There Are Fans...and There Are Fans

So I went to see a production of Grey Gardens at the Tempe Live Theatre.  It was a nice production, but this isn't a review of the performance but rather of the audience.

I'm not sure if it was because they were filming that night, but there was a person about two rows in front who was very enthusiastic.  Clearly, he was a fan of the actors on the stage.  And believe me:  As an actor, it is wonderful to have people in the audience who are on your side.  When the audience is with you, it makes it much easier to work on stage.  One of the jobs you have as an actor is to feel the audience and how they are receiving what you are presenting and alter your performance to match.

But this guy...yeesh.  Hooting and hollering after every song, laughing at things that weren't that funny with much more gusto than really required, clapping as if he needed to save Tinkerbell all by himself.  One of the people I was with thought he was a plant.  No...just a fan.

But really, guy...stop it.  Yes, you're pals with the actors.  Yes, you think they're wonderful.  Yes, it's good for you to let them know that you're here in the theatre.  But stop it with the outrageous behaviour, and I say that as somebody who has a very obvious laugh and has a habit of laughing at things I'm not supposed to.  I'm a terrible person to take to action movies because I'm laughing through all of the "intense" scenes due to their ridiculousness.

But even I know that if nobody else is cheering for the song, then I shouldn't do it, either, no matter how much I like it.  It wasn't a question of the audience not liking the show:  It received a standing ovation at the end.  But by making a spectacle of himself in the audience, it took me away from the show.  I was more concerned about how this guy was going to whoop it up at every turn than I was about the emotive power of the performance.  There is a difference between showing your enthusiasm for the actors on stage and upstaging them.