re: When did Stagedooring become a necessity?
I've onlt stage-doored a half dozen time in 59 years of theatre-going in New York, but it is definitely not a new phenomonon. Even if the figure of 300 people outside Wicked is correct, it pales beside of the spectacle of 46th Street between 7th and 8th avenue entirely full of people, no room for vehicles, when Richard Burton was appearing at the Lunt-Fontanne in Hamlet or a large percentage of Times Square full of spectators before Judy Garland's opening night at The Palace in the Fall of 19...