Backstage??

[Mactor327]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 3:58pm

How does one go about going backstage after a show. Whenever I stage door I always see random people go backstage and the secutity guard lets them in. I always wanted to know HOW!

[Neverandy]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 4:02pm

Like everything else in showbusiness-you gotta know the right people.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 4:26pm

Exactly. Those 'random' people (to you) could be relatives or friends or siblings of people involved in the show WHICH the stage door guard knows already. No one can just open the door and walk in freely, especially AFTER a performance. Those who do are known already at the stage door and backstage.

[cello_dude]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 4:29pm

or in my case, were just trying to pick up our pay checks

[Mamie]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 6:22pm

Find a member of the cast you really like, write to them and ask them if it would be possible for you to visit backstage on your next visit. You never know - it might just work. (It did for me.) Make sure you give them your email addy, phone number, whatever your want JUST IN CASE they do invite you back.

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 9:27pm

What show did you visit backstage?

[jagfkb]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 9:57pm

I've been backstage at, actually, quite alot:

Hairspray
Gypsy (2003)
Spamalot
Hairspray (again)
Mary Poppins
Little Mermaid (Load In)
Curtains

The best experience was certainly Gypsy. Since I had befriended the stage manager, she let me onstage and then turned the houselights down and the stage lights on. A truly magical experience.

[rentheadca]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 10:13pm

I been backstage to two shows, Phantom and Legally Blonde. MY Aunt bought a tour backstage at Legally Blonde, and I met a stagehand at a bus stop and he invited us backstage to Phantom
I'm going backstage to In The Heights in January, it's a birthday present to me and my cousin
they sell them on charity sites a lot...

[bwaytramp]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 11:19pm

f*** the security guard

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 11:23pm

"and I met a stagehand at a bus stop"

That tells me ALL I needed to know...

[broadwayboy522]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 11:32pm

I've been backstage 5 times.

The Drowsy Chaperone
Beauty and The Beast
Wicked twice
and the High School Musical Natioanl tour(if you want to count it)

I know someone in the ensemble of Wicked and High School Musical and The Drowsy Chaperone was pure luck. We were by the stage door and the head carpenter was out there and just randomly asked us after talking to us a little bit if we wanted to go backstage. Beauty and the Beast was a much longer story but really it's all luck or if you know someone.

[Winston3]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 2:08am

I have been backstage three times total. Two for Phantom one for Two Cities. For Phantom, I get home the same way as one of the performers in the show. We would always talk on the train ride home etc and it was around the time that my birthday was comming up last year. I asked if I could get that as a birthday gift and she said that that was such a good idea that she wondered why she didn't offer to do it :).

The second time I went backstage of Phantom I was talking to a Phan outside the stagedoor and there was one of the wardrobe people who came outside and saw us there. The girl mentioned that she had came from North Carolina to see the show and the wardrobe person offered her a tour backstage and I sort of some how tagged along.

For Tale, I had been talking to Brandi on facebook about the show etc for a bit of time. I just asked her and she being the nice person that she is said yes. It was kinda funny. We talked about how she and I would have to plan a date. But, there was one night where we bumped into each other after I had just got a ticket for the performance that night and she was arriving to the theatre.
we said hello and chatted for a few and then she asked me if I would like to get my birthday gift early. I said of course and she took me to her dressing room and around the entire theatre. It is kinda funny. I am gladthat she did ti when she did because the next time I was back in town after that was when Tale had its closing weekend.

I met Dana Kenn who is the Broadway set designer for PHantom.
We met at an educational confrnece that my mom was running. She had offered to take me to the show and to take me backstage. Seh aid that with her I could see things that most people there don't really have access to when it comes to a backstage tour.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 6:11am

I wrote Mary Louise Wilson, who I know, after the opening of GREY GARDENS and told her that I would be seeing the show in December and would like to meet up with her after the show. She sent me a postcard giving the OK. At the stage door, I showed the postcard to the doorman who invited me in because he recognied her signature, Wilson's dresser came down to the stage door and escorted us across the stage to Ms. Wilson's dressing room. She was very cordial and poh-pohed getting the Tony. She gave a memorable performance in GREY GARDENS.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 7:07am

told her that I would be seeing the show in December and would like to meet up with her after the show...She was very cordial and poh-pohed getting the Tony.

Grey Gardens wasn't open the December after they won 3 Tony Awards. They closed in July.

[lstbutifulgrl2]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:28am

I've only been backstage once, at RENT. I had a rough year last year, and one of my friends apparently had asked one of the cast members to take me backstage for my birthday. I had no idea, he came out after the show and said "come here I have a birthday present for you." He took me inside, I thought he was only taking me back to see the wall, but took me on a full tour backstage. One of my favorite birthday memories ever.

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:32am

This thread is so scary

I've been backstage to almost every single show but I don't find the need to go into detail about every single experience

c'mon people. at least pretend that you have a family or life or job

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:01pm

Adamgreer: I guess my details were sloppy. I was referring to December, 2007 and my friend who was with me said to Ms. Wilson, "I'm sure you will get the Tony," and she replied something to the order of "Oh, it doesn't matter."

TheCharleston: You don't seem to mind letting readers know that you've been backstage with great frequency. Do you have a life? You are new to this Board. The purpose of it is to share experiences and ideas connected with the theatre. Going backstage is one such experience that most people don't have.

[ILuv2shop531]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:09pm

I went backstage at The Little Mermaid a few weeks ago. Like as a lot of people are saying, you either have to know the right people, or it is pure luck. i know Trevor Braun (Flounder) so that was how I was able to do it. He knew we were coming ahead of time so we were on the list and the security gaurd had my name down and we had to stand on the side of the barricades where the actors came until Trev came out.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:15pm

"Adamgreer: I guess my details were sloppy. I was referring to December, 2007 and my friend who was with me said to Ms. Wilson, "I'm sure you will get the Tony," and she replied something to the order of "Oh, it doesn't matter."


Uh....maybe you mean that you are referring to DECEMBER 2006?? If you're referring to December 2007...the production would have been closed for 5 months.

The devil is in the details.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:22pm

I am getting old and forgetful. At any rate, I loved GREY GARDENS--of that I am sure.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 1:03pm

So forgetful in fact, that you are seeing shows 5 months after they've closed.

[philly03]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 4:35pm

I've only been invited backstage twice, but neither time did it work out. Once for the Les Miserables revival, but the actor that my aunt knew was watching the children in between shows so he was unable to that day, and for A Tale of Two Cities, I got invited on here by the lovely Jill Santoriello (after complaining that they would let absolutely anyone in!) but I was going the original closing weekend (Nov. 16), and figured it wouldn't happen, and then the closing was early...!

Oh well, hopefully it will happen some day!

[pattilupuppy]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 4:46pm

I went backstage for SA because friends of mine went to high school with Hunter Parrish. That was fun.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 4:50pm

Winston's story wins the "creepiest" award.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 4:55pm

I can't imagine ASKING to go backstage. Both times I went I was invited.