Is anyone else sad that Wicked audiences seem to be getting worse and worse? As in they just are so unenergetic and don't clap when it's appropriate and stuff? It takes away from everything..

From my personal experiences, every time I have seen the show (6: La, NY, London, Tour) we have had excellent audiences. Very receptive, always laugh at the WoO humor, and gave entrance applause to every character. I will be sure to pay attention next time I go.

its really hit or miss in LA i find... sometimes the audience is great... on Friday when I saw it the audience was amazing the laughed at everything clapped at everything... we even got some extra quirks out of Megan because the audience was so great... the audience was awesome... on Sunday tho the audience was dead... litereally DEAD... they didn't clap or cheer much... and they only laughed at the really funny stuff (ie "we can't all come and go by bubble")

I personally do NOT believe in cheering or screaming in theaters..perhaps audiences are more 'polite' in other places? Not to undermine those who do like to cheer, but I think clapping is just fine, if you must cheer, save it for curtain call. (which I beleive is fine for cheering). But about laughing...pehaps they don't get the jokes?

I can't speak for Wicked, but I've found that sometimes being unsponsive is for the better.

When I saw the Rent tour, we were all really responsive at first(very feminine squeals when Roger walked on for the first time), but there was like no time given, so alot of diolouge wasn't being heard, because of the clapping, and by the end of the show, people just weren't reacting.

I asked Maria Eberline about this on her message board and I asked if she thought it was disrespectful to her if someone cheered like during DG or something and she said she didn't think so at all, she said it gave her more energy. I think you get a better performance that way. As to not being able to hear things, as an actor you are told to hold for laughter, at least where I've been trained, so idk about that. Again it's all about opinion

When I saw it in LA, it was the most energetic audience I have ever seen.

I love people that clap and are excited for the performance.
But I prefer no loud "woooo"ing in my ears and screaming "I LOVE YOU KENDRA!" etc.

i think actors feed of the audience. Both times I saw it the audience was okay but thier was'nt any screaming in dg or anything.

^ As someone said before: A lot of actors I have talked to say that the cheering gets them going.

Atlanta audience- like a rock concert.

Broadway audience- sucked.

I was the only one clapping at certain parts and cheering at others (which didn't stop me)

Both times I saw it on Broadway the audiences were amazing. No entrances applauses the first time but throught the shows there was hysterical laughter and amazing applauses.

we had a REALLY good audience on Friday!! it was awesome... Megan kinda flopped her arm off the bed becuase of the audience... she only does that when she gets a good reaction =)

speaking of audiences
is the weekday performances always sold out like completely sold out... just wondering

I agree! It makes performers more pumped up and it makes them have more fun acting! I know that when Megan hears cheeringa dn yelling, she reacts and goes even more full out and makes more funny or great things! Same with Eden.....they love energetic audiences! IMO the LA audience is crazy amazing! When i say it 3/27/07, they went so crazy it made Megan and Eden smile at some points! I love the LA audience! And i love audiences that are interactive! Even in some points durring the show, the actors WANT to hear the reactions! :rock:

in LA no... there's usually some singles left floating around

People have always clapped for entrances...excapet for the last few shows. My mom and I are the only ones who clap for Glinda, and we start the applause for Elphaba, and people catch on. No one ever claps when Elphie comes back alive...I think they only clapped like 2 times out of the 6 I've gone/

It drives me crazy when people don't clap for the Elphaba or Glinda. I ALWAYS clap when they come out. When I saw the show in January, my friend and I were the only people in the theatre who clapped. It was sad.

I HATE that.....it is such an akward silence when they don't get any entrance applause. I saw the show 6 times in Baltimore, and only once was there a decent audience :roll: The actors do appreciate when everyone is really into it because it just makes it more fun for them. I know that on more than one occasion Christina mentioned to me that the audience seemed asleep.

........I mean the first time I saw the show people where screaming and clapping when Sho started going up in the air for DG....and that was just amazing because I had never seen a broadway audience react that way.

I just think it makes it more enjoyable for everyone when people are really into it.

I had an amazing audience last Friday. They even clapped as the lights dimmed and then after the announcement.

i saw it on tour twice and both times the audience was amazing. It really does make the whole experience better. When I was thinking about it the next day, the audience being awesome was one of the things I definitely remembered. There's just some kind of energy that comes with a good crowd.
We clapped at all the "appropriate" places, laughed at everything funny, and during the catfight scene when Glinda says, "Well, a lot of us are taking things that don't belong to us, aren't we?" a few people were like "oooOOOooooOOOooo"- it was kinda funny.

The audience at the show I was at were ok, I didn't like the fact they didn't clap for Helen at all! Then Kerry came out and there were only a few claps and I was the only one who laughed at a few jokes, but come on what audience don't laugh at the "Well we can't all come and go by bubble" line :disagree: But after Kerry's DG everyone got more lively and she got standing oviation for it. Then curtain call everyone stood as soon as the first ensemble member came on to bow which was good.

no one EVER stand for ensemble in LA and it annoys me! I do every time... if you're in Wicked you deserve props!

Last Wednesdays matinee the audience were awful, i think if we didn't start the applause at the end of songs there would have been none. It ruined the show for me because it felt like the cast were just going through the motions as they were getting no response. So for the Wednesday evening show we cheered as the lights went down and for the entrances etc etc and the show felt like it had so much more energy. Thursday evening the audience were really receptive and laughing a lot so Helen threw in some extra 'toss toss'.

I cant stand it when peopel clap during a song, if they've done amazzingly save it till the end, then it doesnt ruin any other amazing bits they might do

I LOVE it when the audiance laugh though, wherever that might be

thats funny cuz at the 5 shows I saw in LA last week the audiences stood for the ensemble every time. And having seen the show 16 times, LA, NY and tour(Toronto) I have to say that the LA auds have been most responsive overall. And the most unresponsive being Toronto. Even some of the cast( i wont say who) commented on the audiences in Toronto.

:ha: Helen gets so funny in popular if there's a lively audience

haha yeah that did that on Thursday night for me too! But they never clapped for Glinda.

O darn. Yes, it was unfortunate, I guess we're really deprived in the areas of theatre. It's possibly one of the reasons Wicked is not coming back to Toronto, for a very, very, long time.

there was elphie entrance/coming up from trap door applause : 2 times
there was DG applause: 1 time
there was standing ovation by the time the ensemble did their curtain call: 2 times

I hate hearing that, because every time I went we had really great audiences. :-\ Especially the last night, so hopefully they left with the memory of that audience and not the others....