• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

You are here: Home / 2016 / May / Archives for 12th

Archives for May 12, 2016

It works

May 12, 2016 by Terry Teachout

The first public preview of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production of Satchmo at the Waldorf, which took place last night, went so smoothly that I canceled today’s rehearsal. With one final preview remaining before Friday’s opening-night performance, we’re a heartbeat away from freezing the show, and I’m already starting to feel a surge of prospective relief.

Barry Shabaka Henley in Satchmo at the Waldorf, 2016One thing that went especially well was the pre-show no-cellphones announcement, which was written by me and recorded by Barry Shabaka Henley, the star of Satchmo. It’s a show-specific variation of the all-purpose announcement that I published three months ago in a Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column called “How to Stop Theater’s Cellphone Scourge.”

I was seated on the extreme right-hand side of the house as it played for the first time, and I could see that everyone in the audience took in what Shabaka was saying—and acted on it. Not a single cellphone rang or was otherwise used during the ninety-minute performance that followed.

For the benefit of anyone who is grappling with the problem of how to get theater patrons to turn off their cellphones, I reprint below the relevant portion of my column. I’ll let you know whether it’s similarly effective at future performances of Satchmo, but as of now, I think maybe we’re onto something.

UPDATE: For a progress report on the efficacy of this announcement, go here.

* * *

Yes, cellphone abuse has reached pestilential proportions, but everybody in the profession privately admits that existing announcements, be they clever or straightforward, do next to nothing to reduce it. Why? Because the announcements aren’t made in such a way as to seize the attention of playgoers and persuade them to change their ways. Instead, they’re either cutesy-pie or pro forma, both of which signal that they needn’t be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, Patti LuPone’s widely reported in-your-face technique of shaming errant cellphone users by singling them out from the stage doesn’t seem to work any better. That doesn’t surprise me. Instead of insulting them, the trick is to get their attention—and get them on your side….

6113-07160098 © Masterfile Royalty-Free Model Release: Yes Property Release: Yes Rear view of woman using cell phone in theater audience• First, get the audience’s attention by lowering the house lights. Then make the announcement, either live from the stage or, even better, in the form of a video projected in front of the curtain. Either way, it must be loud enough to cut through the pre-show chatter. It should also be made in a listen-up-folks manner, not in the blandly cheery tones of the pre-recorded safety messages that air travelers habitually tune out.

• If the announcement is pre-recorded, it should be made by the star of the show.

• Avoid passive boilerplate language like “Please refrain from using cellphones during the performance.” Use plain, direct words—and explain why it’s in everybody’s own interests to turn off their phones.

• At the end of the announcement, pause for 30 seconds to give everybody time to turn off their phones before the show starts.

Here’s what I have in mind:

“Hello, everybody. I’m John Doe, the star of ‘Hamlet,’ and I need your help during tonight’s performance. Right now, before we get started, I want you to take out your cellphone…turn it off…and leave it off during the show. Don’t answer calls, don’t take selfies, don’t send texts. This is important, not just for me but for you.

“You may not know it, but whenever anyone uses a cellphone, I can see it up here on stage, and so can everybody else in the theater. Even if you don’t talk on the phone, it still lights up your face. That’s distracting to the people around you—and it’s distracting to me, too. It makes it harder for me to concentrate, and it might even cause me to forget my lines.

“I know your tickets cost a lot. So if you want to get your money’s worth, you should check—right now—to make sure your phone is off. Remember: No calls, no pictures, no texts. Do it for me, for your neighbors, and for yourself. Thank you very much.”

So you want to see a show?

May 12, 2016 by Terry Teachout

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:
• An American in Paris (musical, G, too complex for small children, reviewed here)
cynthia-erivo-color-purple_650• The Color Purple (musical, PG-13, virtually all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Eclipsed (drama, PG-13, Broadway remounting of off-Broadway production, closes June 19, original production reviewed here)
• Fully Committed (comedy, PG-13, closes July 24, reviewed here)
• Fun Home (serious musical, PG-13, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• The King and I (musical, G, perfect for children with well-developed attention spans, some performances sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Matilda (musical, G, closing Jan. 1, reviewed here)
• Les Misérables (musical, G, too long and complicated for young children, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)
• On Your Feet! (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)
• She Loves Me (musical, G, suitable for bright children capable of enjoying a love story, many performances sold out last week, closes July 10, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

IN BALTIMORE:
• Death of a Salesman (drama, PG-13, closes June 12, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN CHICAGO:
• Mary Page Marlowe (drama, PG-13, extended through June 5, reviewed here)

Almanac: Tom Stoppard on love and determinism

May 12, 2016 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“The universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, I mean it’s trying to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren’t supposed to be in that part of the plan.”

Tom Stoppard, Arcadia

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

May 2016
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Apr   Jun »

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Terry Teachout, 65
  • Gripping musical melodrama
  • Replay: Somerset Maugham in 1965
  • Almanac: Somerset Maugham on sentimentality
  • Snapshot: Richard Strauss conducts Till Eulenspiegel

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in