The atmosphere at 50s PT is that you are dining in "moms kitchen." With that comes with eating with "family" and being served by "family" while mom is in the back cooking. So, your waiter/waitress is supposed to be playing a character as an aunt/uncle serving the family and do things like make you set the table, eat your veggies, keep your elbows off the table, etc.
That being said, there are waiters/waitresses that don't play the role. We were disappointed by that in one visit but you can usually still observe another waiter that really is playing the role and that's fun to watch. It's a lively atmosphere =)
In answer to your question, yes, they should be able to pick up on whether or not you want to play. On our last visit, we had a marathon day and were exhausted and just wanted food. Our waitress realized that immediately and kept the act to a minimum while she really played it up with tables around us that wanted to play along.
It's a lot of fun, even if you just want to watch others, and I think the food is really good (the fried chicken is great!).
Haven't dined at GG in forever so I can't comment on that... =)
