Opinion | How Broadway is fighting back against rude audience members

A company called Yondr has developed soft pouches that keep people from accessing their devices during showsLast month, I caught a 10 p.m. performance of the new Broadway musical “Freestyle Love Supreme.” As I was preparing to walk down the aisle to grab my seat, an usher asked me to verify that my phone was silent or off and then placed it in a foam pouch. At first, I thought she was confiscating it.

It initially felt frustrating not to be able to snap a pre-show picture of the stage. I couldn’t check texts or the internet. So I actually held my head up, looked around, perhaps perused my Playbill more intently. And you know something? I was happy. If it’s that hard for you to make it through a performance without looking at your email or texts or waiting on a call, you should ask yourself why you’re in the theater to begin with.

Theatergoers have always faced annoyances: a patron behind you kicking your seat because of limited legroom, someone at your side talking during a performance, or the occasional Fidgety Fred in front of you who keeps jerking around. But cellphones have become insufferable – 96 percent of– creating an increasingly loud and distracted society that shows flagrant disregard for the boundary between the theater hall and the street.

The whole point of going to the theater is to be immersed in another world – the one that’s on stage, not the one that’s in the audience. If it’s that hard for you to make it through a performance without looking at your email or texts or waiting on a call, you should ask yourself why you’re in the theater to begin with.

THINK Couldn’t someone bring in their real phone and a burner phone?

THINK I went to a comedy show in Boston over the summer and they used this....no biggie, and it didn't slow down leaving either.

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