On April 7th 2023, This Morning hosts Alison Hammond, Dermot O’Leary and Vanessa Feltz discussed the Manchester Palace’s statement telling audience members to not sing along at The Bodyguard musical, a show which has front of house staff waving signs and two spoken announcements featuring this golden rule before it starts. In the (edited) clip below, they seem to believe the theatre staff was being killjoys and the whole point of a musical was to sing along at the top of your lungs.
After the forty second clip went out, the theatre community from West End stars and front of house staff to critics and fans swiftly responded to the disrespectful and generally careless comments to the point this seemingly meaningless story went viral. Clearly people had enough and it was time to finally address this growing problem with the wider public. And before I go any further, I am not here to stir up drama and do not condone hate being sent to the This Morning hosts. Yes, their statements were misguided, but they are not deserving of the abuse and harassment they’ve received.
A loss in communication
While the media reports on the most salacious theatre headlines once every full moon, the theatre community has been telling and hearing horror stories about poor etiquette almost everyday including show stops, verbal abuse and violence towards staff. I think the reason behind the mass anger and frustration that came out from people, myself included, was the potential for This Morning to finally platform an issue that has worsened post-COVID only for it to be dismissed and joked about.
Let’s give the This Morning hosts the benefit of the doubt and they assumed the mass thought was it was ridiculous to not sing along at musicals. It’s not like other shows have told people to – oh wait. Many theatres have made the same announcements long before The Bodyguard only for them to be missed and ignored. Jukebox shows often get flack, but I think general audiences (AKA not the regular theatregoer) forget any musical isn’t a concert or karaoke. The songs whether you know them or not forward the story and express the characters’ feelings, so when somebody poorly sings along during these often emotional moments professionals have trained for years to perform, it’s extremely disrespectful.
This Morning to this evening…
Almost as if it were serendipity, an incident occurred at The Bodyguard in Manchester the same night the This Morning clip made the rounds and you’re not ready for it: The performance was cancelled ten minutes before the end (where you can let your hair down and sing along ironically) due to two patrons singing along to I Will Always Love You. Riot police were called when the incident escalated into violence including one of the patrons attempting to throw punches at staff and were dragged out by security when they refused to stop. Clips have since come out and a Telegraph article revealing the details of what happened, and for many it feels like the last straw.
I think the reason why it finally got through to people just how bad audience behaviour had become was because they weren’t given the opportunity to see what really happens when it gets out of control. One of those people includes Alison Hammond, who issued a reflective and sincere apology you can read below. Compared to Dermot O’Leary’s statement defending himself through ITV’s poor editing (I’ve seen the unedited clip and fair play to him as he’s against singing along to an extent, but his apology could have been more sincere and better worded), it’s nice to see her learn from this incident and she shouldn’t be left alone to deal with it.
Given that the unedited This Morning clip made Vanessa Feltz appear worse for keeping her stance and not caring about the disruption singing along causes, it’ll be interesting to hear her side of the story (if we hear it as we’ve heard no response as of Monday April 10th).
What can we learn from this?
The This Morning clip and its fallout are symptoms of the wider problem of the perception of theatre. With the government’s lack of financial aid during the COVID-19 lockdowns, telling people to get used to ridiculously high ticket prices during a cost of living crisis and audience behaviour worse than ever, there has been a concerning rhetoric that theatre is nothing but light entertainment reserved for “a special treat” and not worthy of respect.
While enabling this kind of behaviour, we can’t blame what happened at The Bodyguard entirely on This Morning as it’s each individual’s responsibility to either be respectful, or to put it bluntly, act like an arsehole. This is often down to the beliefs the money you spent on a ticket means you’re entitled to behave however you want and following the rules equals “don’t have fun,” but in theatre that couldn’t be further from the truth. In being respectful, you can fully immerse yourself into the world and enjoy the music as it was meant to be sung by top performers. You will have your time to sing your heart out, just wait until the curtain call.
And in the cases of sing-along performances which are designed to let you join in on the fun, just go all out!
Leave a Reply