I went to NYC to see Beauty And The Beast yesterday. The entire production was wonderful. When the cast was coming out at the end of the show to take their bows, they all received raucous applause…with the exception of Gaston. For those of you who haven’t seen (or don’t recall) the story, Gaston is the oafish (but very amusing) character that wants to wed Belle, while she holds him in disdain.
The gentlemen portraying Gaston did just as fantasic a job as everyone else…but when he came out for his bow, a significant part of the audience booed him…enough so that the boos were clearly audible over the applause of the rest of the audience.
I mentioned this to my mother on our way out and her take on it was that since he was the “bad guy”, the fact that the audience booed him was sort of a tribute to how well he had played his part. IMO, it was just flat out rude. Regardless of what you thought of the character he played, the applause at the end of the show is an appreciation of how well you played your role, and the booing was out of line.
That is quite irritating, and it is definately not proper theatre-going etiquette.
Remember also that there were probably lots of little kids in the audience at a show like that who don’t know any better. Did you see a matinee or an evening show?
It was a matinee…maybe that was part of the trouble (although I don’t believe that the booing was isolated to children). In any case, I hope that any child that booed got (at the very least) a stern talking-to from their parent(s). :mad:
In melodramas, the audience was expected to boo at the villain. However, this wasn’t a melodrama, and if I were a professional actor I would be heartily irritated.
Ginger…it wouldn’t have bothered me in the least if he had been booed during the performance when he was performing whatever dastardly deeds his role entailed. My peeve is with booing him during his curtain call, when you’re supposed to be expressing your admiration for a role well-played.
Very rude. And I don’t mean just garden-variety rude, either. This was a major breach of theater etiquette and I don’t blame you for being disturbed and irritated by it.
That is plain rude. Beyond rude, its ignorant. It’s simpley not done. cultured sniff
While they didn’t know any better, so if I were the actor I wouldn’t take it to heart, its important to realize that proper manners need to be taught and not every body has a clue what to do at performances.
Now hold on a minute…
I recently did a production of “Titanic,” and the
guy who played Ismay (the “bad guy” who’s lack of judgment
causes the ship to crash) got “boos” during the bows, but
he just grinned like a hyena and even told us afterwards he didn’t mind, he thought it was funny. I dunno, maybe I’m just an uncultured swine, but it seemed alright to me.
I also think it was terribly uncouth. No matter who did it, there’s no reason to boo an actor! Unless he turned in a really, really, really bad performance. But even then… during the curtain call? That’s the actors’ big moment of grandeur. That’s when they get to hear all of those well-deserved accolades! To boo someone is to convey the ultimate insult to a stage actor. It’s downright mean. I don’t care if you played HITLER, if you did a damn good job Hitlerizing, you get cheers. It’s not like people are cheering the things the character did in the play!
I would have NEVER booed. No matter how bad I think somone is, I would never boo. I know how scary it is onstage, and I’d be seriously hurt if I got a booing, no matter how bad I had done.
