[Alnoor]

Was watching 'Phantom' yesterday and overheard the following conversation during the interval:

1st woman--They always have two actresses playing Christine and the actresses change during the interval. So now we will see another actress.

2nd woman--Are you sure? Never heard that before.

1st woman--Oh yes I am sure. it is not only if the actress falls ill. They always have 2 actresses at each performance.

3rd woman--Yes, that right, When I went to see Mary Poppins, there were 4 girls who played that role during that performance. As it require a lot of dancing and singing, they change the actress during the performance 4 times.


me--smirking and concentrated on the programme.

aaah bless.

What nuggets have people overheard?

[Backdrifter]

Last year, at Lies Have Been Told (one-man show about Robert Maxwell) at the Trafalgar Studios. Sipping my drink at the interval, I saw and heard a bombastic thick-necked bloke talking to a silent woman who'd missed the 1st half. "Already spotted 2 errors" he said in a clipped but slightly wearied way, as though he could barely be bothered with the whole sorry mess. Then, referring to how the actor had baited a couple of audience members, "He had a go at a couple of people on the front row. Good thing I wasn't there - he'd be sorry, I'd have had a right go back at him." I moved to a different seat in the bar as I didn't want my drink spoilt by listening to this pompous git. Amusingly, in the 2nd half, "Maxwell" invited all comers to have a go at himself. "Come on!" he urged, "doen't anyone want to have a go at Robert Maxwell?" I looked pointedly at Thick Neck, who was on the row behind, and thought this would be his golden opportunity to make Maxwell "sorry". Oddly enough, he remained silent.

On my way out of a production of The Birthday Party at Richmond 5 years ago, woman saying to her companion "I don't know... are they all supposed to be in an asylum or something?"

[Moose]

Are people really THAT stupid?

[xTanyax]

At Guys and Dolls one time when Lynsey Britton had taken over from Claire Sweeney, and the program still had Claire in it, there was a woman on the front row saying yeah it is Clarie Sweeney she looks very small in real life. My friend corrected her on that one lol

[Trev]

My favourite was a friend overhearing an American couple catching the bus after Therese Raquin. "Now she was married to....?"

[Haz]

completely theatre-irrelevant but a neighbour of mine in edinburgh was a taxi driver and once picked up an american couple from waverley train station

as they drove out of the station and saw the castle just in front of them they commented how convenient it was that they'd built the castle so close to the station

[Jake]

An absolute gem, coming out of Bristol Old Vic's Ghosts recently: bloke in his late 20s, "I'd rather have stayed at home and scratched my balls".

[Peter]

An American tourist on her way out of the Mousetrap: "I hear that the author changes the identity of the murderer every so often to keep it fresh. That's why it's lasted so long." I was laughing too much to bother correcting her...

[Ian]

Following a performance of Noel and Gertie at the post show discussion:-

"Why didn't they get married?"

[Marius]

An American tourist on her way out of the Mousetrap: "I hear that the author changes the identity of the murderer every so often to keep it fresh. That's why it's lasted so long." I was laughing too much to bother correcting her...

That is a common belief (well maybe not that the author does it herself but that the murderer does change), several people told me that before I saw it!