulation of Tower-hill, or the Limbs of Limehouse, their dear brothers, are able to endure." Have theater audience really changed that much?

More proof, as though it were needed, that allowing audience members to bring food and/or drink – of any kind – to their seats is a terrible idea!

Binge drinking is a major public health threat with juke box musicals a close second.

“When you mix in alcohol with the theater environment, that can exacerbate situations,” When you mix the legal hard drug alcohol in ANY environment - all bets are off. Most drinkers are fine, but the problem drinkers are a huge problem. The very strong "dis-inhibiting" effect of alcohol really sends some people into the twilight zone. We've all seen it a thousand times. And, amazingly, alcohol has somehow escaped the "drug" label - one is most certainly owns. The secondary damage from alcohol to other people - rapes, fights, harassment, drunk driving deaths, etc. etc. far surpasses any other drug, and this drug is promoted with billions of dollars in ads. Better education about it is sorely needed.

Theatre etiquette died long ago whether it's cell phone use or constant chatter as if people were sitting in front of their television sets at home. As long as theaters on Broadway and the West End continue to push alcohol, actors and audiences will subjected to rowdy patrons and brawls. Absolutely no reason alcohol should be served when many coming from dinner are already intoxicated. I saw 'Tina' last year in London. A drunken man behind us sang and talked loudly thru the entire first act. He became belligerent to all trying to silence him. No ushers could be found. When 'Rock of Ages' played at the Helen Hayes Theatre in NYC, drunken brawls happened frequently, but then again, it's all about the bottom line and selling booze keeps shows running.

Who would ever have expected this sort of behavior in English theaters! I can remember getting dirty looks, years ago, for rustling the papers of my program while shifting position in my seat. A few points about statements in this article, though: Despite the couple of "classic" theater incidents cited, I'd be willing to wager that the issue is mostly with larger groups (>2) attending so-called "jukebox musicals," than for stage plays. There IS increasing bad behavior overall (talking, cell-phones), but this article makes overly sweeping assertions. "...a culture clash between older audiences, who want silence, and newer ones, who attend the theater for a fun night" Fundamentally, NO culture clash between generations involved is shown here -- many younger people like to see plays in reasonable quiet, while some older ones talk and text in theaters. Shoehorning everything into a "generation conflict" is both reductive and misleading. The comment that "theatergoers’ bags were checked ... as they entered" wrongly suggests that this checking is due to concerns about patrons bringing drink into theaters (a la sport events), when this is actually an anti-bomb and anti-gun, general security measure, implemented in recent years after incidents of violence in public places. In some London theaters, your bags get a label "checked by security," and guards and theater directors have been frank about the reason. London is very very concerned about bombs in public places.

The U.K. has a serious binge drinking problem. I've seen it in the theater in London, on the streets of Liverpool, on a city bus in Devon and twice on a transatlantic flight with a group of young men from one of the fine English public schools. But while they are drunk and disorderly, and I've seen a number of fights, I've never seen a gun. I'll take it.

I've lived and worked in London for 40 plus years and been going to the theater since the early 70s The big difference for me has been that theaters allow patrons to bring drinks purchased at theater bars into the theater during a performance. Alas, a lot of theater goers do just that balancing a glass of wine or a mixed drink.These same drinkers then have another couple of drinks at intermission, already ordered at the bar, and then bring drinks into the theater once again. Obviously, this is a lot of revenue for management and means a lot of already intoxicated people in the audience. This has happened to me at musical productions and straight drama. I think the writer needs to place blame where blame is due-- management policy.

This article is important. There should be more places like that that uses these cameras. All people want to do is get drunk and when that happens, usually people get rowdy. Behavior like this should not be tolerated especially somewhere like this theatre. There is no need for people to be sneaking alcohol in. I am very happy that the security guards there have these cameras and have it under control. This is a very smart idea and more places in the United States should have this.

Having attended, and enjoyed, many musicals in London's West End, I can attest that the audiences are much less refined than on Broadway. Actually, I prefer it that way - more common, less stuffy = more fun! :-))