Remember manly man Kevin Williamson at the National Review, who yesterday reflected on his masculine bona fides:
I had a genuinely new experience at the theater tonight: I was thrown out.
The show was Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, which was quite good and which I recommend. The audience, on the other hand, was horrible — talking, using their phones, and making a general nuisance of themselves. It was bad enough that I seriously considered leaving during the intermission, something I’ve not done before. The main offenders were two parties of women of a certain age, the sad sort with too much makeup and too-high heels, and insufficient attention span for following a two-hour musical. But my date spoke with the theater management during the intermission, and they apologetically assured us that the situation would be remedied.
It was not. The lady seated to my immediate right (very close quarters on bench seating) was fairly insistent about using her phone. I asked her to turn it off. She answered: “So don’t look.” I asked her whether I had missed something during the very pointed announcements to please turn off your phones, perhaps a special exemption granted for her. She suggested that I should mind my own business.
Here’s a picture of the theatre and performance in question from a review yesterday, and it isn’t some quiet darkened performance, it’s a rousing musical where the guests sit around the state and are served food and drinks and… the lights are on so the god damned cell phone glow couldn’t even be used as an excuse for his assault:
A description of the show:
The clash of armies is not to be heard during “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” the vibrant, transporting new musical adapted from a potent slice of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” True, Napoleon is nominally present, presiding with a stern semi-smile over the proceedings from within a copy of a Jacques-Louis David portrait. But the roiling sounds of battle do not intrude on the romantic drama unfolding before us in Dave Malloy’s freshly imagined pop opera, which opened on Thursday night at a custom-built cabaret called Kazino, in the meatpacking district.
The clash of cutlery, on the other hand, occasionally echoes as Tolstoy’s tale of love, corruption and fateful meetings swirls like a feverish dream before us, above us, around us. Following its acclaimed, sellout run last fall at Ars Nova, the production has been given a stylish and sumptuous upgrade, and now comes with a full meal attached.
The show is performed in an elaborately appointed salon, with claret-colored velvet draperies and period paintings adorning the walls. Spiky candelabras modeled on the starbursts at the Metropolitan Opera twinkle from above. (Mimi Lien’s set designs form a crucial part of the mise-en-scène.) The audience sits at tables and banquettes clustered tightly together. Dinner service begins an hour before the performance. (The Broadway-size price tag is $125, but on Broadway you don’t get borscht.) For those who truly want to enter into the spirit of the drama, carafes of vodka can be purchased.
Yes, bottle service has come to Off Broadway. (Where more appropriately than in the meatpacking district?) I suspect it was inevitable: audiences are flocking to productions that dispense entirely with the theater’s traditional fourth wall and provide nightclub-style amenities. Punchdrunk’s “Sleep No More,” which allows patrons to dawdle for a drink before, during and after the show, remains a hot ticket. (One of its producers is among the presenters of “Natasha.”) The interactive musical “Here Lies Love,” at the Public Theater, invites the audience to boogie on down with Imelda Marcos and friends.
But those with anxiety issues surrounding audience participation need not fear for their nerve endings at Mr. Malloy’s romp, directed with propulsive sweep by Rachel Chavkin. Although the characters may occasionally plop down at a table, and much of the drama unfolds in a narrow alley between the tables, no enforced folk dancing will be required, and no one will offer an arm to pull you into a polonaise.
These sociopaths will lie about anything.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m shocked, shocked! to learn that Williamson lied about the environment of the venue.
Will someone please procure some smelling salts, I’m having an attack of the vapors.
Trollhattan
Woman should have decked mister feline-like with a vodka carafe. (She must have been visiting, not an actual New Yorker.)
bigfatdrunk
Where the hell is the “bench seating?” Was he served his meal on a bench?
The Red Pen
A lot of the commenters on the original article cheer this guy on in the “I wish I had the balls to do that,” vein. Some of them go to elaborate lengths to provide an exceptionalist justification to snatching a cell phone from a stranger and hurling it across the room.
I think about 27% of the comments are like that.
gogol's wife
I was surprised by that story last night, based on my recollection of the pictures of the original run of this show, which looked like a night-club free-for-all. Until I saw this review today, I thought maybe they had transferred it into a conventional theater setting where darkness and quiet would be important, but it looks like that’s not the case. I don’t understand what he was talking about.
I have to teach War and Peace next year, so I really should go see this, but I think I’ll take a pass.
Amir Khalid
The surprise here — for me, at any rate — is not that Kevin Williamson was making extravagant claims about his manliness, but that he did it with a lie that could be so easily found out. ETA: That’s just plain stupid.
ranchandsyrup
Since diagnosing via intertr0ns is all the rage these days, I’ll remotely diagnose KW with NPD. No cure for that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
That, to me, is the amazing thing about these assholes.
Their lies are so easily proven. They don’t imagine that anyone will follow up and check their stories.
Their brains are wired in some bizarre way that it never occurs to them that they can be fact checked without a great deal of effort.
Jamey
@Amir Khalid: It’s never the crime; it’s always the cover-up…
Citizen_X
I’ll bet five Ameros he lied about his phone-crushing heroism, too.
And this bit of misogyny leaps out at me:
“Sad?” Loser. Such women were the heroines of, what, eighty Pedro Almodovar movies?
Villago Delenda Est
BTW, that review suggests strongly that you’ll have a roaring good time and that the audience is intended to be part of the ambiance of the presentation, which is a delightful innovation, but this is off-Broadway and therefore amenable to flouting the conventions we’re used to.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Which is really hard to do whilst rocking a sportcoat with pocket square and salmon-hued dress shirt.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he might check out Clint’s chair-lecturing outfit for tips on how it’s done.
Hoodie
That explains a lot, particularly his comments on the general audience behavior. What a yutz. Kind of like revised Bengazi emails.
SatanicPanic
@Citizen_X: “insufficient attention span”- no Mr Williamson, you’re just boring
The Ancient Randonneur
Why, oh why, could it not have been Snooki sitting next to him? Sigh …
David in NY
Can we leave this? The guy probably committed a few crimes and is a total jerk. Enough said. But, on the other hand, people who are texting during a performance are assholes (majority view); people who are texting during a performance paid for their seats and can do whatever they want, and anyway, texting shouldn’t bother anybody when the lights are up and the sound is off (minority view).
Sorry if I’ve missed anybody’s fine point (bringing toddlers to a movie is worse, etc.).
Next issue of great moment, please.
Redshirt
There’s a little catch phrase that summarizes the exploits of Freepers when they say they did this or told that Libtard off. “thingsthatdidnthappen.txt”.
Living in a fantasy world has all kinds of real world implications!
YellowJournalism
Reminds me a bit of Tony and Tina’s Wedding. My sis went to it in Vegas, and you’re part of the “wedding party” at dinner.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Want to my first panto last winter and LOVED it. They had us flinging foam balls at the players at one point and of course, the players fling candy at the audience at irregular intervals. Didn’t know what to expect beforehand but I was never moved to shush anybody in the audience. Amidst the chaos I seriously doubt anytbody would notice someone texting.
The opera it ain’t and this production sounds at least as kinetic.
Fanshawe
Why does Obama still refuse to label Ken Williamson a terrorist?
srv
Given that the woman and black suit probably didn’t know who he was, I’m hoping she hears about this and files assault or property damage charges on him.
cathyx
What surprised me was that the woman was texting, as I learned from Betty.
Maybe he was trying to impress his ‘date’ with his manliness.
Bench seating? That must be like the nose bleed section at a ball game.
Hill Dweller
The Republican Party is an intellectually and morally bankrupt cult. They have no solutions for the nation’s problems. Hell, their ideology actually hurts the country.
J.W. Hamner
Guys, guys, guys… how can you expect a person to tolerate somebody playing with their phone when there is the clank of silverware to appreciate?
jl
I’ve been meaning, in my spare time, to write a rousing dinner theater drama about first or second century Rome. The audience would recline on sofas and eat, drink, fornicate, and vomit to their heart’s content.
They probably should be allowed to diddle the wait staff playing the slaves, but not sure how to work that with our peculiar and narrow minded modern legal system.
Anyway, when I get that sucker into production, I’ll send Williamson some complementary tix.
Rob in Buffalo
Errr – Do we know that that picture is really from the performance, rather than a publicity shot? Not that I’m defending Williamson, who clearly is a jerk.
PeakVT
As long as lying works for Republican politicians and pundits, Republican politicians and pundits will lie.
MikeJ
@David in NY: GYOFB
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
And hilarity ensues…
MikeJ
Here’s another shot of the club/theatre.
In fact, a whole slideshow:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/natasha-pierre-the-great-comet-of-1812
Cassidy
High maintenance people being high maintenance.
Yatsuno
@Cassidy: Are you being ironic? :P
OT: ROTATING TAG LINES ARE BACK!!
Vince
From that photo it looks to me like the performance area is lit up but the rest of the room is in darkness. And people who talk/text/call/etc. during performances are pretty much the scum of the Earth so I think I’m going to take Williamson’s side on this one.
Trollhattan
@jl:
You should write in a part where he plays the back half of Caligula’s horse.
Pinkamena Panic
@David in NY
@Vince: So assault and theft (and lying about the whole thing) are okay as long as you’re doing it because of a “(majority view)” or if the person you’re doing to is “the scum of the earth”. Well, that just answers everything. Hey, everyone, as long as the majority is supposedly on your side, anything you do is A-OK!
Assholes. No, wait. Defenders of Assholes.
Cassidy
@Cassidy: I shoulld have added and didn’t ETA in time:
I’m talking about this Williamson fool.
Rob in Buffalo
That might be bench seating in the slideshow that MikeJ posted. Not defending Williamson, but what he admits to doing is bad enough; no need to make stuff up.
schrodinger's cat
For unreconstructed racism and misogyny check out this blog. Initially I thought it was some kind of performance art but sadly no, this woman is for real. I have seen her byline at US News and World Report at times.
MikeJ
@Vince:
Doesn’t look like that in this photo:
http://media.timeout.com/images/resizeBestFit/100685479/660/370/image.jpg
Even in the very back there’s a spot directly on a table with no actors near it.
TooManyJens
@Vince: If there’s enough light for people to see their food, then it’s nowhere near as dark as a theater typically is.
Although if there was announcement for people to turn off their phones, the woman was still being a jerk. But it doesn’t justify destroying her property.
Emma
@Vince: wrong. If you look at the slideshow the whole room is lit at times. One of the singers sits on a table at one point and interacts with the audience. It’s meant to be loose and “un-serious theater”.
Scott S.
Betcha a nickel that Williamson had his temper tantrum over something completely unrelated. And that whenever it comes out, it’ll make him look like the colossal douchemook he truly is.
scav
@Vince: Well then, look at @MikeJ‘s top image which even seems to have a dreaded texter (young male, thus licit or at least unassailed?) to the left, HORRORS!. Any single image which is stunning with chiaroscuro may not perfectly describe general ambiance.
Kip the Wonder Rat
@David in NY: Uh, does the new site update work differently for you than it does for me? ‘Cause when I don’t want to spend time on a post/thread that doesn’t interest me, I don’t click on it. Does the new site update force-feed posts to you such that you have to read through every one of them? Man, that must suck for you.
Redshirt
I’m waiting for many other reports of these types of incidents. As Liberals condemn this guy, that will me the Wingnuts hail him as a hero and emulate him.
Hide your phones, Ladies!
schrodinger's cat
@Redshirt:
Of a certain age, with lots of makeup and high heels, seems like a caricature of Carrie and her pals from Sex and the City.
Cassidy
@Yatsuno: Nah. In the theater etiqetee thread, it’s my position that the going out experience is a lot less stressful if you chill and not expect the exact conditions of a movie theater to conform to your exact viewing requirements, as some people seem to have. Live theater is adifferent, but there is a cultural influence there.
But, in this particular thread I’m referring to this Williamson punk-ass. Sounds to me like he went to a live event, and someone at some point used the words Moulin Rouge to describe it to him probably, and then he acted like a complete shit because the proper protocols weren’t being observed.
am
Cole – if they theater asked them to turn off the cell phones, then the lady was rude to use one. It was discourteous to the performers and other guests. No special dispensation for casual ambience or light levels.
Williamson’s reaction was immature, rude, and surely made the performance less enjoyable for the rest of the audience. Same for the lady that provoked it.
/patron of the arts.
raven
zzzzzzzzzz
NonyNony
@Amir Khalid:
Yes this is shocking. Like it would be shocking to find out that Republicans would leak altered e-mails to the press when the real e-mails were sitting in an archive ready to be pulled out at any time. Or that Bob Woodward would claim he received threats via e-mail from the White House not expecting the pretty tepid e-mail to be revealed by the White House.
It’s almost as if some people do not yet understand the nature of how much access to information has changed the game here in the 21st century.
cathyx
I always took “of a certain age” to mean elderly. Doesn’t it?
gnomedad
My brain is wired such that I have a hard time wrapping it around such casual and blatant mendacity. “At the theatre” indeed; no need to trouble us with the details. And for no more compelling purpose than parading his righteous and manly indignation.
the Conster
@cathyx:
I’ve always taken it to mean middle aged – after cougar but before elderly.
gnomedad
@cathyx:
I take it to mean “not attractive to Kevin Williamson” and therefore even more deserving of abuse.
quannlace
“Their lies are so easily proven. They don’t imagine that anyone will follow up and check their stories.”
********************
I guess they’re too used to going on CNN
scav
Chum alert. Shouldn’t a member of that team be submissive to the absolute right of the Owner of that environment and the black-suited minions of his will to determine the allowable behavior within that business and owned space? What’s with the disruptive acts of protest?
Hungry Joe
The story simply does not ring true. Not his comments, not the woman’s responses … none of it. Not to mention that the hero of the story is the person telling it. Kind of like, “And then I punched the boss right in the nose!”
schrodinger's cat
@raven: At least somewhat amusing compared to all impeachment all the time.
I takes this opportunity to highlight my post yesterday about a kitteh explaining austerity. Since kittehs are more amusing than any NRO blogger.
Warren Terra
If he was disruptive in that setting, he’s lucky he didn’t get some Bottle Service.
Cassidy
Just another “let me show the woman the error of her ways, I’m an ubermale” story. The reality is he’s a fucking twerp.
I have more respect for a certain fighter from Compton casually using the word “f**” than I do this twit making shit up about manners and morals.
Patricia Kayden
@The Ancient Randonneur: Now that would have been fun!! I would pay to see him snatch anything from Snooki or any of the Real Housewives.
schrodinger's cat
John Cole@top
Instead of multiple posts about this idiot, can I suggest multiple posts about Tunch kitteh.
Bighorn Ordovian Dolomite
Forgive me if this has already been mentioned (as I suspect it has) but if you are talking about how “manly” you were at a musical by getting into a snit and throwing a woman’s cell phone, well, ummm, that’s not exactly playing against a stereotype.
And not exactly a regular joe stereotype at that.
Hell, as The Simpson’s put it, “Homer, almost everyone who has written, directed, starred in, or practically even seen a play is gay.”
owlbear1
@Villago Delenda Est:
Their brains are wired in some bizarre way that it never occurs to them that they can be fact checked without a great deal of effort.
Most of them have been indoctrinated to not question authority!. Fact checking is a SIN!!
The other side of that is they’ve also had to learn how to ignore what is before their lying eyes to do it.
Rich2506
Hmp! Reminds me of when I saw Back to the Future. The hero’s wimpy dad has finally had enough, screws up his courage and lets Biff have it. The audience erupted in cheers, me included. Some asshole hits the back of my seat really hard. I turn around and this really old guy is telling me to shut up. I was so taken aback I did. Man, did that piss me off!
eemom
@David in NY:
“Next issue of great moment, please.”
Beware what you wish for.
(blockquote fail, also too).
David in NY
@Pinkamena Panic: You can’t read.
@Kip the Wonder Rat: Look, it’s bad enough (but perhaps necessary) to have the place filled with multiple posts about Republicans’ scandal of the day, but to fill it with our own scandal (of similar or even less weight) seems punitive. And by the same token as your remark, nobody forced you to read my comment, did they?
Perhaps if I’d been as succinct as @raven: you’d have been less pissy.
raven
@David in NY: Thank you, thank you very much.
owlbear1
@David in NY:
What I want to know is why did the Marines have Umbrellas in the first place?
Cassidy
@David in NY: Well, Raven is a man of a certain age….
Frankensteinbeck
@NonyNony: and @Amir Khalid:
In fact, I think this is what the information revolution looks like from the inside. When I was a young sprat in the 80s, lies like this could not be fact-checked except by professional reporters after considerable effort. The ability to easily spot who is lying like this is a very recent development. As you can see, it’s throwing certain segments of the population into chaos.
Seanly
@the Conster:
Isn’t cougar middle-aged? Hollywood casts hawt 30 year old women as cougars because they like the concept but hate 40+ year old women. More probable that I am not as conversant in current culture.
David in NY
@owlbear1: That’s right, I DEMAND A POST ABOUT MARINES AND UMBRELLAS! No more about throwing cell phones.
My headache is definitely getting worse.
Has anyone noticed that Josh Marshall, once a thoughtful blogger, has become a genius at covering each scandale du jour within five seconds of its occurrence? I blame him.
David in NY
@Cassidy: Whereas I am just plain past retirement age (though not retired). Now, get off my lawn.
Comrade Dread
You know, I was going to say that the whole story sounded a lot like wish fulfillment, like those types of fantasies that flash through our minds after we failed to find a suitable comeback to an insult and then think of it an hour later and wish that we could go back in time and say it.
raven
@Cassidy: STRAC
Ivan X
I am a dedicated Balloonbot, but I’m just failing to see where the actual lie here is (unless it wasn’t in John’s excerpt; and I didn’t have the stomach to go read the full NRO piece, given the already toxic levels of preening self-satisfaction I was exposed to).
I don’t really see how the nature of the performance is relevant. So what if it’s casual, dinner-style, off-Broadway? Social norms and contracts exist, and one of them is that you don’t use phones, including texting, when you’re in an audience where you’d possibly be distracting someone else by doing it.
That’s why they made the announcement. Even if it’s a “lit show”, one of the things about being in an audience, especially an intimate one, is that you’re having a shared experience with other strangers. That’s one of the reasons why you go. Someone who’s on their phone is not in the room, and if that person were sitting next to me, I’d be annoyed too.
And fuck it, another social contract we have is that if you’re doing something — anything — that turns out to be bothering someone, and they ask you stop it, and they’re not being a total asshole about it (which, in this case, there’s no assurance of), you at least consider them rather than reflexively asserting your right to do whatever the fuck you want just because you feel like it.
With that said, this guy sounds like just the most enormous ass, and while I might personally share his outrage, so what — he shouldn’t have done it, much less puffed his chest about it like he deserves a fucking medal while putting down women all in one breath.
When I heard about this reported on NY1 this morning, before I knew anything else about it, including who he was or who he wrote for, I said (out loud) that he should have requested that management eject the person who was bothering him, and if they weren’t going to, he should have requested a refund. Those were his options, because another social contract we have is that you don’t damage people or their stuff just because they’re pissing you off.
MattR
@David in NY:
I have found your problem. You believe that Josh Marshall was once a thoughtful blogger.
@Ivan X: Even if the management has asked you to turn off your phone, what is the harm in silently sending texts? I can understand it if this were a dark thater where the light would be quite distracting, but given the actual circumstances of the show I don’t see how someone texting is any more distracting than the people eating and drinking around you.
MattR
@MattR: I would also add that we don’t actually know what instructions the theater gave the patrons regarding phones prior to the performance. Did they ask people to turn them off or just to make sure the ringer was off? It was probably the former but could have been the latter and I don’t think we can trust Williamson’s description to be complete and accurate.
bemused
@Villago Delenda Est:
They never or rarely suffer any consequences. Their base doesn’t care if they are lying…sometimes I think lying gives them creds with the base, the more blatant, the better. “Liberal” media barely notices or ignores it.
gelfling545
Dear Mr. WIlliamson:
I am a women “of a certain age” & then some. I wear makeup, clothing & shoes that please me. If you find this sad I suggest that this is because you have not yet been clued in to the perks of getting older. You get to please yourself in these matters; but on to my real point.
Last summer & fall I carried my cell phone, turned on, wherever I went. I had 2 relatives in the hospital with likely terminal illnesses and I was the health care proxy for one. I didn’t attend any opera or other “serious” cultural events , though I did go to a couple of movies in the intervening time and left my phone on (sound off) and checked it periodically but it was the movies, not War & Peace, even if it was War & Peace, if you take my meaning. I think you are an immature thrower of public tantrums & are trying to make excuses for yourself. Get over yourself & pay up on the fines you likely have incurred. You aren’t everybody.
Kathleen
I thought she sat next to him on a bench. It looks like the audience is sitiing on chairs (clue: jackets/sweaters draped over the back). What am I missing (other than the normal lack of “firing synapses”)?
Baud
Dude probably didn’t even have a date.
belieber
I used to think that a lot of this right wing nonsense was just an act to gin up the rubes. I fugured that since a lot of these people are well educated they are not this dumb for real. Sometimes not so sure though. This is one of those times.
Bruce S
You’re asking me to make a value judgement between a piece of shit who writes for NOR going ballistic and some idiot yammering on their cell phone during a performance – even a performance that includes food and drink for the audience ?
I’ll pass. A Mac Truck in the vicinity is welcome to run over both of their sorry asses…
C.S.
@Amir Khalid:
FTFY
JWL
It’s as if he complained about getting hit by a foul ball while sitting in a box seat on the third base line.
Mnemosyne
@JWL:
That happened to me. Bounced right off my knee and went 10 rows back where some kid caught it. I had a bruise for weeks.
The funniest part was that my husband was teasing me for flinching every time it seemed like a ball was coming close to us … right up to the point where I got hit. Now he listens to me when I say I’m worried about something not being safe because he knows that I am very unlucky and if a stupid freak accident can happen to me, it will.
g
Hilarious!! What a liar!
Ivan X
@MattR:
Well, fair point, and maybe I’m wrong about this. There are various subjective factors as to whether this would bother me or not, mostly having to do with some ineffable effing norms that exist or don’t in a given context. Dinner theater? Hmm. It’s still theater. I think what would annoy me is that, because I tend to just be aware of people around me, that I’m sitting right next to someone who isn’t paying any attention at all. That shouldn’t really be my problem, I guess, but I’d still find it annoying if it’s in a context where people are expected to pay attention. I’d feel like it’s disrespectful to the performers and somehow “not with us”. But I’ll think about it next time. And I would agree that we cannot rely on Williamson’s account of anything.
VividBlueDotty
@Ivan X: I am with you 100% on every point. There is no LIE in there. It was the readers’ assumption that the complaint was about a lit phone screen in a dark theatre. And yes, the guy was an ass, and double the fool for bragging about it, but a liar? I don’t see it.
VividBlueDotty
@MattR: “Even if the management has asked you to turn off your phone, what is the harm in silently sending texts?”
I am unaware of a phone that sends texts while turned off. I believe the typical announcement preceding a movie or film is Turn OFF Your phone, not Silence Your phone. If this whole thing is about people who decide that the rules (or norms of polite society) don’t apply to them, then this scenario had two offenders not one. Snatching someone’s phone and throwing it is wrong and childish, but I don’t think he was wrong to be pissy.
mclaren
There is no John Cole! Whoever you are, you were born in Kenya. And I bet your house has marble countertops anyway.
different-church-lady
Nothing can be used as an excuse for such an assault.
However, very little can be used as an excuse for cell phone boorishness. Including that picture.
gogol's wife
@different-church-lady:
I think that if someone proudly tells a story about how he threw someone’s cell phone across the room (and certainly we have all fantasized about doing just that), it does make a difference if it’s a hushed dark room with Laurence Olivier doing Hamlet’s soliloquy, or a night club with people sitting at tables and the actors cavorting around the room, dinner being served, and vodka shots being done.
EthylEster
@am: But he lied! Except I can figure out what he lied about? Yeah, he’s probably a jerk based on other things I’ve read. But exactly how did he lie?
am
@EthylEster:
I think he was telling the truth about the cell phone.
I assumed he was exaggerating about the rest to portray himself in the most positive light possible. And he still managed to come off looking like an ass.
TS
And still some support the fool – which is how the GOP get lies out there as truth – all the time.
David in NY
@MattR: Perhaps you are not old enough to remember.
David in NY
@Ivan X: Me too, I think. But mostly I think much ado about nothing.
mikefromArlington
Now that’s some manly fuckin’ shit right there!
BobS
@C.S.: Yeah, the story would have been more impressive if he’d pulled his stunt with some young guy at a Yankees or Rangers game rather than with an older woman at a theater production.
He doesn’t get any points for looking like the third, more effeminate Crane brother, either.
Mrs. Polly
@MattR: We can be pretty sure that the audience was asked to turn off their devices. I’ve never been to a theater, no matter how off, off, broadway, where they didn’t, not for the last twenty years, anyway:
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/theater/21announce.html?_r=0
Poor Brian Dennehy. I was at a performance of Death Of A Salesman where someone in the audience answered his phone just as Linda was lying full length on Willie Loman’s grave, sobbing, less than ten feet away: “The play’s almost over. Can you hold our table?”
Williamson’s a thoroughgoing shitheel, but it’s not the theatrical ambiance (so it wasn’t dark and quiet — it was still very close quarters, and even musicals have quiet passages) that matters so much as his physical assault upon a woman, no matter how much of an ass she was. And she certainly was! She went to a “participatory experience” and found herself to be more important than the rest of the audience — or the actors, who I’m sure would have liked to do exactly what Williamson did. I hope they start carrying steel-ribbed fans.
What the manly man should have done was use his platform the way Gothamist did:
http://gothamist.com/2012/03/23/an_open_letter_to_the_owner_of_the.php
Bob h
I once saw James Naughton plunge into the audience at a performance of “The Master Builder”, seize a ringing cellphone, and then smash it on the floor. Then made obscene hand gestures to the owner of the phone. The audience applauded.
AHH onna Droid
@VividBlueDotty: Not a movie theater. I have heard ‘ silence your phone’ or ‘ turn the ringer off’ at live and participatory events. Depends on who’s running the thing. Whereas movie theaters deal with complaints about glowing screens and not so discreet conversations, so they’ve turned turning the device off into a sort of game.
Some live performances say no video and others say no red lights or flash. The context here is the question, so I think group movie rules are a bit irrelevant.
Ken
@Vince:
Tip: It is not dark if you can see people towards the back of the room.