What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

[CJ N2N]

(If there's a thread on this already, I'll delete but I'm too lazy to search at the present moment)

What do you think about shows in which the actors need to talk directly to an audience member? I.e the first few scenes of Hair and the charades/Lazarus scenes in the recent Godspell.

As I stated in another thread it always gives me anxiety, which is kind of odd because I've acted in shows before...

Anyway, what do you guys think about it? Fun or uncomfortable?

[madbrian]

It's quite common. Into The Woods and The Drowsy Chaperone immediately come to mind.

[Emma White]

If done well, it works. I saw a production of Guys and Dolls where the BEST moment was when Adelaide came out and talked to audience members. However, if you watch the Tony Awards where Godspell went into the audience... it was uncomfortable.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

IMO, I only like it if the show is for kids around Pre-School through 2nd Grade age. It is fun for the kids, but adults not so much.

[Gothampc]

Love it


Link

[Emma White]

I always encourage that kind.

[JoeKv99]

I hate it. I paid good money to sit and watch and those actors are being paid to entertain me. Don't make me do your job!

[all that jazz]

I remeber as a kid that used to scare me. I remember being really scared in a performance of the Lion King. Now I actually love seeing it, and use it frequently when directing, however as an actor I feel really uncomfortable doing it.

[Playbilly]

Depends. It felt forced to me at Hair. Fun in Drood.

[best12bars]

And keep the actors out of the audience. God. I didn't pay a hundred dollars to have the fourth wall come crashing down around my ears. I just want a story, and a few good songs that will take me away. I just want to be entertained. I mean, isn't that the point?

---The Drowsy Chaperone

[jnb9872]

Always worth sharing the greatest piece of writing about this ever.
THE ONION: Oh No, Performers Coming Into Audience

[Dollypop]

I thought that the cast's interaction with the audience during GODSPELL was extremely effective. It was just another way that the show reached out to people and made them FEEL the presence of a Living God.

Long Live God!

[aaronb]

That Onion article is perfect.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

....as long as we're talking about Cheyenne Jackson. : ) from RC in Austin,Texas

[Borstalboy]

It's all about timing. In general, I'd say no, thank you.
Done well

[all that jazz]

It's a centuries old tradition, done quite often in Shakespeare plays. The theaters were designed for it. In those times the audience got so much into the performances that they sometimes got on stage and had to be forced down. They were even fights involved as the audience developed such a hatred for the villains that they tried to take justice in their hands.

I don't think it should be taken to those extremes today, but I really love the idea of metaforically expanding the stage into the audience.

[GavestonPS]

I seen enough self-consciously avant guard theater that I've mostly gotten used to it, but I'm not a fan.

When the cast engages the audience as a whole, that's fine; but when individuals are singled out, I feel it's like a practical joke. The actors have rehearsed, know what to say and do, and what will happen. The audience member is left to guess.

That being said, I was once singled out as the "go to audience stooge" by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I ended up impaled on a sword and covered with imaginary vomit, and finally had to run up and down the aisle representing "Juliet's id". I decided to surrender to the device and had a great time.

[dramamama611]

As an actor? I hated it. As an audience member? I hate it. (Addressing the audience is one thing, making me participate is another.)

[SweetLips]

What about the other way around?I had never experienced that before seeing a performance of Dreamgirls and I THINK Your arms too short to box with God?. I got such a fright when audience members started shouting back at the singers.I sort of understand that now,but I have never yelled at players on a football field telling them what to do--maybe I am just too timid.For some reason I am ALWAYS the poor sucker they try to drag up on stage-must be the terrified look I have when they go looking for a 'volunteer'.A clown in a Cirque show once gave me the finger when I refused.Actors can hide behind the mask of a character-an audience member has nowhere to hide.

[Emmaloucbway]

I usually hate it and find it lame/cheesy, but I liked how they did it at Drood. Especially before the show when the cast mingles with the audience. It was fun and did not seem forced or awkward.

[MCfan2]

Loved it in "Drood." It felt very fun and natural to me.

GavestonPS, you are a good sport.

[After Eight]

Can't stahd it.

I'm paying to watch, not participate.

[Johnnycantdecide]

Passing Strange made really good use of it.

[ken8631]

Enjoyed it. During one part of Boy From Oz (a part where audience is usually involved), wife tossed a thong onto the stage (Aussie thong), Mr Allen (played by Hugh Jackman) put it on. Great fun for everyone.....

[Tsao5]

It depends on the show. In Spelling Bee and Drood, it is done really well.
But in other shows, it can seem like a children’s theater gimmick.

Not sure if this qualifies: In Cats, at intermission audience members could
go onstage into the junkyard and get Old Deuteronomy’s autograph. I always though
this odd. The whole point of not seeing the orchestra was for perspective; as if we were seeing a junkyard and the cats were in proportion to the set and props.
So to go onstage and get an autograph that the actor signed with his own name with
2 stagehands on either side was bizarre. Also when Tugger left the junkyard and
went into the audience during his song, and picked a lady to dance with, it was just uncomfortable to watch. Both times I saw it, the ladies were not into it at all. I cannot imagine the actors playing the parts liked it either.

[millie_dillmount]

I think it depends on the context of the show. If a show is doing it just to be "silly" and "cool," then I think it is pointless (except in Hair's cast I thought it worked).