Walked out of a show for the first time ever, unsure if I regret it
ETA: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. This was the 45th Broadway show I’ve seen in less than 20 years and the first I left during. I feel bad because honestly I wasn’t invested in the plot, and my boyfriend and I had no clue what was happening.
But this was probably due to the terrible audience behavior. Despite all of the warnings, we spent the entire show watching people in their phones. At least 3 separate people in our aisle were not even checking a notification or anything, but using their phones fully and it could all be seen (despite their awful attempts at hiding it). A lady in front of us took insta pics during act ii and got snappy at an usher for telling her to turn the phone off. People brought crackers and were crinkling the wrapper; it got so bad that I asked to be moved, and they had plenty of seats. We had no clue what was happening in the show because of phones going off excessively and being surrounded by distractions that we decided to leave. I talked to some front house staff and they felt terrible about it. They said it has been happening so much at that show and they don’t know what more they can do. They said their previous shows have never had this issue, but it’s terrible now. I feel bad for wasting money on a show I have heard great reviews for, but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for me. I am also extremely stressed and busy now, so maybe that was part of it, but I love seeing shows to get an escape from real world, which wasn’t the case here