We enjoyed Easy Street Productions' staging of Hello, Dolly! very much on Friday night, but I was astonished and appalled by the audience's refusal to stop talking when the music started.
People! Didn't your mamas teach you anything?! I guess I'm lucky to have been taken to musicals as a child by my parents at the old Orlando Municipal Auditorium. I was taught that when the lights dimmed, I was to be quiet. And I was not to sing along with the music, no matter how much I wanted to. I passed this knowledge along to my children, and now we're attempting to pass it along to my grandchildren.
But how can we insist that the children whisper when all around us people are talking in full voice?
And the frustration the musicians must be feeling! We are musicians ourselves, so we fully understand. The overture and the entr'acte are there to set the tone for the acts that are to come—they are to get you in the mood. If you are running your mouth, full throttle, about Aunt Susie's new cookware, or something equally inane, you're not getting in the mood. But more importantly, you're treating the musicians with total disrespect.
People! When the lights come down, close your mouths.
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