Background sneezing on different recordings (question)

[smooshi]

Maybe a week or so ago, I found the final scene of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard (the Broadway musical) on YouTube, starring Glenn Close as Norma Desmond.

I was looking for it for quite a long time, since I adore the 1950 film, the musical is enjoyable with great songs and Glenn Close is my favourite actress. I just wanted to hear her saying the famous allright-Mr-DeMille-I-am-ready-for-my-close-up line.

The scene was recorded from audience, and the quallity was really bad.

Look, guys, I am the person who goes to the theatre every week, but I have never, ever, heard so much sneezing and coughing in less then three minutes.

What was going on? Dusty theatre? Someone had ultrastrong perfume? Cold season?

I barely noticed what was happening on the stage, I was just listening to the sneezes!

Has something like that ever happened to you?

[Sneesee]

Okay, this is a slightly different scenario, but whenever I go to a public place for a performance, whether it's a movie theater, or a show of some sort, I am constantly distracted by all the coughing and sneezing going on. My example is from yesterday, when I went to a renaissance fair, and each of the shows we watched had a lot of people around. I would say that because it's allergy season, and we were outside, that it contributed to the problem. But I lost track of all the sneezing going on, because it was like, all day long and all the time! And for me, it is extremely distracting, and it does tend to steal my attention away from whatever is going on. You are not alone!

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Not on recordings, but there have been days at university in late spring when it has been virtually non-stop during the busy hours of the day. There may have been one or two occasions where my attention has been more on that "background noise" than on my work.

[Dusty15]

Theatres are notoriously dusty. Plus, the blaring lights in eyes = phoitic sneezes.