Audiences behaving badly: An epidemic of anti-social behaviour in theatres, concerts and gigs

Published

2 years ago

September 2, 2023

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Riot police called to a performance of The Bodyguard in Manchester; “Rude and abusive” audience members removed from the balcony of a West End performance of Grease by police and a performance of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell at London’s Peacock Theatre brought to a standstill by a man hurling abuse at fellow theatregoers.

With all these incidents occurring this year alone, it’s no surprise that a recent survey of theatre staff showed many feared for their safety, reporting kicking, punching, choking, sexual assault and racial abuse while going about their work. There was even a mass brawl in one venue.

At the start of the year, naked photos of actor James Norton circulated online after audience members defied theatre instructions not to film during the play A Little Life, taking photos regardless.

The violation led some to speculate that West End shows could insist audience members hand in their phones ahead of performances, particularly those featuring well-known celebrities.

Such anti-social behaviour during performances eclipses previous audience misdemeanours of loud talking, rustling sweet packets and late arrivals, once considered the height of poor audience etiquette.

And it’s not just in theatres. Singers on the stage are having to run the gauntlet after a spate of attacks with items hurled from the audience.

Ava Max was slapped in face and scratched in the eye by a stage-invading fan; Bebe Rexha was hit in the face by a phone thrown by an audience member “because it would be funny”; and Harry Styles was hit in the eye by an itinerant Skittle.

So, why have some audience members seemingly lost the plot, and is behaviour getting worse?

Dr Kirsty Sedgman, a specialist in cultural studies and human behaviour and senior theatre lecturer at the University of Bristol told Sky News: “Live performance venues have always been the canary in the coal mine. Big societal frustrations and social changes tend to erupt in the performance venues first.”

‘You’ll be dancing in the aisles’

Unofficially known as Doctor of Audiences, Dr Sedgman has worked with a range of arts organisations across the UK, as well as appearing on panels with arts venue managers, people from various customer facing industries and the police on issues of anti-social behaviour at live events.

She says management of audience expectation is key to improving the situation, with marketeers recently called to account for misleading the public in a bid to boost ticket sales.

“Theatres have started to ban slogans like, ‘It’s the best party in town’ or ‘You’ll be dancing in the aisles,’ because often when audiences get there they are told, ‘You might have been led to expect that, but you’re not allowed to get up and dance and sing’.”

Why might people be people acting up?

A night out at the theatre or at a concert is a fun event, a leisure activity, so it’s understandable that audience members want to let down their hair.

That said, for the performers and front of house staff, it’s a workplace, and as for all workers, employers have legal responsibilities to ensure a safe and healthy workplace.

Some have suggested the sale of alcohol in venues – often allowed to be consumed not just in intervals but throughout the show – could be partly to blame.

Others have pointed to the high-ticket prices giving ticketholders a sense of entitlement, and so paving the way for more challenging audience behaviour.

Or could it just be the case that after months spent in lockdown, and years juggling a worldwide pandemic, some people have forgotten how to behave post COVID?

‘Increasingly belligerent and even violent interactions’

Dr Sedgman says it’s not that simple. Her book, On Being Unreasonable, about the erosion of manners, order and respect in recent years, flags that as far back as the Ancient Greeks, some 2,000 years ago, Plato was complaining that while audiences used to be respectful of performers, they had recently found their voices and needed to be controlled with a stick.

While Dr Sedgman says something has shifted recently, she says it’s too simplistic to say that it’s just because we’ve come out of lockdown and have forgotten how to behave.

She believes the change began a few decades ago, intensified by what she calls “the disconnection economy,” by which we have been “gradually, relentlessly incentivised into individualistic modes of thinking rather than communitarian modes of thinking”.

She says the result is: “Social contracts collapsing everywhere and bad behaviour, with often increasingly belligerent and even violent interactions between different people erupting everywhere from theatres into cafes and restaurants and on public transport.”

‘I’m sick of being told what to do with my body’

Following lockdown she says people were eager to seek out shared experiences: “Coming back from COVID, there was a real hunger by some audiences for what we call ‘collective effervescence’, which is communal experiences of shared, often more exuberant forms of joy in public space.”

However, post lock-down, audiences also appear to be more belligerent when they have their response policed by others.

Dr Sedgman says: “People are more likely now than they’ve ever been before to kick-off in response. I call it, ‘Don’t tell me what to do-itus’. There’s a sense of, ‘I’m sick of being told what to do with my body’.

“In terms of vaccines and mask wearing, we’ve seen that explode all over the social scene. But also, people feel like, ‘I’ve paid for this experience. I’m here to have fun. How dare you tell me I’m not allowed to have fun in my life?'”

So, what’s being done about it?

A survey by the Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU) earlier this year found that nearly one-third of respondents said they had been involved in or witnessed an incident where a venue had to call the police.

The findings of “disturbing” and “unacceptable” behaviour were drawn from the responses of 1,500 members, who mainly worked in front of house, hospitality, box office, stage door, sound and lighting.

While some smaller venues – including those who rely on volunteers to staff their performances – publish expected codes of conduct when visiting, there is precious little information on how patrons attending larger venues around the UK to watch plays, gigs or films are expected to behave.

The Safer Theatres Charter

BECTU is currently working on a Safer Theatres Charter, calling on theatre management companies to set clear expectations on audience etiquette.

Venues are being asked to commit to five pledges, including a zero-tolerance policy on antisocial behaviour, risk assessments relating to safe alcohol consumption and announcements before shows and on tickets about expected behavioural standards.

It is also calling for theatre management companies to provide staff with necessary training and to ensure “adequate and safe staffing levels”.

Representatives for the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre told Sky News: “All our members take the safety of their staff, audiences, and performers very seriously.

“Incidents of poor behaviour are thankfully rare, but we want to ensure that the shared experience of theatre remains enjoyable for everyone. We continue to monitor reported incidents and work with members to develop toolkits that help venue management deal with a range of health and safety situations.”

And what does the talent think?

Stars’ reaction to poor audience etiquette varies.

Renowned Broadway star Patti LuPone has previously stopped performances due to mobile phone use, at one point reportedly confiscating an audience member’s phone mid-performance and not returning it until after the show.

Meanwhile some singers have taken initiative, threatening the audience before they have the chance to misbehave. Adele, armed with a t-shirt cannon, warned her Vegas residency audience: “Stop throwing things at the artist“.

However, she has a more laid-back approach to other audience rule bending, reprimanding security guards for “bothering” an audience member who refused to sit down, telling them to “leave him alone,” because “he’s here to have fun”.

Not great for any fans sat in the rows behind, also there “to have fun,” but finding their view suddenly restricted by a young man wielding a selfie stick.

Cardi B took things to a whole different level, hurling her microphone at a fan in Las Vegas after having drink splashed over her on stage. Some might say it was an overreaction.

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Content is king

Dr Sedgman acknowledges this social media element to the issue, which she says often involves younger audience members, incentivised to create content.

“Part of this is the desire to go to an event and hold your phone up and create a video that you can share on social media or even do something rather cool to get noticed by your favourite celebrity and perhaps have that go into the public sphere too.”

Cue entire wheels of brie, the ashes of loved-ones, jewellery, phones and flowers thrown onto the stage in an attempt to quite literally connect with the celebrity performing on it.

And following the Barbenheimer phenomenon last month (the simultaneous release of tentpole movies Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day resulting in the clever marketing ploy which boosted ticket sales for both) social media was awash with examples of fights and disruption as the result of poor cinema etiquette, including taking photos and filming during the screenings.

It’s all about drawing lines

Dr Sedgman says as with most things, the solution to the problem is far from simple: “Within every aspect of social life, we need mechanisms for drawing lines between appropriate and inappropriate, acceptable and unacceptable, reasonable and unreasonable behaviour.

“But we also need to think really carefully and critically about who gets to draw those lines, who has the power to judge and shame other people when that’s a really good, a positive and pro-social thing to do because it’s discouraging antisocial forms of selfish individual narcissism, but also when that might be causing harm to certain people, particularly marginalised groups, in ways that we don’t necessarily even see.”

So, while agreed audience codes of conduct might not sound like a box office hit, the protection of performers, front of house staff, and fellow audience members is an essential ingredient in making sure everyone involved has a great night out.

Entertainment

Reservoir Dogs actor Michael Madsen died from heart failure, says cardiologist

Published

9 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Reservoir Dogs actor Michael Madsen died from heart failure, says cardiologist

Actor Michael Madsen, who starred in Reservoir Dogs and Thelma & Louise, died from heart failure, his cardiologist has said.

The 67-year-old was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, last Thursday and pronounced dead.

His doctor said heart disease and alcoholism will be listed as factors which contributed to the star’s death, reported NBC Los Angeles.

With no suspicious circumstances and the death listed as being from natural causes, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department considers the case closed.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Madsen’s film credits include Free Willy, Donnie Brasco and Sin City.

He was also known for his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, including in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

The Chicago-born actor also linked up with Tarantino when he played Mr Blonde in 1992’s Reservoir Dogs.

His sister, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, paid tribute to her brother in a statement to Variety.

She wrote: “My brother Michael has left the stage.

“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother – etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.”

Madsen was preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts And Poems.

A statement by managers Susan Ferris and Smith, and publicist Liz Rodriguez, said the book by “one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors” was currently being edited.

Entertainment

Fantasy v reality: Lena Dunham’s Too Much is a new spin on the London romcom

Published

13 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Fantasy v reality: Lena Dunham's Too Much is a new spin on the London romcom

Horse-drawn carriages, picturesque gardens and endless cups of tea are just some of the stereotypical tropes that have shaped America’s romanticised image of England before even stepping foot on the island.

Thanks to classical literature and a steady stream of period dramas, Lena Dunham was no exception.

“I had so many fantasies,” she tells Sky News about growing up slightly obsessed with British culture.

“I loved Jane Austen, I loved Charlotte Bronte, I love British film, I was one of those little Anglophile kids.”

The writer and director believed it would be that area of classically depicted England that would fill her time when she first moved to “jolly old London” as a teenager with her mother for a brief time.

Instead, her attention was taken by another, and possibly equally influential group of artists.

“There was a pop show about S Club 7 and all I did was just sit in the hotel and obsessively watch things relating to [the group],” she said.

“So, I didn’t go home with all this cultural British knowledge. I went home with a deep abiding love of S Club 7 and came back to school when everyone was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

“For me, I was literally like, ‘Guys, you got to hear this hot track right off the presses, it’s called Reach For The Stars’.”

It wasn’t until her 30s, when the actress moved again to the city, that reality took hold and she quickly learned the difference between the imagined London and the real city.

Some stereotypes hold true, like the universal love for Paddington. Still, TV tropes like renting a flat on a single income in the city does not necessarily mean you’ll be treated to lavish rooms and a picturesque garden.

She says it was social cues she found most challenging to adjust to, as well as the different dictionaries used when speaking, technically, the same language.

“You come to a new country and even though you speak the same language, you’re totally absent from those tools,” she says.

“And I found that really striking as an adult in my 30s, trying to make friends, trying to date. I found it confusing enough to be a person in my own city of origin, so this was extra confounding.”

Too Much, her new Netflix series, is loosely inspired by her own London chapter and follows a workaholic New Yorker in her 30s who is sent across the Atlantic to work on a new project.

The 10-episode show is produced by Working Title – the company behind Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, About A Boy and Love Actually – and stars Hacks breakout actress Megan Stalter and The White Lotus actor Will Sharpe.

Dunham says she always wanted to write about her time in the UK, but it was a conversation with Irish actor Andrew Scott that got the ball rolling.

“Actually, he’s the reason that I came to know Meg as an actor because he loved her on Hacks and he loved her videos, and he said: ‘Have you watched this woman’s work? I feel like there’s a real connection between you two’, and I started watching because of him and built a show around her.”

In a full circle moment, Scott appears in the series briefly as an arrogantly odd man who crosses paths with Megan Stalter’s character Jessica.

The Ridley actor isn’t the only famous face joining the cast in a cameo role. Dunham put a call out to most of Hollywood, and luckily lots were on board.

To name just a few, guest stars include Jessica Alba, Stephen Fry, Adwoa Aboah, Kit Harington, Rita Wilson, Rita Ora, Richard E Grant, Emily Ratajkowski, Andrew Scott, Prasanna Puwanarajah and Jennifer Saunders.

“It was one of those situations where you just reach for the stars, literally, and then you can’t believe when they appear,” says Dunham.

“It was just a non-stop parade of people that I was fascinated by, wanted to be around, completely enamoured of.”

She adds: “I remember asking Naomi Watson, thinking, there’s absolutely no way that you’re going to want to come play this slightly demented woman. And she’s so playful and she’s so joyful and she just wanted to come and engage.

“Also, Jennifer Saunders has meant so much to me for so long, I had the AbFab box set as a kid, and I just think Patsy and Edina are the ultimate kind of messy women.

“She really showed me what comedy could be and… the space that women could occupy in comedy, and so having her come and join the show was really incredible.

“That was an episode that someone else was directing, Alicia McDonald, an amazing director, so I just got to sit and watch at the monitor like I was watching a movie, and it was very surreal for me.”

Too Much is out on Netflix now.

Entertainment

‘I will not go quietly,’ Gregg Wallace says amid reports he’s been sacked by the BBC

Published

1 day ago

July 8, 2025

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'I will not go quietly,' Gregg Wallace says amid reports he's been sacked by the BBC

Former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has vowed he will “not go quietly”, amid reports that he has been sacked by the BBC.

It comes after the TV host faced an investigation, commissioned by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK, into alleged inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC.

In November, the 60-year-old stepped back from presenting the cooking show after accusations that he made sexual comments towards staff and celebrity guests on a range of programmes over 17 years.

Broadcaster Kirsty Wark, author and actor Emma Kennedy, and presenter Kirstie Allsopp, were among the high-profile figures who made claims of inappropriate behaviour against Wallace.

In a statement, released ahead of the publication of the summary of a report into the claims, the 60-year-old said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.

However, he said the report, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin, had found him “primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018”.

Wallace’s statement, published on Instagram, came hours before the BBC News reported that 50 more people had made claims to the corporation against the presenter, including allegations he groped one MasterChef worker and pulled his trousers down in front of another.

In his statement, Wallace labelled BBC News’s claims as “uncorroborated tittle-tattle”.

Wallace wrote: “I have taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkin’s report – a decision I do not take lightly.

“But after 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.

“I have now been cleared by the Silkin’s report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me.

“The most damaging claims (including from public figures which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.

“To be clear, the Silkin’s report exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made headlines last year and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018.”

‘I was hired as the cheeky greengrocer – now that’s a problem’

Wallace said he recognised that “some of my humour and language” was at times “inappropriate” and, for that, he apologised “without reservation”.

“But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks,” Wallace, who also referred to his recent diagnosis of autism, added.

“I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges, and all.

“For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand. Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.”

Wallace: Complaints from ‘middle-class women of a certain age’

Shortly after the allegations first emerged, Wallace recorded a video where he dismissed his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age”.

His remarks were met with huge criticism – including from Downing Street, where a spokesperson for the prime minister described them as “completely inappropriate and misogynistic”.

Wallace responded by posting a follow-up clip where he apologised and said he “wasn’t in a good space” when he posted the comments.

Wallace was replaced in the 20th season of MasterChef, which aired this spring, by restaurant critic and former I‘m A Celebrity contestant Grace Dent. Several Christmas episodes of the show were also pulled from the BBC’s 2024 festive schedule.

In April, Wallace spoke to the Daily Mail, denying all accusations against him and saying he had contemplated suicide following the allegations.

Wallace’s lawyers have previously called allegations that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature “entirely false”.

A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”

A Banijay spokesperson told Sky News: “We won’t be commenting until our report is published.” They have signalled the report will be published later this week or next.

Banijay previously said Wallace is “committed to fully co-operating” with the external review.

Alongside MasterChef, Wallace presented Inside The Factory for BBC Two from 2015 to 2023.

He also featured on various BBC shows over the years, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, as well as being a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2014.

More recently, Wallace has been promoting his health and lifestyle website, offering one-to-one coaching from both himself and a team of experts, which includes nutritionists and doctors, and his wife Anna in the role of recipe curator.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.