Earlier this week, SteveOnBroadway posed an interesting question on Twitter about whether or not you've ever walked out of a show. And Chris picked up on it in Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals.I answered in both of those forums - the answer is no - but I always have more to say!
The simple, easy answer is that I have never walked out of a play or musical or even a movie. Okay, I'll admit The Tempest, with Ian McKellen, is in my DVR, only partly watched. I'll get back to it someday, I promise. But that's the exception. It's even rare for me to not finish a book.
In answering Steve's and Chris' queries, I said that Broadway theatre tickets are so expensive - over $100 unless I can find a discount code, that there's no way I'd ever walk out out of a show until the bitter end.
Monetary considerations aside, I don't get to New York that often and it's still a thrill for me to see a play or musical on Broadway, even if it's one I don't like very much. I came to New York to see a show. If I left, what would I do? Where would I go? And there's always a chance things will improve in Act II.
But even when I'm at home and buying a $15 rush ticket at Trinity Repertory Company, I've still never been tempted. In the midst of all of my responsibilities in life, going to the theatre is a luxury, a chance to sit back and relax and immerse myself in someone else's world for a couple of hours.
As I've said before, I'm a pretty easy theatergoer to please. I can always find something I like in a show. And I've simply never seen anything - on Broadway or elsewhere - that's so bad it would make me want to gather up my belongings and leave. I always want to stay and find out how things end.
Sure, there are times when I've been bored. But unless something is so offensive that I simply can't bear to stay, or unless there's something on stage that's making me physically ill, I can't ever imagine walking out. I'm just happy to be there.
4 comments:
I've never walked out of a show, but there are plenty of books I haven't finished and I did walk out of one movie. A Clockwork Orange. I was 17 years old and on a date in downtown Providence. I walked out without a dime in my purse and prayed my date would follow me out and take me home. He did. And 6 years late I married him!
Awww, that is such a great story! I've read enough about A Clockwork Orange to know that I never want to see it. I'm very squeamish!
I've never walked out of a show and have been stunned when I saw people leaving. (Saw people leaving Spring Awakening in PVD). I don't get to the theater often enough to waste a minute and as you said Esther, I can usually find something good about it.
Like Pam, I do put books aside, probably more often than she does. And ALSO like Pam, I sort of walked out of a Clockwork Orange when I was watching it on early, early cable TV and I was so horrified by the thing that I ran for the TV switch and just about curled up in a ball on the couch to hide from the images! Horrid!
Reminds me of when I started to watch Psycho when I was a kid. I had to run from the room and I've never had a desire to return to it!
I've heard of other people leaving Spring Awakening, in other cities. I guess it could be shocking if you didn't know what you were getting in for. But they do make it pretty clear in the advertising.
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