Smartphones steal the show on Broadway

The issue of mobile phone use in theatres has reached a climax – and one actor has even threatened to quit the stage.

Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway: marimba ringtones; rat-a-tat texting; the shaming “shhhhh!”. Years of mounting tension over audience behaviour hit a dramatic climax this month, when a teenager clambered onto a stage to try to recharge his phone and veteran actress Patti LuPone whisked a phone away from a texting spectator, hours after performing a matinee punctuated by incoming calls. LuPone says she’s even considering quitting stage work because of the electronic ­onslaught.

As Broadway faces off against pocket-sized sound-and-light shows, performers and some patrons say smartphones and a hyper-connected culture are shredding the immersive experience of live theatre.

"I've just spent pretty close to a day's salary on theatre tickets – I don't want to be distracted by people turning on their phone to check the time or text," Broadway fan Robin Satty of Piscataway, New Jersey, said as she went to see the Best Play Tony-winner The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Still, some ­theatre-world insiders say it's time to educate, rather than scold, a growing audience that's used to interactivity and may not be steeped in theatre etiquette.

"We have to be careful that we let people know what's appropriate without pushing them away," said Broadway producer Ken Davenport, who allowed some "tweet seats" in back rows during a performance of Godspell a few years ago. Habitués have complained about declining audience decorum since T-shirts started rubbing elbows with sports coats. But smartphones have proven especially nettlesome.

"If you're onstage, you notice every single person who's texting," said actor Will Swenson, whose Broadway credits include starring roles in Les Misérables and Hair.

"The second that a light pops on in the audience, it's impossible to not say: 'Oh yeah, I'm in a theatre and someone is out there not paying attention to my best efforts to tell a story,'" said Swenson, who recalls grabbing a video-shooting patron's phone during Hair.

Other stars, from Matthew Broderick to Frances McDormand, have briefly stopped shows in response to spectators talking on phones and shooting video. Then there was the case of actor Shia LaBeouf, who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct last year after yelling at the performers while watching Cabaret. Cellphone use and loud conversation ranked high when ticket discounter Goldstar asked some of its six million members recently about show faux pas, though the number of people who felt texting and photo-­taking were OK "if done discreetly" was in double digits.

Some theatre experts feel it’s time to lighten up about phones or risk seeming stuffy.

There are no-phone zones in churches, hospitals and courthouses, but “is that the atmosphere that we want?” asked University of North Carolina drama professor Scott Walters. The Greeks, Shakespeare and Molière wrote for loud crowds, he noted.