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Post by ceebee on Jul 14, 2022 19:08:24 GMT
Lots of buttons in 'old school' musicals - Anything Goes and My Fair Lady are good examples.
I LOVE THIS THREAD!
Agree with lots already raised - who are these persistent clappers in the audience, arms ready, hands on standby, ready to start a clap before it peters out? "Johnny Be Good" in BTTF and "Took the words right out my mouth" in BOOH are my two pet hates for clapping, especially as the instigators are usually well lubed up by then.
Plus, at BTTF I had two annoying folk directly in front of me doing that really annoying "there's a punchline here so I'm going to laugh just ever so slightly too early because I know its coming" and thus ruin it for EVERYBODY else who might be seeing the show for the first time.
I hate these feckers.
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Post by hannechalk on Jul 14, 2022 19:20:36 GMT
It's one of the reasons I like Blood Brothers - no clapping till the end.
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Post by singingbird on Jul 14, 2022 21:26:43 GMT
I've heard that Sondheim and Styne deliberately - and against their better judgement, from a dramatic/character POV - put a button on the end of Rose's Turn in Gypsy, because if the audience didn't get to clap, they'd be worried that they wouldn't focus on the following scene. So I really do understand that I'm in a minority, but I'm also the kind of person who watches a film credits through to the end in the cinema and then likes to sit in silence for a bit before gradually 'waking up' back to the real world. In other words, I like to get totally immersed in something and hate having anything remind me that it is an artificial experience. I'm delighted, though, that people enjoy themselves so much at the theatre and want to express it. that's a lovely thing!
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Post by Matt on Jul 14, 2022 22:23:43 GMT
Because I’ve seen a few shows quite a number of times I know the songs where it’s not so obvious that the song is over and there’s like a few seconds of awkward silence, so I like to be the one who gets the clapping going 😅. But I NEVER clap early.
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Post by anthony on Jul 15, 2022 10:45:30 GMT
I hate this, but there is one moment that I really love it. Phantom. At the end, after Phantom's last line, on occasion the audience burst into applause and I always love it when it happens. I don't know why.
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Post by jr on Jul 15, 2022 12:21:38 GMT
And then, why clap at all until the end of the act/play? It interrupts the action and sometimes it is difficult to follow naturally onto the next scene.
One of the many reasons I love Passion by Sondheim is that the music is continuous and there is no place to clap until the end.
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Post by chels on Jul 15, 2022 16:13:02 GMT
Clapping like a seal at everything too soon annoys me a lot as does the peer pressure for standing ovations. It might just be me but I've found myself joining in with standing ovations even if it's not necessarily a production I would stand for because everyone else is and I don't want to be the only wally sitting down and coming across like a grumpy cow.
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Post by showoff on Jul 15, 2022 20:14:34 GMT
Going on what I was talking about, Amber Riley being clapped and cheered while holding her last note of And I am Telling You, the song is actually designed NOT to get an applause, The Dreams come in just after she's finished singing Love, Love Me. She's supposed to have sung her heart out and hasn't even earned an applause. It's literally designed that way, and yet.....
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Post by A.Ham on Jul 15, 2022 21:45:02 GMT
It would be super awkward if we didn’t clap after musical numbers though! Sometimes when it’s directed so that there’s dialogue immediately after a song and you don’t get to clap, or it gets quickly curtailed it feels sooooooo wrong. An obvious one here is Me And The Sky in Come From Away - Beverley has just given the solo vocal performance of the night, but it cuts straight into “Thursday…” and the next part of the story. Which for me gives the “…used as a bomb.” even more power and significance.. |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 15, 2022 23:13:24 GMT
I hate this, but there is one moment that I really love it. Phantom. At the end, after Phantom's last line, on occasion the audience burst into applause and I always love it when it happens. I don't know why. Sympathy for the devil. |
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Post by steve10086 on Jul 16, 2022 3:34:02 GMT
who are these persistent clappers in the audience, arms ready, hands on standby, ready to start a clap before it peters out? "Johnny Be Good" in BTTF and "Took the words right out my mouth" in BOOH are my two pet hates for clapping, especially as the instigators are usually well lubed up by then. Well I’m one of them at BOOH. You’re obviously not a Steinman or Meat Loaf fan if you’re not clapping to that song, it’s traditional! And I’m never “lubed up” at a musical… that’s after the show! |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 16, 2022 6:38:36 GMT
who are these persistent clappers in the audience, arms ready, hands on standby, ready to start a clap before it peters out? "Johnny Be Good" in BTTF and "Took the words right out my mouth" in BOOH are my two pet hates for clapping, especially as the instigators are usually well lubed up by then. Well I’m one of them at BOOH. You’re obviously not a Steinman or Meat Loaf fan if you’re not clapping to that song, it’s traditional! And I’m never “lubed up” at a musical… that’s after the show! I'm actually (very obviously) a Jim Steinman fan, and he was way too cool for that happy clappy nonsense. Meat Loaf only tolerated it because he knew it was an opportunity to connect directly with his audience (something he valued hugely). |
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Post by danb on Jul 16, 2022 6:44:18 GMT
Please let’s not start any ‘obviously not a fan’ nonsense. That sort of behaviour is reserved for teenage ‘Six’ fans trying to outdo each other.
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Post by steve10086 on Jul 16, 2022 8:40:55 GMT
Please let’s not start any ‘obviously not a fan’ nonsense. That sort of behaviour is reserved for teenage ‘Six’ fans trying to outdo each other. No, sorry, I’m not taking that. I made the comment because it’s traditional to clap to that song, so figured the poster wasn’t aware of that. You can wind your neck back in now! |
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Post by danb on Jul 16, 2022 9:43:43 GMT
Please let’s not start any ‘obviously not a fan’ nonsense. That sort of behaviour is reserved for teenage ‘Six’ fans trying to outdo each other. No, sorry, I’m not taking that. I made the comment because it’s traditional to clap to that song, so figured the poster wasn’t aware of that. You can wind your neck back in now! Take it. Don’t take it. Either is fine. It was intolerant and elitist and undeserved, Bat fan or no Bat fan. |
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Post by steve10086 on Jul 16, 2022 9:47:17 GMT
No, sorry, I’m not taking that. I made the comment because it’s traditional to clap to that song, so figured the poster wasn’t aware of that. You can wind your neck back in now! Take it. Don’t take it. Either is fine. It was intolerant and elitist and undeserved, Bat fan or no Bat fan. No it wasn’t, and mind your own business. |
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Post by scarpia on Jul 16, 2022 10:06:45 GMT
It would be super awkward if we didn’t clap after musical numbers though! Sometimes when it’s directed so that there’s dialogue immediately after a song and you don’t get to clap, or it gets quickly curtailed it feels sooooooo wrong. Couldn't disagree more about this! It depends on the show but I do prefer it when directors try and remove applause buttons. Maria Callas once said that she hated applause break after big arias because she had worked so hard to establish a theatrical mood and get people engrossed in the moment, and then the applause break shattered all of that. It's particularly annoying when you know the writers do not want applause after a particular moment yet directors put it in anyway (see after 'Nessun Dorma' in Turandot). A nice moment in Phantom (unless the new production has done away with this also) is the end of 'All I Ask of You', directed so it goes straight into the next scene. Same at the end of the title song. Applause at any of those points would ruin the moment. |
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Post by danb on Jul 16, 2022 10:18:51 GMT
Take it. Don’t take it. Either is fine. It was intolerant and elitist and undeserved, Bat fan or no Bat fan. No it wasn’t, and mind your own business. ‘Mind your own business’ in a reply to me? Bizarre. |
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Post by showoff on Jul 16, 2022 12:55:50 GMT
It would be super awkward if we didn’t clap after musical numbers though! Sometimes when it’s directed so that there’s dialogue immediately after a song and you don’t get to clap, or it gets quickly curtailed it feels sooooooo wrong. It does happen though, in Cabaret you didn't get to clap on the absolutely outstanding Fraulein Schneider's What Would You Do. I mean Liza literally stole the show with that one, amazing and no applause at the end. |
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Post by steve10086 on Jul 16, 2022 13:49:24 GMT
No it wasn’t, and mind your own business. ‘Mind your own business’ in a reply to me? Bizarre. Yeah bizarre blah blah blah |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 16, 2022 13:54:30 GMT
Come on guys let’s leave it there now please. Otherwise like a bat outta hell posts will be gone, gone, gaaawwwn 🦇 🙂
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Post by danb on Jul 16, 2022 13:59:28 GMT
Mouth zipped! 🤣
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Post by jojo on Jul 16, 2022 15:26:00 GMT
It's when people start cheering when a song begins we'll know it's gone too far. I heard cheering at start of songs at &Juliet .... although this behavior does seem to be more at jukebox musicals where an audience member is trying to show off that they recognize the song. I remember back in the day Stars in their Eyes had what I presume was canned, or artificially instigated enthusiastic clapping after (I think) the second line of the song. It happened every time in the same place, and it did seem intended to signify that the audience was delighted with the choice of song, so the audience at home should be too. The predictability of it became a running joke in our house. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 16, 2022 15:31:26 GMT
I heard cheering at start of songs at &Juliet .... although this behavior does seem to be more at jukebox musicals where an audience member is trying to show off that they recognize the song. I remember back in the day Stars in their Eyes had what I presume was canned, or artificially instigated enthusiastic clapping after (I think) the second line of the song. It happened every time in the same place, and it did seem intended to signify that the audience was delighted with the choice of song, so the audience at home should be too. The predictability of it became a running joke in our house. Same here. We used to rip the pish out of it. I was particularly keen when it was such a famous song which you know from the first few bars but the audience couldn't clap just yet, just to be sure |
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Post by A.Ham on Jul 16, 2022 16:30:14 GMT
I always assumed it was more to do with the audience’s verdict on how much they sounded like the singer they were pretending to be? Hence not applauding until after the opening lines rather than as soon as they recognised the opening bars?
As you say though, it was a constant for every performance, so lost any kind of judgement value on how good they were or weren’t - even when they didn’t sound much like them at all there was still the same over-enthusiastic applause. I could always picture a floor manager or studio assistant frantically waving their arms around at the right moment to signal the audience to react. 90s Saturday night telly though, they don’t do it quite like that anymore!
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