Stop hate watching.

We’ve all done it. We all do it. And the worst part is…we air that shit out on social media. There are articles in defense of it, but this blog post isn’t one of them.

Musicals are going live, or “live,” whatever you want to call it. But all of a sudden, the nasty musical theatre vultures come out and start criticizing a performance before it begins.

Don’t act like you’ve never truly royally fucked up a performance.

You probably have, which makes you think that you have carte blanche to rip into someone else, because hey, we’ve all gone through it. Or, hey, they’re famous, they should know what they’re doing. They’re famous, they should expect criticism.

Yeah yeah yeah, it’s an opinion. It’s your opinion. How many actors does it take to screw in a lightbulb, bla bla bla, shut up. Just. Shut. Up.

You know what I do when I find myself hate watching? I remember the time I threw up onstage during a dance number. I remember the time I jumped my cue to recorded music leaving me with MORE music to fake my way through. I remember the time I literally exited the wrong way and a crew member had to come get me because I got stuck in the stairwell to the balcony. I remember the time I literally forgot the words and made up my own lyrics while the musical director just stood their with his finger to his lip trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.

Hate watching is shitty behavior.

It’s gross, it makes me feel gross, and makes me wonder if my peers ever talked about my performances that way. I try not to go down that rabbit hole because I’ll just find the anxiety that pulled me offstage years ago.

It tears down. It doesn’t lift up. And for an industry full of people claiming to support each other, I find that “support” very difficult to believe sometimes.

To be clear, it’s not just watching it and not liking a performance. It’s literally enjoying talking shit about it. It’s hosting a party and on the e-vite include the line “let’s see how badly they screw this up!” I received one of those, once. **declined**

Even the incomparable Leslie Uggams screws up on live TV.

 

But they get paid to be perfect! Yeah, too bad, no one is. No matter how much you pay them.

Call me a wet blanket but I’d rather be a wet blanket than an asshole.

Be better. Be professional.

Do you find yourself hate watching?