Theatergoers line up to make purchases at the The Times Square TKTS discount ticket booth in the heart New York's theater district. It's been a month of bad behavior among theatergoers in New York, including a teenager's attempt to charge his phone in a dummy outlet on a stage and an evening when Patti LuPone caught someone texting during her play and swiped the phone out of the patron's hand. – AP NEW YORK — Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway: Marimba ringtones! Rat-a-tat texting! The shaming “shhhhh!“ Years of mounting tension over audience behavior hit a dramatic climax this month, when a teenager clambered onto a stage to try to recharge his phone and veteran star Patti LuPone whisked a phone away from a texting spectator, hours after performing a matinee punctuated by incoming calls. LuPone says she's even considering quitting stage work because of the electronic onslaught. As Broadway faces off against pocket-sized sound-and-light shows, performers and some patrons say smartphones and a hyper-connected culture are shredding the immersive experience of live theater. “I've just spent pretty close to a day's salary on theater tickets — I don't want to be distracted by people turning on their phone to check the time or text,” Broadway fan Robin Satty of Piscataway, New Jersey, said this past week as she went to see the best-play Tony-winner “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” Still, some theater-world insiders say it's time to educate, rather than scold, a growing audience that's used to interactivity and may not be steeped in theater etiquette. Some even are experimenting with embracing patrons' digital habits, to a point. “We have to be very careful that we let people know what's appropriate without pushing them away,” said Broadway producer Ken Davenport, who allowed some “tweet seats” in back rows during a performance a few years ago. Distractions in Broadway's storied houses are as old as candy wrappers and coughs, and habitues have complained about declining audience decorum since T-shirts started rubbing elbows with sport coats. But smartphones have proven especially nettlesome, with their combination of sounds, cameras and glowing screens that create their own Great White Way. “If you're onstage, you notice every single person who's texting,” said actor Will Swenson, whose Broadway credits include starring roles in “Les Miserables” and “Hair.” — AP
