Another day, another debacle that gives fans of The Pitt a bad name. Isa Briones, who plays second-year resident Trinity Santos on the HBO Max medical procedural, recently took to social media to scold fans for their poor behavior as theatergoers. Briones (daughter of Broadway great Jon Jon Briones) is currently performing in the musical Just in Time on Broadway, playing crooner Bobby Darin’s lover, popular singer Connie Francis. On Saturday, in a since-expired post to her Instagram Stories, Briones wrote: “Hey, hey, hey! Once again, Broadway is not a circus. Do not yell whatever you want at the performers. Yelling ‘When are you going to finish your charts’ before I sing ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ is fucking disrespectful to the performers onstage and your fellow audience members. Y’all are pissin’ me off. Love and light and please remember you are occupying shared spaces and watching art.”
The “chart” comment is a reference to Santos’ trouble finishing her charts in The Pitt Season 2. This marks the second time in a matter of months that the actress has addressed poor behavior from Pittheads in the audience. In April, in another post to her Instagram Stories, Briones chastised a different fan, writing: “Some people need to brush up on theatre etiquette, and just person in the world etiquette in general. Do not talk to the performers while they are performing on stage (unless you have been asked to). And don’t talk to me on stage and call me Dr. Santos. I’m not Dr. Santos. I’m not even Connie Francis. I am Isa Briones, one of the actors in the show you have paid to enjoy. So watch it respectfully. You are not a kid at Disneyland. You are an adult man at a Broadway show. Act like it.”
It’s embarrassing as both a Pitt watcher and theatergoer to see actors having to make statements like this, wagging their fingers at a growing number of fans who seem to have lost all sense of decorum when it comes to enjoying culture. This Broadway incident is just the latest escalation in behavior from a fandom that has grown in size and in intensity with each new season of The Pitt. These past few months have been riddled by infighting among fans who fundamentally disagree with what is taking place in the show. Other Pitt watchers have expressed anger at the show’s co-creator and star, Noah Wyle, for how he’s discussed his character arc this season, lambasting Wyle for downplaying his character’s toxic behavior. Elsewhere in the fandom, deleterious debates have erupted over the hostility between characters like Santos and Langdon (Patrick Ball), leading to the stark demonization of a flawed, human character and anyone who defends them. For a show that is ostensibly about medical professionals helping people, The Pitt has somehow ended up with hardcore viewers who fly off the handle with rage upon hearing that their interpretation of the show isn’t the only valid one.
What’s happening with The Pitt is not unique to this show and its following. In fact, fandoms on the whole have become increasingly unhinged over the past few years. Some Heated Rivalry fans have bullied the show’s own stars for not actually being a couple outside of the show via a barrage of deplorable social media insults that earned a reprimand from a number of the show’s leading stars, just to describe the tip of the iceberg for a fandom so rabid that they’ve been jokingly diagnosed with “Heated Rivalry psychosis.” K-pop stans have sent funeral wreaths and protest trucks to idols who they feel have tarnished the reputation of their favorite groups, much to the groups’ detriment. Love Island USA fans have attacked contestants online under the guise of defending their favorite contestant, notably making derogatory racist remarks and posts that are left to be sloppily addressed by the unequipped reality TV stars that the twisted fans are fighting in the name of.
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What’s behind this dangerous cocktail of fervor, delusion, and entitlement that threatens to spill over from the internet into real life, like with these Broadway incidents addressed by Briones? Part of it, I theorize, has to do with economics. Things cost more money now: Everything from media outlets to streaming platforms is running on increasingly expensive subscription models, while tickets for cultural experiences like concerts or the theater are at record-breaking highs. Given the elevated prices of media and the tough state of the economy, it’s inevitable that many fans are going to feel more entitled to the content they’re paying hard-earned money for. When you combine this with the open-feedback system that is the internet, the people behind shows, movies, and albums will feel more pressure to listen to the fans and let the audience’s desires lead their creative judgement. Plus, with the internet increasing our cultural metabolism for celebrity and personality, all of this is coinciding with fans feeling more parasocially invested in their favorite creators. Then, of course, there’s the fundamental brainrot of it all, worsened by the vices of social media and smartphones: Some people have simply blurred the lines between fiction and reality, convincing themselves that two actors whose characters have a famous television romance must also have that romance themselves.
It’s bad enough when all this swells online. But it becomes even more frustrating when the evidence of it filters offline, too, invading concerts where everyone is shrieking the lyrics until no one can hear the actual singer, movie screenings filled with the sounds of other people chatting out loud, and, evidently, theater productions ruined by horribly disruptive audience members. Showing up for our favorite actors, musicians, and stars doesn’t mean we get carte blanche to treat them however we want, or to go to a Broadway show and yell at the performers the way we might yell at the television in the privacy of our own homes. Please, for everyone’s sake, can my fellow fans act like it’s not their first time leaving the house? All of us—artists and spectators alike—will thank you.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source slate.com ’
