Since the pandemic, there seem to have been a few incidents of bad behaviour at live events. I'm left wondering if audiences have forgotten how to behave, or perhaps they do remember the rules, and simply don't care. That's entirely possible.
Back in April 2023, the Palace Theatre in Manchester cut short a performance of The Bodyguard due to 'disruptive customers', who repeatedly sang over the cast and 'caused a disturbance'. Those attending the show had been asked not to sing, and there were even signs around the venue reminding them, but a determined few refused to stay seated, and decided that people who had paid a lot of money to be there would much rather hear them murdering I Will Always Love You than the professionals on stage. Ridiculous behaviour.
A performance of Macbeth starring David Tennant was delayed for 15 minutes in December 2024 due to a disruptive audience member, who refused to wait until a suitable junction in the performance to return to his seat after going for a bathroom break. One witness told The Times: "He was insisting on getting back to his seat, and then lots of people kicked off about his disturbance." Staff at the theatre raised the house lights, and Tennant was asked to leave the stage until things were resolved. The man eventually left, and the performance continued.
In the United States, Rachel McAdams was reportedly heckled on the opening night of her Broadway debut in the play Mary Jane, and a survey of 1,500 members of a theatre union recently revealed that bad audience behaviour is on the rise, with many having directly witnessed or experienced it for themselves.
Dr Kirsty Sedgman from Bristol University told The Guardian: "It's a really emotive subject, especially after the pandemic because everyone wants to be together, but they have very different ideas about what that should mean. We're seeing a tension between people who want to have a fun night out, drink a lot and be rowdy, and those who crave that sense of quiet togetherness that theatre director Peter Brook calls 'the good kind of silence'".
The latest drama involves a Peter Kay gig at Manchester's AO Arena, when the comedian asked Keith on security to remove a man who was repeatedly shouting his Phoenix Nights catchphrase 'garlic bread', before also asking them to evict a woman who kept calling his name. The latter says she was upset to be compared to Emmerdale star Lisa Riley during the exchange, which paused the show for several minutes in the same way as the David Tennant Macbeth incident.
For his part, Peter Kay said they had been "disrupting from the very start" and he "did my best to address the situation and made light of it, as any comedian would, but unfortunately their interruptions continued". If you'll allow me a bit of shameless namedropping, I was lucky enough to meet Peter Kay in the days of "That Peter Kay Thing", when he was pretty new to the comedy scene. I was DJing a wedding in Wakefield, and he spent a fair bit of time chatting to me about his love of 80s music. He was friendly, down to earth, and really nice!
Fast forward to now, and I'm afraid my sympathy with those evicted audience members is very limited. If I'd paid a lot of money to be at that show, I've not shelled out my hard earned pennies to hear someone who likes the sound of their own voice bellowing a comedian's catchphrases or trying to be the star of the show. If you can't keep quiet, stay at home in your oneside and watch the DVD with a takeaway pizza.
I'm not saying gigs should be quiet to the point of being able to hear a pin drop, but have some respect for those who are on stage performing. Moreover, hospitality staff work extremely hard, often for pretty underwhelming wages, and too many people forget their manners when dealing with them. I sound a bit puritanical saying this perhaps, but is there a case for limiting the sale of alcohol? I have a bit of sympathy with calls for a two drink limit for people who board flights, so perhaps the same rule could apply in the case of live events?
To be honest, we wouldn't need any such stipulations if people just remembered how to behave, and had a bit of consideration for others. Is that too much to hope for?
Alex B Cann Column - February 6th 2025
Alex Cann's weekly blog - 9th January
