Broadway Audiences Berated for Bad Acting

Boorish audience members have been around for longer than Shakespeare's plays but veteran theatergoers say bad behavior is definitely on the rise, the Wall Street Journal reports. Audience members have been spotted passing around buckets of chicken, putting their smelly bare feet on the seats in front of them, and even asking actors to delay their monologues while they get settled.

Some veterans blame Broadway's hard times—and consequent lower ticket prices—for the bad manners, while others insist it's the people who pay top dollar who feel they can act however they want. But at least other audience members aren't shy about playing police. "It was like lions jumping on a rabbit," when a man's cell phone went off during a recent show, one theatergoer said. (More Broadway stories.)