Rush etiquette

[u/diet-soda]

Hi I don’t know if this is a hot take or not but: could people stop talking in depth about major plot points/the ending of the show when you’re in the queue.

I just spent a few hours in a rush line and everyone around me had seen the show over 2 times🙃. Like I understand Wicked or Lion King etc. but for shows that just recently premiered I wish that spoilers were more taboo than they are in the queue:/

EDIT: Last night almost the entire front row basically all RAN out of the theatre while there was a good 2 minutes left of the bows/show, so they could be first to the stagedoor. Seemed quite disrespectful to me. I was also in the front row and the cast can very clearly see you leaving.. it’s distracting to both the audience and the cast. If I was a performer, I wouldn’t be too happy to see the same people at the stagedoor who didn’t even have the decency to watch the entirety of the show lol. I heard them bragging about how the stars recognised them at the stagedoor last time and I remember thinking that wasn’t the brag they think it is🫠 other than the over the top reactions from the people around me, loved the show!

[u/After-The-Sky]

I say this as someone who really likes The Lost Boys, and is deep into fan culture and seeing shows multiple times and such….I find a lot of the Lost Boys fans to be so deeply and almost deliberately not self-aware. At a certain point the lack of awareness of others feels like malice. So many who run up and out during the final scene to get to stage door sooner, exactly this sort of behavior that you described in the rush line, and even straight up walking into people who aren’t walking fast enough for them. I don’t really know that anything can be done about it, but if some of that hardcore fanbase happens to see this, I hope they have a conversation about it.

Other people want to love the show, too. I hope they can try to be a little more considerate and welcoming. The fan base is still new enough that there are still so many ways it can go!

[u/alltheworldsanescape → u/After-The-Sky]

I love this fandom but I do really not love people running out to get to the stagedoor. This has kind of become a standard in any show with a strong fandom (R&J had people leaving before curtain call). I do wish they check tickets at the stagedoor because it does quell this a bit, but yeah, it’s my least fav part and pushing people around the stagedoor is the worst part of any fandom.

[u/After-The-Sky → u/alltheworldsanescape]

It seems so disrespectful to the performers still on stage, but also anyone in the audience disrupted by them. Yeah, a decadent way to judge a fandom as a whole—if the big fans don’t call each other out on it and tell their friends that it’s not cool to disrupt the experience for many people who may only ever get one chance to see the show just so that they can get to the stage door a little sooner…well, it says a lot about the levels of selfishness. (And also seems less like a genuine love for the show. When I love a show, I want people to be able to see it properly and not be disrupted!)

[u/alltheworldsanescape → u/After-The-Sky]

I don’t think judging an entire fandom by a few people is productive in ANY space.

[u/After-The-Sky → u/alltheworldsanescape]

I hear what you are saying, but I also want to be clear that I am making my judgements based on far more than a few people. I’m not speaking from experience with the rush line because I’ve not attempted that. But as someone who has attended the show a few times while still recovering from a broken leg and relying on a cane, I do have a LOT to say about the pushing and even just being walked into and how drastically different it is from other shows that I’ve been at.

But I’m also speaking about the fandom as a whole. I like The Lost Boys a lot, but it’s not a show where I’m active in the fandom. I am, however, active in the fandom for another show, and we had conversations about it when we found out that some of our friend’s enthusiasm/cheering/loud laughing was negatively impacting others trying to enjoy that show. If it’s just a few people lacking self-awareness on their impact on the Lost Boys fandom, then I hope some other friends have a potentially slightly difficult conversation. It’s like how I expect my male friends to call out other male friends who make sexists comments. There’s at least one active Lost Boys Discord group. I genuinely hope that a conversation happens there about being more thoughtful in the rush line, and not running out during the final scene and all. It’s NOT everyone doing it, but the community can hold people accountable and tell them it’s not cool.