NEW YORK—Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway: Marimba ringtones! Rat-a-tat texting! The shaming “shhhhh!”
Years of tension over audience behavior hit a dramatic climax this month, when a teenager clambered onto a stage to try to recharge his phone and veteran star Patti LuPone whisked a phone away from a texting spectator, hours after performing a matinee punctuated by incoming calls. LuPone says she’s even considering quitting stage work because of the electronic onslaught.
As Broadway faces off against pocket-size sound-and-light shows, performers and some patrons say a hyper-connected culture are shredding the immersive experience of live theater.
“I’ve just spent pretty close to a day’s salary on theater tickets — I don’t want to be distracted by people turning on their phone to check the time or text,” Broadway fan Robin Satty of Piscataway, New Jersey, said this past week as she went to see the best-play Tony winner “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”
Still, some theater insiders say it’s time to educate, rather than scold, an increasingly connected audience that may not be steeped in theater etiquette. Some even are experimenting with embracing patrons’ digital habits, to a point.
