Music to my ears! Cell phones banned at NYC performances...

I am not sure that I like the idea of legislating behavior by actually banning the use of cell phones. I think that a reasonable compromise would have been that people may use cell phones with vibrating batteries (ones that don't ring) Then there could be a place in the building (lobby, restroom, etc.) where the person could take his call.

I object to a complete ban, even though I turn off my phone when I am in a theatre!

macsm11

I believe the appropriate response, if you're in their vicinity, is to scream "wanker" and then attack them with a bunch of celery!

Mind you - it does mean carrying that celery around a bit!

Yea , here in the big town, the idiots can't call their cretin friends and say "Nothing, Well, I dunno. What do you want to do later?" loud enough to be heard three rows away where I sit with my popcorn and the two wasted $10.00 ticket stubs. Wasted because I can't HEAR the movie! They don't know where they are. It's weird.

There are some people who are not conscious of the other creatures around them. They are the same ones who approach the front of a service line, walking past ten others, and are surprised that there's a line.
They aren't completely in this world, and we have given them cellphones and stereo headsets that prevent full apprehension of their environment and buzz loudly enough for subway passengers eight seats down to hear the zzzZZzzzXXZZZxx!

By the way, my only phone is cell and I have this sweet little MP3 player that I use to mask out the subway's grinding grind. I shut off the phone when in public performance areas (including outdoors at Central Park)and I have tested the earpieces against extraneous noise.

Hey, we're here with you!

How's this for irony: I discovered this thread about an hour after arriving home from a performance of Joe Egg, at the American Airlines Theater on 42nd Street, which was interrupted not once, but twice, by the sound of ringing cell phones. Both times were near the beginning of the second act, so presumably the cell phone owners had used their phones during intermission and then forgotten to turn them off when they went back for the second act -- which is pretty stupid, since the theater made announcements, before both the first and second acts, reminding people to turn off their cell phones. Where's a cop when you need one?