As a theatre person, I love seeing onstage shows. I prefer straight plays over musicals, as I’ve said before, but I don’t think you should see either with me. Now, why would I say that considering I love theatre and I want to encourage others to love it as well?
Because I’m an awful audience member.
And I have some examples: one with my past roommates, one with my mother, and one when I was on my own.
Let’s start with my roommates, and actually this wasn’t a play. It was a movie, the last Hobbit movie to be exact. When I watch movies, there are several factors I keep an eye on: characters (acting and how they’re written), writing, editing, and stunts. The last Hobbit movie, as much shit as it got, was quite beautiful. And when I get excited, I must express! Much to the amusement of my roommates when I was all over the final battle. They never let me live it down, and they never saw a movie with me again.
A while ago, I got to see ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ the musical in Utah with my mother. I love ‘Hunchback’. It’s one of the few musicals I genuinely love. I was very excited to get to see it (and if you want to know deeper thoughts on what I thought of the show I saw, I put a review on my blog that you can find here). Again, my excitement showed and I raved (quietly) to Mother as the show went on. Problem is, I also went off on what was wrong about it. I was full critic-mode when I really was just enjoying the show. Mother didn’t seem to mind, or she was just being polite.
I fully realized how awful I am when I watched the David Tennant/Catherine Tate stage version of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Thank God I watched this alone, because I was having full conversations with the characters, the actors, the designers, and Shakespeare about what I thought. Mother did walk in sometime during the show, and I was excitedly telling her what I thought. She left the room. When I finished the AMAZING show, I sat there exhausted (as I do after a good or thought-provoking play) and realized, I talk a lot.
The blessing is I keep it quiet between me and whoever is with me. I’ve also learned to sit away from other audience members when I can so I don’t disturb anyone. But if you see a show with me, you are under threat of me exuding my excitement onto you.
That’s why you should not see a play with me.
Alexandra TG 