Manchester’s Palace Theatre Director Robin Hawkes thinks the focus on singing in debate about anti-social behaviour is a distraction from the real issues. Dianne Bourne reports.
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“Anti-social behaviour, plain and simple”: Palace Theatre boss speaks out after Bodyguard row (Manchester Evening News)
The Palace Theatre in Manchester is the city's most historic and arguably most famous theatre. It has played host to some of the world's biggest stars, and theatreland's biggest shows.
But the Grand Old Lady of Oxford Street was itself thrust into the spotlight in April - when an incident at The Bodyguard musical involving disruptive audience members singing loudly over the show and refusing to stop saw police have to be called out. It forced the bubbling issue of increasingly poor audience behaviour at theatres across the UK into a fierce topic of national debate.
Robin Hawkes is the theatre director of the Palace Theatre and Opera House in Manchester. They are the city's two biggest theatres and in the past year have played to record-breaking crowds as audiences flocked to return to shows post lockdown restrictions.
Speaking now about the issues The Bodyguard incident raised, he is keen for theatre-goers to understand what is "actually going on" at theatres. There are no "singing bans" in place at the theatre moving forward, nor does he believe that people singing at musicals is the issue...Keep reading on Manchester Evening News.