Lea Salonga calls out theater-goers who use their phones during shows

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Lea Salonga calls out theater-goers who use their phones during shows

Alecs Ongcal

The theater veteran schools theater-goers on audience etiquette

MANILA, Philippines – Using one’s phone inside a theater during a performance is widely considered a cardinal sin for theater-goers – and Lea Salonga had something to say to those who do.

The Broadway veteran posted a status on Facebook on April 6, saying: “More cellphone users at plays and concerts. You guys have zero manners, zero breeding, zero empathy.”

She said that those who spend a performance hunched over their phones should just leave.

“Your presence is disruptive and disrespectful to the actors and the audience. Take your entitled ass somewhere else,” she said. “Money may get you theater tickets and your state of the art cellphone, but it can’t buy you class.”

In another Facebook post, she suggested that theater-goers who use their phones during a performance should just stay at home.

“Soooooo allow me to ask. Do you buy theater tickets for whatever status it affords you, or do you go as a lover of theater and drama and stagecraft? Because if all you’re going to do is glue your corneas to your cellphone, then might I suggest something else? Like staying home?” she said.

“If your intent is to be seen, congratulations. Seen, and hated,” she added.

This is not the first time that Lea spoke out against audience members who use their phones during shows.

In a March 14 column on the Philippine Daily Inquirer, she called out misbehaving audience members and shared her firsthand experience with people who snapped photos during a performance even if it was expressly forbidden.

“One evening, during the preshow for Once on This Island, just a few seconds after I made my entrance, while advising an audience member, I heard a small commotion a few rows away,” she said. “One of our ushers was reminding a group regarding the ‘no photo’ rule who then proceeded to get angry at the usher.”

She then reminded theater-goers to respect the people onstage, and their fellow audience members.

“The theater is a hallowed space where audiences enter in order to be taken away to another world. That suspension of disbelief should, as much as possible, remain undisturbed in order for the story to immerse the audience fully,” she said, explaining that there should be no tweeting in real time, selfie-taking, or gossiping over the phone while a show is ongoing.

“Look, we don’t want to take your phones away. But is it so painful to not look at that screen for a few hours? Do theaters need to invest in expensive signal scramblers that are more a reflection of the audiences’ lack of discipline than anything else? Are we really that far gone?” she said.

Lea Salonga is set to star as Mrs. Lovett in the Atlantis Theatrical production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, set to premiere in October 2019, hopefully to an audience who can put their phones away for the performance. – Rappler.com

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