“If actors are having fun, the audience will have fun, too” (theatre adage)

“If actors are having fun, the audience will have fun, too” is a theatre and film adage of uncertain origin. “The actors are having fun playing their parts and because of their mirthful attitudes, the audience has the same amount of fun watching them” was said in 2000 about the film Galaxy Quest (1999). “And when actors have fun, so does the audience” was cited in 2006. “If the actors are enjoying themselves, the audience will too” was cited in 2007.
 
“That old adage about if actors are having fun, the audience does too is never more true than with Let’s Be Cops” was cited about a movie in 2014.
 
     
Google Groups: rec.arts.movies.reviews
Review: Galaxy Quest (1999)
Lars Lindahl
1/24/00
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The actors are having fun playing their parts and because of their mirthful attitudes, the audience has the same amount of fun watching them.
 
The Rued Morgue
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
The Return of the Shrew
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Working as a unit, the cast gels & sells the script, and perhaps more importantly, these people have huge amounts of fun. And when actors have fun, so does the audience.
 
Google Books
So You Want to be a Playwright?:
How to Write a Play and Get it Produced
By Tim Fountain
London: Nick Hern Books
2007
Pg. 92:
From here on in, this is a team endeavour. The spirit of your company will communicate itself on stage. If the actors are enjoying themselves, the audience will too.
 
Indy Theatre Habit
August 29, 2008
A Conversation with Emily Schwartz
Several days ago, after I had seen the Spotlight Players’ production of “The Dastardly Ficus and other Comedic Tales of Woe & Misery,” I got to chat by phone with the playwright, Emily Schwartz.  She was born and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana, but now lives in Chicago.
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“I like thinking about what would be fun to do as an actor.  When the actors are having fun, the audience has fun.”
 
LA Weekly (Los Angeles, CA)
Stage Raw: L.A. shows NYC-bound
By Steven Leigh Morris Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 3:50 PM
NAKED BOYS SINGING When this musical, written and directed by Robert Schrock, debuted at the Celebration Theatre in 1998, it was the first show to acknowledge candidly that it featured nudity for its own sake, without explanation, justification or apologies. (The opening number was, and is, called “Gratuitous Nudity.”) Some audiences were astonished to discover that, when the actors are relaxed, uninhibited and enjoying the situation, nudity is remarkably unshocking. The show has achieved enduring worldwide success, though a brief L.A. revival a couple of years ago was decidedly lackluster. One wondered if the show would hold up, now that the novelty is gone. Not to worry. This new production, featuring eight talented and very naked men (Eric B. Anthony, Jeffrey A. Johns, Jack Harding, Timothy Hearl, Marco Infante, Tony Melson, Daniel Rivera, and Victor Tang), proves that when performed with wit, insouciance and skill, the show still has the capacity to charm. It’s exuberant, and full of joie de vivre, and when the actors are having fun, the audience has fun.
   
Yellow Springs (OH) News
Theater review— Players do justice to ‘Pirates’
By Guest Contributor Published: March 20, 2014
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It’s a theater mantra that if actors are having fun, the audience will have fun too; watching these three actors relax into each other and into their roles is a joy.
 
The Community Voice (Rohnert Park, CA)
‘Grease’ wows at 6th Street
By By Don Gibble June 27, 2014 12:00 am
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Trevor Hoffmann, a 6th Street mainstay, is as charming as ever as Kenickie. You can tell he is having the time of his life on stage. When the actors are having fun then the audience definitely has fun.
 
Movie Fanatic
Let’s Be Cops Review: Hilarity With Surprising Heart
by Joel D Amos at August 13, 2014 10:56 am.  Updated at August 13, 2014 4:08 pm.
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That old adage about if actors are having fun, the audience does too is never more true than with Let’s Be Cops.