For those who see the theatre experience on Broadway and the West End as merging into a single stage, given the constant flow of productions back and forth across the Atlantic, two recent articles give lie to the idea that theatergoing itself is the same in each of the theatre capitals.
While the New York Times recently weighed in on the prevalence of standing ovations in Broadway theatres, a blog entry on the website of The Guardian in the UK suggests that in London, its just the opposite: curtain applause is becoming perfunctory if not at times eliminated by the productions themselves.
One can only hope for a happy medium. There’s no odder experience than being in a theatre audience when it is denied sufficient opportunity to express its enthusiasm for a show. I recall in my days working at Hartford Stage when, on occasion during previews, a complete curtain call had yet to be worked out, leaving often delighted audiences with nothing more than a perfunctory unison bow from the cast. Its very encouraging when audiences want to show their pleasure, and to deny them is to undercut the experience they’ve just had.
At the opposite end is the virtually standard “standing O” on Broadway, which has served to devalue all standing ovations. Why I have stood many a time, I can recall only one great spontaneous ovation: at the conclusion of Amadeus, when Ian McKellen spoke to the audience saying “Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you,” the audience leapt to its feet the moment the lights went out, thrilled by what they’d witnessed. I miss that rush, and between the American and English approaches, I fear it may be a part of the theatre experience that is being lost.
Posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
by
Howard Sherman
Filed under:
Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
You can
leave a response, or
trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
