The Bitch of Ushering- Page 2
The Bitch of Ushering
#25re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 1:28pm
"Actually, it is a spoof of the song from Spring Awakening. I was gonna write a song parody. Sorry, Lizzie."
You ****, that's what I just asked.
-Benjamin
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Mamie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/26/04
#26re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 1:34pm
I don't find ushers rude MOST of the time. Most of the time they just do their job and move on. Sometimes you even run into a really nice one. At least as often as you meet the nasty ones.
The only really bad incident I've had ushering came when our theatre was putting on a special performance for the high school kids in the metro area. They wanted these kids to have a complete theatre experience so they decided to issue them tickets with seat numbers and have the ushers check the tickets, show them to their seats, give them the Playbill, etc. Well most of these kids couldn't have cared less about what seat number was on their tickets. They wanted to sit with their friends and they completely ignored anything we said. All except for one girl who was walking down the aisle with two of her friends. They hadn't bothered slowing down long enough to even show the ushers their tickets - assuming they had tickets. I ran down the aisle to catch them and give them Playbills and the leader of the bunch turned around and put her face 2 inches from mine and said "get out of my way bi*ch". The tone of voice she used was enough to chill your blood. I know that if she'd had a knife on her, I'd be pushing daisies. I went back to the house manager and told him that for future education department performances they would have to get rid of the tickets and put each class in charge of the teachers. Either that or they'd never get another usher to work there again. They listened.
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mamie4 5/14/03
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Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#27re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 1:36pm
You ****, that's what I just asked.
And that's how I answered you.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
#28re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 1:43pm
Ugh, don't get me started.
One memorable experience occurred while ushering at BIRDIE BLUE at Second Stage. I showed one man to his seat, and he didn't like the view. He moved to another seat, and I told him he could not sit there (this was before the show even started). He argued with me for a while, saying "No one will sit here. I know things. No one's going to sit here. Leave me alone." Sure enough, people came with tickets for that seat.
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda
LuPonatic
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/12/06
#29re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 1:49pm
dancingthrulife04, didn't he know you don't move until the overture starts...sheesh. :O)
Whenever I see a tour at the Murat in Indianapolis (basically where I live) even the ushers say "wait until the lights dim." they understand, haha.
I was wondering if this was a volunteer thing, ushering on broadway (because it is around here) or do you get paid, and is it a good paying gig?
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
#30re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:08pm
Most ushers get paid - but you have to be part of the union. Roundabout also has volunteer ushers. They don't usually know what's going on - but it's a free show.
There is a really great usher at the Schoenfield right now. She and I had a long conversation about ACL. There was another woman there - hell, it could have been the same lady - who talked with us about BKLYN and J&H when we saw BKLYN.
Anyway, guests don't really like late seating policies. For good reason. My face usually hurts after working from all the fake smiling. But it's always worth it in a twisted sort of way.
#31re: The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:24pmI was doing it as a volunteer.
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda
#32re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:34pm
Wait, so who is the bitch of ushering? Mattbrain??
"The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility. Oh brother, that got me, that did me in!"
Updated On: 11/25/06 at 02:34 PM
Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#33re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:37pmNo, I'm talking about when ushering (particularly volunteer ushering) can be a complete bitch.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#34re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:46pmI never find it to be a bitch. I enjoy it very much. I just don't like rude or inappropriate people. Sometimes people are very condescending as well, but I am always polite to them. I had one guy last night who took a picture of the group he was with, and when I informed him there was no photography in the theatre, he clapped me HARD on the back, chuckled, and said "Yeah, I'm juuuust takin' a picture of the family." So not only did he condescend, he hurt my back. I politely informed him that nevertheless, no pictures were allowed.
Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#35The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:50pmShbrtAlley44, these are the moments I'm talking about. I love ushering. But all of those times...Yeesh. Heck, I'm ushering at the Company Theatre's production of It's A Wonderful Life this coming week.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
#36re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:50pm
Shub - ya should have punched him square in the face and then said, "Oh, I'm sorry. A fly was on your eye."
Worked for me...damn 80 year old women and their "I can't make it up these steps" crap.
#37re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:53pm
I was in the rear of the balcony for AWAKE & SING! and this usher sits in one of the empty seats in the last two rows. That's all fine and dandy...until he falls asleep and begins to snore. Someone gets out of their seat to go wake him up, and he says very loudly "Oh, sorry!"
That was Act I. After intermission, he falls asleep and snores AGAIN. We wake him up AGAIN. He does this four more times until the first guy comes back to wake him up again and says "If you don't stand up in the back I'm going to get the house manager and have you fired."
He got up and apologized, loudly, again.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
McFrenzied
Stand-by Joined: 10/8/06
#38re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:55pm
Waitaminute..you have to be in a union just to usher?? I was thinking about ushering for a show in order to see them for free, but it sounds like it's much more competitive than I realized? How do you go about applying to be an usher?
By the way, you guys are bein' way too hard on poor MattBrain. What better place to bitch about some of the rude people that ushers have to deal with every day than on this board? This is an aside (sorry I'm so rambly today): I've heard that ushers are very valued by producers because they have the inside track on what audience members really thought of their show.
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
#39re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 2:57pmPlus, an usher is the only person who could send in their two weeks saying, "You couldn't even pay me to see this show."
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#40re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 3:04pm
"There is a really great usher at the Schoenfield right now. She and I had a long conversation about ACL. There was another woman there - hell, it could have been the same lady - who talked with us about BKLYN and J&H when we saw BKLYN. "
Heh, as soon as I read the first part about an usher at the Schoenfeld, I thought heh, I wonder if it's the same usher we talked to at Brooklyn...
I'll look for her when I eventually see Chorus Line 
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
#41re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 3:07pm
I think it was a different one - I think I saw the usher we had there as well.
But they are full of gossip. Hopefully you don't get one of those ushers talking to a family memember of the cast.
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#42re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 3:10pm
"But they are full of gossip. Hopefully you don't get one of those ushers talking to a family memember of the cast."
Huh? Explain.
So it was probably another awesome usher, though? I think it's safe to say the Schoenfeld has one of my favorite ushering staffs of any theatre on Broadway.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
LollyNYC
Understudy Joined: 10/9/05
#43re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 4:44pm
In nonjokingness I actually AM an usher part time to supplement my income and while I do hate most patrons and the job itself and probably shouldnt be working within 500 feet of any human being I am one of the nicest ushers. IN THE WORLD. No joke. And I've some pretty stupid people in my life in my many ushering endeavors...
Yeah, they may be 'customer service' questions that I, as an usher, should answer as my job...but sometimes people are just so stupid/rude/stupid/whiny/stupid that I really shouldnt be so nice to them. And I work in a place where we don't have those old lady fixtures that most Broadway theaters have...the ones who dont actually usher but scream at patrons and are rude and kick them down flights of stairs. True story, I've been kicked down every staircase on Broadway by every old lady usher. Where I work it's mostly young people who do it as a survival job.
USHERING!!!! It really is my heart and soul. Everyone where I work is really nice and professional and ive never seen anyone say anything rude or act out, but remember, I am an actors and underneath our friendly facade, this is just how we pay some of our bills and we don't like it, or you. Especially if you're stupid, or one of those people who sees the same show 4 times in two days. Then I REALLY dont like you and I spend a good amount of time laughing at you and wanting to kick you down stairs.
*ADDED CAPS TO MAKE THEATREDIVA HAPPY =)
Updated On: 11/27/06 at 04:44 PM
LollyNYC
Understudy Joined: 10/9/05
#44re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 4:57pm
also to defend my bff and lover mattbrain, how many people in offices, or in GENERAL actually like their jobs? how many tv shows are devoted to offices or people in offices who hate what they do? why are they allowed to complain in sitcoms? why must ushers love what they do?
and also, its not so much the question, but getting the same question 87 times a night by high strung patrons. YES, we know you're probably confused that you are seat 1 and your husband is seat 3 and it may seem like you're not together, but chill! because screaming at us and demanding to be sat next to each other is just going to make us hate you. if you say, hey, this is kinda weird, our seats are separate!?!? woah baby!! yeah I get that question seven hundred and eighty times a night but if you are polite it wont bother me so much as if you are ****ting bricks and vomiting all over me and crying. when one of our shows opened, an older gentleman ran to the front of the stage at curtain call and started snapping pictures. I said to him, politely, although having told everyone 2384923489234 times to NOT have their cameras or cells out, that he is not allowed to take pictures at the show, even though it is curtain call. his response was "BUT I WORK FOR PLAYBILL.COM!" and continued flashing pictures. I said "I know, sir, but you dont have a press pass, and still, we do not allow flash photography of any kind, you would have to talk to management to get permission" and he said "Tell management to go **** themselves" and kept taking photos. was I rude? no. was he an asshole? yes. are most patrons assholes when I tell them to stop taking pictures even though its my JOB? yes. do I secretly plot the murders of most of them? yes. but I am NEVER rude and yet always get rude behavior from people who are obnoxious and 'breaking the rules'. do I care if someone has a cell phone out? not really. but its my job to say 'please put that away, ma'am'...and I usually get nasty glares or "WHY!?!?!?!" from everyone I ask. um, because its the rule, and if I have to say it one more time, I may break your face, you are not five years old, do not say why to me ever again.
im sure mattbrain is a fine, hot piece of ass who is just trying to do his job and go home at the end of the night like the rest of us, and im sure he loves people but just like any of you who dont like their line of work, he's also allowed to complain. as long as hes polite in the theater and at the job, he can come home and make fun of / complain about anyone he wants. its his god given right as an american.
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#45re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 4:58pmI've never had a really bad usher. I mean, of course some do not go out of their ways to be nice, but I have never had one be rude. In fact, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, one was especially nice. We were seeing Wicked on its closing show, and she went out of her way to be nice. Talked to us about the show and theatre, and even tried to find a pen when I needed one but didn't have one.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#46re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 5:42pmThe only bad experience I had in New York was at "History Boys". And it wasn't so much bad as annoying. The female usher in the lobby was hands down the most rude usher I have ever seen. Just screaming at the patrons. My favorite ushers so far are the women upstairs at the Eugene O'Neill.
Just give the world Love.
#47re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 6:17pm
I used to usher at my school for our touring shows. Once Neil Berg had one of his 100 years of bway and the only reason I ushered was to get to see the [fabulous] show free. Well my school's seating chart was wrong when the tix were printed so seats on the left were on the right and vice versa. Well most people did not either care or notice...but we had one woman wh was so annoying and rude. Yes, it was the school's fault but I was not in charge of printing the tix.
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Updated On: 11/25/06 at 06:17 PM
#48re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 6:22pm
I met a really nice usherette at Mary Poppins, I had gotten really sick during the curtain call. and she offered to go get me some ginger ale. and told my family that we shouldn't rush to get out and to take our time because they still had work to do.
she also tried to make me feel better by telling me that it happens every show, every section.
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#49re: Mattbrain, The Bitch of Ushering
Posted: 11/25/06 at 6:40pmSo here is my positive ushering story. I go to school in Chicago and one night I went with a group of friends to see Pirate Queen well after the show I was in McDonalds right next to the Oriental Theatre where Wicked is. I was talking to my friends about Wicked and this usher for Wicked walks in to McDonalds and hears us all talking. She comes up to us and we talk for 20mins and she told us all about how she loves her job and she does it 4 nights a week and she wished she had more time because she loves theatre. I thought it was really neat how she just told us all these things for no reason. She also told us some secrets about the show/oriental theatre. So it was really nice....there is my positive theatre
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