Have you ever walked out of a cinema/theatre half way through a show?

EvieJ

YES
Mamma Mia!
I found it strange, seeing all those amazing actors singing and dancing.
Think i stayed for about 20 minutes, couldn't do anymore

Ooh I hated mamma Mia too. I must be different to everyone else ??

Didn’t enjoy “Cats” but stuck it out for the sake of everyone else in the family.
Loved “Les Mis” on stage but hated the film!
Visited the Edinburgh Fringe one year and, of 17 shows attended in five days, we only walked out of one!
Some years ago, I was on stage with the whole cast for the final denouement in “As You Like It” when an audience member on the front row snored loudly! We all struggled to finish the scene without laughing. ?

Orlin and I in our teens walked out of Women in Love cos I was embarrassed at the ‘exposure of their dangly bits’ during the fight.
Have seen it since and laughed at myself. The innocence of youth in those days.

I loved Am Dram and went to lots of Festivals , one play was so dire we left as soon as there was a pause . We went to the finals night and were amazed to hear they had won several awards ! One mans meat ......

We walked out of a Chekov play, directed by Ingmar Bergman and starred Vanessa Redgrave. We were sitting in the gods, the seats were uncomfortable and it was very hot.

We were at a jazz concert at Snape Maltings at least 25 years ago watching a jazz concert with George Russell who was a renowned pianist, composer and theorist. He had a large band with him, some brought over from the States and some British. They played contemporary jazz. Russell had worked with Miles Davis on some of his earlier recordings and his music was similar to early Miles.

Unfortunately it was advertised as a big band concert and several people turned up expecting to hear something very different. My OH referred to Lawrence Welk at the time. Several of the audience walked out during the first piece, making their displeasure known by slamming their seats and making as much noise as possible. It was mainly men and they were probably around 60 to 70 years old at that time and very rude. Had they read the listings notes they would have realised that it was not quite their thing. As is often the way with Brits, their first reaction is to make their feelings known as forcibly as possible. A bit like Brits trying to speak a foreign language on holiday. Just talk louder.

Once, went to see a comedian at a local small theatre - he wasn't going down very well with the audience and his language and jokes became coarser and coarser. I got up and walked out and many other audience members followed me. He was never re-booked

Yes, Lord of the Rings. I was apprehensive about it and quickly realised that it was going to be noisy, full of aggressive fighting, bad dialogue and little resemblance to the books which I loved.
I don't often go to a mainstream film now, especially Hollywood /American ones. I avoided the Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials films because I knew I wouldn't last five minutes.
I've never walked out of a theatre but I don't go often and choose my productions carefully. All is online now anyway of course but the same principles apply for me.

I went to see The Exorcist with boyfriend as a teenager. It was too much for me and couldn’t watch anymore. I sat in the foyer and waited for him to come out at the end. Why on earth did I wait!! He turned out to be as bad as the film!

I was on a girls trip to Manchester and we went to see the musical ‘Oh what a circus ‘ starring my teenage crush David Essex. Oh my, we should have lived with our teenage memories of him rather than the almost bald old man on stage. The show was dire and we walked out, but not until after some other people walked out first as we felt too embarrassed to do so.
My husband and I also walked out of a Ken Dodd show before the end. The show had started at 8pm and Ken was still going at midnight with no sign of stopping. I had work the following day so reluctantly we left. I later heard that it went on until 2pm.

Apologies, should have proof read that. Although his shows were notorious for their longevity this one finished at 2am not 2pm. ???

I have never walked out of a cinema but have fallen asleep quite often after 10 minutes.

A tacky comedy show in Melbourne at the Arts Centre there. We were with friends but couldn’t stand it so we just left during the interval. I don’t mind blue jokes but these were just not funny. The place was full of trendies from the city all dressed in black with loud voices.

Thanks D (&C). WB it will be! Also half remembered.....'Crouching tiger ? Dragon'. Further help duly anticipated/appreciated!!

A professional production of a dramatisation of A Henry James novel, which was unremittingly tedious; and the film Cherulata - The Lonely Wife. After about twenty minutes of the latter we decided to try a new restaurant that had just opened. We were the only diners, and the place was totally atmosphere-free. After a while the girl I was with said “Just as well this isn’t our first date.”

Left in the interval of a performance of Anthony and Cleopatra at the Globe theatre nothing to do with the play - it was way too hot with the sun shining on my neck and in an uncomfortable seat. Also my GC and I had to leave the theatre performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the interval along with everyone else as there had been a power cut. We got a refund. We have left concerts at half time when we’ve had enough.

Oh yes, you reminded me Oldwoman. We also left a local comedy club due to the comedian thinking a succession of swear words was funny in itself. It was a shame, it was usually a very good small club.
Niochorio, my image of David Essex is ruined for ever!

Boz

We walked out of a Ken Dodd show in the June before he died the following March. A really great Comedian who went on for too long. I admire his tenacity but felt very sad because he should have rested on his reputation.

Some people say that Paul McCartney should have given up too but he loves performing and plenty of people are happy to pay to hear him. Maybe it's something about Scousers but Ken Dodd so thoroughly enjoyed performing that his shows always overran, sometimes by hours, and although some had trains to catch few I think regretted the extra performance.

As a film student in my old age I have to stoically endure some tosh. The only film I've ever actually walked out on was a Mel Gibson film about aliens and crop circles. Was it called 'Signs'?

I walked out of a performance of the opera 'Carmen' once. It was in Kraków, Poland and it seemed like a good opportunity as going to the opera is cheap in Poland and often good quality - under communism everywhere got a new opera house to give culture to the proles, except for the ancient cultural and intellectual centre of Kraków which got a huge steelworks to teach it some good proletarian values and enough pollution to damage a lot of the medieval architecture. Anyway, I digress. It wasn't exactly La Scala but it was Opera and it was Carmen, the opera you take people to who don't like opera because it has lots of familiar stirring tunes right from the start of the overture. You do need a spirited production though, because it's quite long and if it doesn't sparkle it can drag. Unfortunately this performance had all the sparkle of a wet dishcloth and Pastia's bar (where the toreador does his bit at the start of act 2) was full of the kind of passion you might find at an ice-cream social in Oklahoma. Also, between each act there was some kind of dumb-show of Don José in the condemned cell. We left halfway through act 2.

Yes! The first pantomime we took our grandson to. He was 3 and it frightened him. So off we went home after about half an hour.

It was supposed to be a fun happy afternoon?

The following year he loved it?

A couple of years ago we took our grandchildren to the pantomime in Glasgow as a treat after Christmas. It was awful, full of innuendo and very coarse.
Lots of school parties were there and it was billed as the children's performance.
We walked out before the end of the first half.
When we got back to DD's house, she sent off a complaint.

Only once, it was a play by Eugene O’Neill at the theatre royal in Nottingham.
We couldn’t understand it and after the first act gave up trying.

When I was about 17 I took my Gran to the cinema as a treat for her birthday. There wasn't anything on that we really fancied when we got there, so took a chance on a film called 'Blue Movie'. We were back out of the door by the time the opening credits had finished and went for fish and chips instead. The story kept the whole family in stitches for days.

I must have been extremely innocent - I can't imagine a 17 year old these days not knowing what a blue movie is

Twice, both at The Lowry in Manchester. The first was Hamlet, starring Rory Kinnear. I usually like him but this was interminable with all the cast leaving huge pauses between lines and we started to think that nobody had actually learned their parts.. We also left early on during Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which most people seem to think is really funny but it did nothing for us, particularly as a chap behind us guffawed at every gag and insisted on explaining loudly to his companion what the joke was. I was ready to scream after the first 10 minutes.

Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. We enjoyed the first 15 mins but then it was just repeating the same dancing, over and over....

No sara I don’t want to watch it again I hated every minute of it and won’t change my mind glad you enjoyed it but I didn’t and we re all allowed to be different I know quite a few other people who didn’t like it I wasn’t alone probably a marmite thing
Like Cats my friend adored it I was bored out my head
I love Les Mis film and stage show and Phantom which others haven’t liked

DillyTheGardener I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing at this:

walked out of Base Moi, which I mistakenly thought was a French detective caper

It’s an incredible film that’s very unflinching about the realities of sexual assault - probably one of the best examples of the ‘female revenge’ genre. But I remember how much publicity it got for being explicit and violence, the posters all looked gritty and the film’s title literally translates as “F**k Me”.

I’m sorry you saw a film you definitely weren’t prepared for but...how?!