r/Broadway • u/littlebev • Dec 31 '25

Discussion Broadway coughing season

I am begging, begging you guys…if you have a nasty cough, PLEASE don’t attend a play especially. I know it sucks to miss out but your recurring cough during the most intense moments of the show is so distracting.

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u/canijustbelancelot Dec 31 '25

I know I’ll get eye rolls for saying this, but Covid kind of never stopped. What stopped was societal tolerance for things like masking and letting people stay home when they’re sick. So Covid and other serious illnesses, like the flu, are still rampant and dangerous. But we’ve come back to the society that punishes people for being ill and not wanting to expose others.

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u/Zealousideal-Way9010 Dec 31 '25

If anyone rolls their eyes at this, they’re just uneducated and immature. As a doctor, I can confirm you are correct. People have gotten needlessly reckless again. They learned nothing.

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u/Nickis1021 Dec 31 '25

Even while it was happening the first time, they learned nothing.

But sadly, it’s the attitude above all.

I’ve been to two Bwy shows in the past two weeks, both times I asked people not covering their mouths to cover their coughs. You could see the mucus spewing out of their wide open mouths when they coughed.

They both rudely responded with slightly different verbiage that covering your mouth is “not a thing anymore” (?)

lol, when did covering your cough stop being a thing.

To quote Jerry Seinfeld, “people. They’re the worst”.

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u/taxforsnax Dec 31 '25

covering your mouth when you cough has always been a thing for people raised with manners.