Whatever happened to class?

There's a deleted scene on the Chicago DVD where Velma Kelley and Matron Morton sing a lament about the lack of class in society. They sing about men not opening doors, about ladies who don't respect themselves, and about children being little monsters. After going to the ballet on Saturday, I felt as if I was going to pose the question "What became of class?"

First of all, I don't see how any parent could take their children to any theater. People pay to enjoy the show, not to listen to parents trying to control their bad ass kids. We sat in an area where we were surrounded by little bey bey kids who wouldn't shut the fuck up. Blah blah blah blah blah! That's all I heard. It was insane! I just loved how the stupid mother behind me kept explaining every fucking detail to the kid on her lap, who kept asking her "WHERE'S SLEEPING BEAUTY? WHERE'S THE DRAGON? WHERE'S BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!" There ain't no fuckin dragon, this is Tchaikovski and not Disney... BITCH!

During intermission, we got to see the wonderful fashions that the parents are letting their kids wear. Apparently, it's now acceptable to wear sequins and to show your exposed midsection at the ballet. Well hot damn! Where's my bedazzler?

As I tried to ignore all of the flash photography, I wondered when the theatre turned into an indoor trailer park. In the past, going to the theatre was an event. Everyone dressed nicely, people respected each other, and they all followed a certain set of social graces that don't exist now. What do we have now? We have people munching on snacks and coming in late, making a big raucous while they talk to each other and ignore all of the hard work that the perfomers are doing. We have children who would much rather be at home playing video games than being forced to wear uncomfortable clothes and dragged to a theatre having to sit in one direction for three hours by their stupid parents who think that they can be classy just by telling people that they went to the ballet.

Newsflash: You don't become classy just by going to the show. You get it by having a respect for the artists and for the other people who paid to see them.