Singing, Show Stops and Shit

Why 'singing' is being used to hide the fact that Front of House staff, touring companies and audiences are facing abuse on a nearly nightly basis.

If you hadn't seen or heard about what happened at Manchester Palace at Thursday's performance of the Bodyguard, well you are in store for a shock. The show was stopped twice with groups of patrons removed in both the first and second act for disruptive and violent behaviour. The second show stop right before the finale was caused by two groups who then proceeded to punch, push, scream and attack security and front of house staff who had previously asked them to quieten down as they were disrupting those around them. The violence was so unprecedented that police were called to inside the auditorium and the show could not finish. So why are all the headlines saying something like...

'audience members ejected and riot police called because of patrons singing'

Honestly, I think its because it sounds like a more sensational headline that people could very easily jump on with the outrage that misinformation like this seems to cause in our modern society regardless of whether the headline is true or not. But it also shows a huge lack of understanding and lack of respect for the hardwork, training and efforts of everyone in our industry.

As you may have gathered from my tweet (that honestly blew up far more than I could have ever anticipated) to me this rhetoric of 'this is an overreaction to a bit of singing that never hurt anyone' is at best disrespectful and at worst directly dangerous and inciting violence across our countries theatres. Singing is not why police were called. Police were called because Front of House and security staff were verbally and physically assaulted on multiple occasions throughout the show by audience members. As a producer & friend of multiple front of house staff believe me when I say singing is being used as a scapegoat for the real issue. We want you to have a fab time at the theatre which is why singing along isn’t allowed but abusing staff when asked to be quiet is never okay. And there are points where you can sing such as sing along performances and curtain calls but not during the main show, you wouldn't expect to be able to jump onto the football pitch and make a few passes in the middle of the World Cup would you?

Its not about singing its about the swearing,screaming, punching, pushing and kicking that often then comes with it. Theatre is a safe space for ALL especially its amazing staff who are now scared they may be assaulted at work so do not let them fool you. This is not about singing and saying so is dismissing and by proxy validating the violence audience members are causing now on a nearly nightly basis. This is not okay. You wouldn't go on a plane and punch the airhost or hostess who asked you put your seat belt on.

The result of this continued audience disrespect and violence will only lead to lower ticket sales from audience members who have been put off by the disruption or don't want to pay sometimes large amounts of money where now there is no guarantee a show will run smoothly. Eventually this will lead to lower ticket sales, resulting in shows closing early or not touring all together. As a producer its a scary prospect to think that I could one day be in a position where I have to choose between taking a show out knowing I could be endangering audiences and theatre staff because it could be a 'rowdy' show to tour or not taking a show out reducing the amazing theatre we have on offer and reducing opportunities for the amazing casts and crew who work on these shows.

I'm not saying I have the answers to how we solve this problem but I do think that news outlets and TV shows (I'm looking at you This Morning) have a duty to report the facts of these incidents truthfully without sensation or rallying outrage because at least to me, members of staff being punched, pushed, clothes ripped and screamed at is sensational enough, we don't need to pretend that theatres are policing peoples every move because they're not. They're protecting their staff and audience members while trying to preserve the magic of theatre. So we need media outlets to HELP us tell the real human cost of these incidents so those people who think it's okay to behave in this way can see the real cost of their actions. Speak to front of house workers, speak to casts and crew, speak to producers. Know this isn't about the singing. It's about all the abuse that comes after, don't let the headlines fool you.