Music Theater "Tweet Seats" are the New In-Thing

Posted 12/07/2011 at 7:54am | by Paul Lilly

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As tempting as it might be to dump your drink on the person sitting in front of you or jar their seat like you're trying to kick the winning field goal as a not-so-friendly reminder of cell phone etiquette, consider for a moment that maybe they're actually supposed to be using their smartphone during the live performance of The Lion King or Wicked. Love it or hate it, dedicated seats for tweeters are growing in popularity.

There's an interesting article in USA Today that brings attention to so-called "tweet seats," which are special seating areas for viewers to sit, relax, take in the show, and live-tweet during the performance. And it's not just one or two locations, but "a growing number of theaters and performing groups across the country" are designating tweet seats, USA Today reports.

One of those theaters is Goodspeed Opera House, and according to the venue's public relations manager, Elisa Hale, there have been "no negative comments" from non-tweeting patrons so far. Part of the reason is because the tweet seats are located in the back of the theater where they're far less likely to be a distraction.

Now that the genie is out of the bottle, we expect this trend to grow and extend into other areas. Let's just hope movie theaters don't catch on, lest that temptation we touched on above ends up getting the better of us.