Crazy stage door time
Crazy stage door time
Theatrefanboy1
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/2/15
#1Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 12:51pm
I’m curious who were some actors that caused major stage door crowds, traffic issues. Were there any times when it was almost guaranteed a congested hassle at around 10:30 when someone was leaving the theatre?
I think back to Ricky Martin in Evita or Idina Menzel after If/Then. Have there been other shows that bad?
#2Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 12:58pm
Aren't bigger crowds and tighter security pretty much a guarantee whenever there is a major celebrity in a show? I'm sure there have been many other shows that stirred up such congestion on a nightly basis.
Oh look, a bibu!
Hairspray0901
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/29/08
#3Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 1:02pm
The craziest stage door experience I ever had was in July 2007/2008 (I forget which year) - Laura Bell Bundy’s last show in Legally Blonde. The crowds were insane, probably 4-5 rows deep. People were shoving others against the barricades. Everyone sweating. Actors having to reach over everyone to sign autographs or take pictures. It was a nightmare.
Sutton Ross
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#4Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 1:17pm
Brendon Urie in Kinky Boots. His garbage fans were the living worst. When they didn't like it if he didn't stay allllll night to sign everything, they would turn on him. Verbally abusing him, following him, the works.
Ugh.
#5Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 1:30pm
Julia Roberts. The police closed the entire block of 45th St after every show, because the crowds were so insane.
#6Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 1:31pm
Went to stage door Anastasia the day before it closed to give Christy Altomare a gift. It took about an hour for her to get to me. Crazy afternoon.
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
pmensky
Broadway Star Joined: 7/18/11
#7Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 1:33pm
I remember when there were no barricades at the stage door, and only a handful of people would stick around to get an autograph. The first barricade I remember was for the revival of “Grease” in 1994, and it was because Rosie O’Donnell was rapidly rising to fame at that point. I remember thinking how wild it was that there were so many people and how it was necessary for those barricades to be there. Even for the following couple years there were shows with big stars that didn’t use barricades, but then it quickly became the norm. I remember Nicole Kidman did The Blue Room and seeing giant crowds while walking by and Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz was a mob, too.
Claudia Draper
Featured Actor Joined: 6/14/11
MattieIce2018
Leading Actor Joined: 5/8/19
#9Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 2:46pm
Beetlejuice was awful. Not sure if it was just because it was Rob McClure's last weekend when I went but there were probably 5-6 rows of people pushing against the barricades. The people in the front were passing playbills back and forth from those behind them to the actors because there would've been no way to reach otherwise.
Updated On: 1/17/22 at 02:46 PM
Lunalaaaaaaaa
Broadway Star Joined: 7/16/21
#10Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 3:34pm
OBC run of Mean Girls (Barrett Wilbert Weed shared a stagedoor experience about this on her instagram I believe)
Colleen Ballinger during Waitress (made a YouTube video about her experience)
Ben Platt during Dear Evan Hansen
Seconding Brendon Urie during Kinky Boots!
adotburr
Broadway Star Joined: 10/6/21
#11Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 3:37pm
Lunalaaaaaaaa said: "
Ben Platt during Dear Evan Hansen
"
DEH is crazy with or without Ben. Saw DEH twice - once with and once without and both times there was a crowd 3 rows deep before the show even let out.
she/her . “everything’s legal in new jersey”
Lunalaaaaaaaa
Broadway Star Joined: 7/16/21
#13Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 4:04pm
Jake Gyllenhaal in Sea Wall/A life was madness. Rows of people pushing, and this was right after his spider-man role so a ton of marvel fans trying to get things signed. Jake told a guy next to me to leave after he signed like 5 of his things LMAO.
#14Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 4:10pm
Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The crowds were huge for both. Denzel actually interacted with the crowd whereas Julia just waved from an SUV as it passed by. FWIW...Roberts hadn't a clue as to how to act on a stage which really surprised me since I always viewed her as a fine film actress. However, the evening wasn't a total loss since her other two cast members in the three-character play were Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd.
JGPR2
Featured Actor Joined: 2/18/17
#15Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 4:35pm
Daniel Radcliffe was the biggest crowd I ever saw personally.
#17Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 6:10pm
Another vote for Daniel Radcliffe… after How To Succeed in my case. SCARY crowd; yelling and pushing. Couldn’t get away fast enough after the show, which wasn’t easy to do. It was a total mob.
Nolan LuPone
Featured Actor Joined: 8/9/21
#18Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 6:39pm
Didn't police have to be brought in frequently when the OBC of Hamilton was in the show? I remember having a hell of a time trying to walk past the Rodgers Theatre in 2016 and seeing a lot of news articles about it.
Islander_fan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/25/14
#19Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/17/22 at 8:39pm
Nolan LuPone said: "Didn't police have to be brought in frequently when the OBC of Hamilton was in the show? I remember having a hell of a time trying to walk past the Rodgers Theatre in 2016 and seeing a lot of news articles about it."
I worked for awhile at Hamilton. Started when it was the tail end of the original cast’s time in the show. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember them closing off the street for that stage door. However, the real mess as it relates to Hamilton was that, every time the in person lotto was going on, cops had to block off the street since the crowds were that big. That was one of the many many good reasons as to why the in person lotto stopped.
broadwayfan128
Understudy Joined: 2/13/18
#21Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/18/22 at 1:33am
I remember Billy Joe Armstrong in American Idiot was quite crazy.
Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty.
jonartdesigns
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/04
#22Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/18/22 at 8:01am
Al Pacino in Glengarry Glenn Ross. Whole block closed. Things started out orderly, then the stage doormen decided to move the barricades, which caused a surge of the crowd to the new configuration. Utter chaos. At one point a group of Brazilian tourists (literally) grabbed Mr. Pacino for a photo and sent him tumbling backwards (I caught him)
The night before Heathers closed was a circus
Seconding Darren Criss in Hedwig
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
#23Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/18/22 at 10:26am
Jordan Catalano said: "Julia Roberts. The police closed the entire block of 45th St after every show, because the crowds were so insane."
Same when Daniel Radcliffe was in How to Succeed.
sbflyfan
Broadway Star Joined: 4/12/07
#24Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/18/22 at 11:33am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pne76g_WP8
Looks like Bernadette and Mandy were pretty much mobbed after every performance back in '84.
"I'm seeing the LuPone in Key West later this week. I'm hoping for great vocals and some sort of insane breakdown..." - BenjaminNicholas2
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#25Crazy stage door time
Posted: 1/18/22 at 11:37am
sbflyfan said: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pne76g_WP8
Looks like Bernadette and Mandy were pretty much mobbed after every performance back in '84."
THAT is NOT a mob. It’s probably 10 people you can’t even see applauding and cheering. Hahaha.
THIS is a mob scene:
