Ken Levine on the epidemic of standing ovations in the theater, as if every performance of every show is spectacular:
This seems to be the pattern. Show ends. Actors take their curtain call. Half the audience leaps to its feet. Another quarter sees this, wasn’t going to but decide what the hell? They rise. The rest now figure, shit, we don’t want to look like assholes, so they join the adulation. I think for a standing ovation to mean anything today, at least 80% must jump up at once. Anything less doesn’t count.
I feel bad now for actors when they only receive loud thunderous applause. That must be devastating to them.
Is this just an outgrowth of the Millennial generation where everyone got trophies for everything?