Audience Behaviour - Thread 2

[San Perregrino]

When the time comes, as it inevitably will, and I’m asked contribute to an appeal in order to redecorate, recarpet and reupholster the Grade I or Grade II listed interiors of these historic buildings, I shall politely reply by suggesting that they ought to have included a levy for the above in the cost of all of this in the price of the drinks, sweets and popcorn they sold.

Not a penny not any sympathy from me if they choose to go down this route.

In fact I might start requesting a refund of the building levy that is imposed at some venues as I do nothing to damage the fabric of the building when I am in it.

Edited October 20, 2023 by PeterS

[Tony Newcombe]

Just received the seat prices for Swan Lake. I used to stand in SC pre pandemic. I could have bought 17 SCS seats for the price of 1 orchestra stalls seat!

[postie]

I'm fascinated by the demographics of the 'new' audience/s.

If I had my time again, I'd love to build a career on this type of data analysis.

 

Do people think the audience for opera has grown at the same rate?

 

[alison]

2 hours ago, Tony Newcombe said:

Just received the seat prices for Swan Lake. I used to stand in SC pre pandemic. I could have bought 17 SCS seats for the price of 1 orchestra stalls seat!

 

But can't do any longer?  You're comparing apples with ... much older apples, aren't you?

[San Perregrino]

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, just had an email from ATG about the Savoy Theatre…

 

A Moët & Chandon vending machine has arrived!

Champagne fanatics, prepare yourselves for perhaps the greatest innovation in the world of bubbly. This champagne vending machine is the only one of its kind in London. To use the vending machine, you'll need a £26 gold coin purchased as you enter at our Moët Garden (located in the Dress Bar) and then you can dispense the drink of your choice, either 200ml bottles of Imperial Brut or Imperial Rose.

Book a luxury experience

Why not make your visit extra memorable with one of our bespoke lounge experiences? (Think access to an exclusive, swanky lounge, plus welcome drinks and a great selection of snacks.)

UPGRADE NOW

Be smarter than the queues   Beat the queues before the performance and during the interval by ordering directly to your seat. Ordering available from day of the show.

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[Fiz]

1 hour ago, PeterS said:

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, just had an email from ATG about the Savoy Theatre…

 

A Moët & Chandon vending machine has arrived!

Champagne fanatics, prepare yourselves for perhaps the greatest innovation in the world of bubbly. This champagne vending machine is the only one of its kind in London. To use the vending machine, you'll need a £26 gold coin purchased as you enter at our Moët Garden (located in the Dress Bar) and then you can dispense the drink of your choice, either 200ml bottles of Imperial Brut or Imperial Rose.

Book a luxury experience

Why not make your visit extra memorable with one of our bespoke lounge experiences? (Think access to an exclusive, swanky lounge, plus welcome drinks and a great selection of snacks.)

UPGRADE NOW

Be smarter than the queues   Beat the queues before the performance and during the interval by ordering directly to your seat. Ordering available from day of the show.

FIND OUT MORE

See more. Do more. Feel more.

 

 

 

Oh, my stars! 

[Sophoife]

£26 for 200ml?! That's, like, AUD50! I mean, you can buy a piccolo Moët here for about AUD35!!

[Dawnstar]

I don't see the point in paying for a token to then use a vending machine. Surely it'd be quicker to just pay for a drink directly. Also is it good for a champagne bottle to fall from a height like items do when coming out of a vending machine? There could be a danger of bottles breaking.

[Linnzi5]

3 hours ago, PeterS said:

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, just had an email from ATG about the Savoy Theatre…

 

A Moët & Chandon vending machine has arrived!

Champagne fanatics, prepare yourselves for perhaps the greatest innovation in the world of bubbly. This champagne vending machine is the only one of its kind in London. To use the vending machine, you'll need a £26 gold coin purchased as you enter at our Moët Garden (located in the Dress Bar) and then you can dispense the drink of your choice, either 200ml bottles of Imperial Brut or Imperial Rose.

Book a luxury experience

Why not make your visit extra memorable with one of our bespoke lounge experiences? (Think access to an exclusive, swanky lounge, plus welcome drinks and a great selection of snacks.)

UPGRADE NOW

Be smarter than the queues   Beat the queues before the performance and during the interval by ordering directly to your seat. Ordering available from day of the show.

FIND OUT MORE

See more. Do more. Feel more.

 

 

 

I went there today for the matinee and yes, there was a lovely Moet machine! £25 for 200cl. Definitely not £26 and ATG + card does not get you 25% off - though it will with champagne from the bar. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Linnzi5

[Linnzi5]

So. Audience behaviour. At The Savoy, audience was well behaved. Then at the Gielgud tonight, two women kept talking behind my friend and me but two glares from me and they stopped - so that’s a win. Why anyone would want to chat with when Lea Salonga is singing is beyond me. Howeve, the prize for worst audience member this weekend goes to the annoying and defiant woman who decided to get her phone out and video and photograph throughout Friday evening’s Les Mis. I reported her to the usher (it was so distracting) other people did and the ushers didn’t even talk to her directly in the interval - they spoke to the whole row she was in. She then got out her phone in the second half and did the same! 😱😡 Quite a few if us complained at the end of the performance when the usher said he’d talk to her directly - a bit late for my liking! 

[Jan McNulty]

9 hours ago, Linnzi5 said:

So. Audience behaviour. At The Savoy, audience was well behaved. Then at the Gielgud tonight, two women kept talking behind my friend and me but two glares from me and they stopped - so that’s a win. Why anyone would want to chat with when Lea Salonga is singing is beyond me. Howeve, the prize for worst audience member this weekend goes to the annoying and defiant woman who decided to get her phone out and video and photograph throughout Friday evening’s Les Mis. I reported her to the usher (it was so distracting) other people did and the ushers didn’t even talk to her directly in the interval - they spoke to the whole row she was in. She then got out her phone in the second half and did the same! 😱😡 Quite a few if us complained at the end of the performance when the usher said he’d talk to her directly - a bit late for my liking! 

 

That's awful. (Filming the performance)

[Linnzi5]

1 hour ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

That's awful. (Filming the performance)

It was very distracting and I can’t believe the ushers didn’t take action. What’s the point in the no camera/filming signs and public announcements if the staff don’t actually do anything to stop it? So many people around her were annoyed and she just took no notice of anyone.

[Emeralds]

I'm afraid I think a champagne vending machine is stupid -and an open invitation to thieves to break in or vandals to break the whole thing for laughs. It's obviously not a big deal if you break in steakml bags of crisps, and soft drinks in aluminium cans are pretty durable.  Champagne also needs to be served very cold, though not freezing (or you'd get it quietly exploding in your freezer and wasting a lot, not to mention the mess). If it slides out too fast and knocks a hard surface, it could end up fizzing and spilling everywhere when you open it. FYI, Savoy Theatre, one of the reasons why people pay £15 a glass for champagne at ROH or a restaurant is that an employee uncorks it for you, ensures it's served correctly at the correct temperature, serves it in a nice elegant glass, and changes it if there is a problem. Or serves a whole bottle with glasses and a nice ice bucket.  £25 for a bottle is a rip off- since I'm not going to be served, I may as well pop out to Sainsburys down the road at the interval and get one for £15-16. 

[Tango Dancer]

Wanting to feed back on my experience of Giselle at the Palace Theatre Manchester.  

 

I think the audience had several people with galloping consumption judging from the amount of coughing (especially in the quiet bits).  It was really annoying and intrusive. I stay home when I have a cold and I wish everyone else did too.  

 

There was also far too much eating and drinking with people bringing bottles of wine and glasses, popcorn and McDonalds.  The seats are not very widely spaced out or spacious so I could see a lot of possible accidents waiting to happen if people were pouring wine during the ballet in the dark.  I was really worried the people next to me were going to spill wine on my nice coat.      

 

Apart from the coughing people were mostly well behaved and didn't talk or move around.  I just wish we didn't have people bringing food and drink in.  I mean it's 50 minutes, can't they do without for that long?  

[Emeralds]

Typo: break in and steal bags of crisps 

 

[Ondine]

3 minutes ago, Tango Dancer said:

McDonalds.

 

What??

[Tango Dancer]

6 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

What??

Well it certainly looked like it from the bags one group were bringing in.  

[Ondine]

That's awful!  Urgh! 

 

There was a time when a night at the ballet was An Event and though not 'evening dress' you dressed up and were on your most polite behaviour. A nice box of chocs maybe at the most, choc mints or violet creams, as long as you didn't rustle the paper cups, an interval drink in a pleasant bar area. Stuffing your face with a Big Mac and fries in the auditorium would have been unthinkable. I'd have found the smell of those disgusting.

 

Maybe it's old age, I'm becoming less and less tolerant...  🤯

 

 

[Pas de Quatre]

I fear it may backfire on audience numbers evetually.  They have been doing the same in Cinemas for ages and most people I know don't go anymore, they just watch films when they become available online.

[LinMM]

Well if the McDonalds trend takes a hold I can see my theatre days will be numbered! 
I still blame the Theatre Managements for this. People will only do what they feel is smiled upon. 
If they were told sorry no McDonalds or popcorn etc allowed in the Auditorium I’m sure it wouldn’t be that much of a blow and people would still go but if there is a feeling of “go ahead have your supper in the auditorium, why not” then people will think it’s okay and “why not” 

[Emeralds]

Surely letting people bring in McDonald's in obvious McD bags into the theatre is shooting themselves in the foot. That's a blow to the revenues of the refreshment sellers in the theatre. Really, all theatres need to say no to all food in the auditorium apart from sips of water for those with medical issues. Also, allowing popcorn, burger meals, sandwich picnics etc in the auditorium just alienates your most loyal  regular attendees....ultimately leading to half empty theatres. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Emeralds

[capybara]

I have to say that, apart from a few glasses of wine being carried in precariously, the audience for Black Sabbath at SW yesterday afternoon seemed remarkably well-behaved - at least in the area where I was sitting.

And last night in The Linbury, an Usher was quick to relieve an attendee of his beer bottle. 

[zxDaveM]

43 minutes ago, Ondine said:

Maybe it's old age, I'm becoming less and less tolerant...  🤯

 

 

Victor Meldrew was right!!!

I'm definitely joining the 'grumpy old man' set - people not being able to go without sustenance for the duration of a film is bad enough, but for 30-60mins for an act in a theatre.... And don't get me started on littering!

[Ondine]

7 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

And don't get me started on littering!

 

Yes, also in cinemas.  Hard to understand why grown adults feel the need to not be able to pick up all the empty stuff they prefer to leave behind. My local indie cinema has recycling bins on the way out, how much effort does it take to pick up and deposit? I don't actually mind anyone having a small bottle of wine (plastic returnable glass) or an ice cream (v posh ones in my local) or a coffee before the show / during the interval in a seat in the cinema,  but the mess so many leave even for live relays of ballet, opera and theatre is hard to fathom. Supposedly intelligent and cultured people, acting like yobs.

 

Popcorn though. Work of the devil.

[zxDaveM]

I was meaning general littering - look under any bush or hedge in the UK and you can almost guarantee a smorgasbord of dropped detritus (takeaway wrappers/packaging, bottles (plastic or glass), cans, etc).

 

In my local cinema, they all but encourage littering, saying to leave your litter by the side of the seat so it can be collected for recycling. I suppose that's better than finding it stuffed down the sides of the seat

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said:

I fear it may backfire on audience numbers evetually.  They have been doing the same in Cinemas for ages and most people I know don't go anymore, they just watch films when they become available online.

 

I now only go early afternoons, towards the end of a run, if I go at all. I sometimes get the cinema to myself, or at worst, just handful of like minded people who just want to see the film

[zxDaveM]

9 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

Popcorn though. Work of the devil.

 

Glad I'm not the only one....

[Jan McNulty]

9 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

 

Glad I'm not the only one....

 

 

19 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

 

Popcorn though. Work of the devil.

 

The stench of popcorn makes me feel nauseous.

 

When my nieces were younger and I used to take them to the cinema on a Sunday afternoon they knew better than to ask for that awful stuff!

[Pas de Quatre]

18 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I don't see the point in paying for a token to then use a vending machine. Surely it'd be quicker to just pay for a drink directly. Also is it good for a champagne bottle to fall from a height like items do when coming out of a vending machine? There could be a danger of bottles breaking.

It's easier to up the cost of buying a token rather than programming a machine to accept cash or cards. Plus they save on bar staff wages. Just the way it is going today. No staff on supermarket checkouts, they try to make customers use self service machines, and the same at rail stations.

[Sophoife]

My local cinema sells nachos at the snack bar. Just one of the reasons I'm so glad they no longer have the ballet films, despite having had to go back to the 7-hour round trip by road!!

 

Due to the timing of the ballet films, usually 11am or 12 noon, and the fact that I am diabetic, I take a sandwich or wrap and a banana or some blueberries in a plastic box I can open soundlessly. No smell, no noise, and I don't keel over due to low blood sugar.

[alisonruss]

At the ATG theatres in Manchester, I have noticed that when someone orders drinks/snacks to be delivered to their seat, it is brought to them by an usher in a brown paper bag. Would this be what you saw, Tango Dancer?

 

I agree with you regarding the number and type of drinks brought into the auditorium, although I believe it may also be partly to do with the fact that some people have barely bought their interval drinks when they have to go back into the auditorium.

 

Oddly, I thought that the audience behaviour at the ENB performances in Manchester this week was much better than at the performance of their Swan Lake in Manchester in autumn 2022. (After that performance, I curtailed my theatre going for several months). Since the dreadful episode of ‘The Bodyguard’ performance at the Palace Theatre about a month later, where the police were called and the performance stopped, steps do seem to have been taken to make sure that the pre-performance announcements are a lot louder and clearer. I have also seen ushers take firm action on people who are taking photos during a performance. In the areas where I sat this week, the audience was much quieter throughout the performance, and the coughing was generally stifled more quickly.

 

I used not to be very good a completing post-performance surveys, but now I complete them assiduously, working on the principle that, as a previously fairly regular theatre goer, I should take the opportunity to voice why I now go to the theatre less frequently. There are now a few more completed surveys for this week, complaining about the sale of snacks with rustly and crackly wrapping, or that involve noisy eating, because it is not only distracting for other audience members, but disrespectful to the cast and musicians. Ditto that the pre-performance email and the request that the professionals on stage are the only ones ‘entertaining with their performance’ is only seen by a minority of the audience, and therefore should be reiterated as part of the pre-performance announcement.

[alison]

2 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

The stench of popcorn makes me feel nauseous.

 

Me too.  I've been known to move well away from people eating it in a cinema.  And then there's the crunching ...

[Sim]

I guess I'm the odd one out.  I love popcorn!  But only if it's slathered with melted butter and salt.  I only eat it in the house, having made it myself from the kernels.  None of this bagged or microwave stuff for me!  I couldn't possibly imagine eating it in a cinema now (although I did as a teenager), and definitely not in a theatre!