Leaving a Show Mid-way is Disrespectful

Yesterday we tweeted about a story that appeared in the LA Times about a theatre writer who has been barred from getting free tickets by a broadway press agent.

Why? She wrote an article in the WSJ about often leaving shows halfway through.

After reading the LA Times article we were pretty annoyed - but reading her original piece made us down right angry. The blasé tone of the article, and the lack of awareness how her comments might be viewed, was pretty shocking.

Rather than feeling embarrassed for leaving shows or even acknowledging her behaviour, she is proud - wears it like a badge of honour.

Leaving midway through a live performance is just down right discourteous. Live shows are a give an take between the performers and audience. As a person whose job is to write about culture, one would assume she would realise that.

She is a freelance culture writer, so while she was not critiquing the shows she bolted from, you would imagine that she would still feel that as a culture writer she would understand the value of staying through to the end. Never mind the respect it shows to every single person involved in the production of the show.

And here is the twist, the tickets were free, yet she was not critiquing the show. Wonder if she will ever get a free ticket again. Here is the thing. I get it, sometimes a show is bad - really bad. And yet no matter how terrible a show is - there are always moments when it shines. That in and of itself makes it worth staying.

Shows whether opera, theatre, dance, music - take a hell of a lot of effort to produce. No matter how bad I think the story/production/acting/directing etc. is the people who are up on stage and behind the scenes deserve my full attention. Have I thought about leaving halfway through a show - of course I have. Have I ever done it? No.

When arts and cultural industry is struggling as it is, having a writer applaud herself for this kind of behaviour - on an extremely public platform such as the WST - is maddening.

Are people going to walk out of shows? Of course they are. But we should not be celebrating the fact, rather - think of each show as a learning experience - good, bad or otherwise.