Any bad stage door behavior?

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:13am

I know there's been rude audience behavior at a show - how about at the stage door?
I haven't seen anything that bad, except for people pushing themselves in front of you. Any stories to share?

[SillySara]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:55am

One thing I really hate when stage dooring a show is if you happen to be having a nice conversation with someone in the cast and then all a sudden, here comes someone out of nowhere that completely interrupts you so they can have their time with said Broadway actor. Clearly, if whomever you are speaking to is taking their time to talk to you, they will take the same amount of time to speak to any other fan waiting. Patience is a virtue.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 12:30pm

This is actually more funny than bad, but at the [tos] closing night, someone thre a rice krispie treat over the crowd (probably intended for the person next to me) and it hit me.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 1:51pm

On Kerry Ellis's first night here in NY I was talking to Lindsay Northen when all of a sudden a guy comes up behind her and is trying to sell us sunglasses...LOL. Lindsay looked at him and said "No thank you, we're trying to talk here". It was HILARIOUS.

[avab802]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 2:06pm

I've never seen anything really out there, but there are a couple general things I really hate.

#1 - Pushing/shoving/screaming. The stage door experience would be a lot more pleasant for everyone involved, the actors included, if people would just stand there & wait calmly. But large crowds incite fits of "Ohmigod, if I don't push my way to the front & scream, Susie Broadwaystar won't see me and I won't get her autograph! WAAHHH!"

#2 - People who hog the actors' time. This is probably my pet peeve at any stage door. This includes people who interrupt others' conversations thereby forcing the actor to move on to him/her, and people who keep talking to an actor when he or she is clearly trying to move on to the next person. Both practices annoy the crap out of me.

[Whispering]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 2:14pm

Well, I was at the stage door waiting quietly in back of others, when the actors came out, this guy in his early 20s came up from behind me and shoved and knocked me down, so I was on the ground and he got the autographs, then left walking away saying they were a bunch of jerks. It was all so fast, I was quite shocked and did not act fast enough to grab anything that was with in reach. Such a shame, I could have induced some real pain there. Oh well, next time. I have been shoved before as people jockey for space, but never so violently that I fell down and usually it is just minor shoving.

[rentheadca]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 5:26pm

I've had two pretty bad stagedoor experiences. On January 30th I did stagedoor for Hairspray and there were these obnoxious German people behind me. They weren't horrible to start out, and only one of them got really bad. He kept saying "We're your German groupies! I love you [to guys and girls]." Then he started saying "I want to have your babies!" and the cast members just walked away. Everyone around me was rolling their eyes and whatnot...
My other bad experience was at Spring Awakening in May. It was a little more than a week before Jon and Lea were leaving, and my cousin, who can't see the show because she's too young, wanted to meet Jon. She also loves Brian for some reason, and she wanted to meet him. So we got to the theatre and got a spot right in front of the door. Everything was going fine, until my cousin asks the girls behind us "Was Brian out tonight?" and they totally got mad. They were like "You should let the people who actually saw the show get a good spot. And how old are you girls, like 5? [they were 12]" Meanwhile, these girls were definitely 16 or 17. They were like "We actually paid to see it so we should get a good spot" and I totally freaked out and was like "Uhm excuse me, I've seen the show 3 times and I'm coming next week, I think I've paid enough." They shut up, but then they decided it would be nice to pour the water from their umbrellas on our heads [yeah it was raining]. So what was an innocent question turned into a big argument. We never even got our answer :p
We decided to move to the end where my Aunt was to get pictures with them, and Skylar, who had seen us at the barricade before, asked why we moved and I was like "There were two bitches behind us..." and he laughed :)

[philly03]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 5:49pm

"#2 - People who hog the actors' time. This is probably my pet peeve at any stage door. This includes people who interrupt others' conversations thereby forcing the actor to move on to him/her, and people who keep talking to an actor when he or she is clearly trying to move on to the next person. Both practices annoy the crap out of me. "

I have to admit that I haven't really had too many bad stage door experiences, but what I hate the most is the above! Honestly, if you want to talk to a specific actor(s), just go wait at the end of the barricade/line. Not only does it speed up the line, but then the actor can feel inclined to talk to you more if that's the case.

The A Tale of Two Cities stage door is my best and worst experience (oops unintentional pun!). There was two seperate individuals who decided to wait in front of the line (right where when they open the door there the first they see) and both had windowcards to be signed, and after two different actors were talking to people, walking down the line/whatever, the one just kept saying "can you sign my playbill too ____?" or ask them to come back to ask about their signature/random questions. I suppose it was around the day that James Barbour had his child, and whenever anyone (including me!) were talking to him atleast 3 people would come up and say "Congrats on the baby! What's her name??" I digress...but can we really just keep it to no more than 5 minutes talking to an actor in line? Just wait at the end!

[silverspringsrr]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 6:29pm

The stage door crowd at the Broadhurst Theatre for EQUUS is the worst I have seen in 30 years of theatregoing and stage door-waiting. The problem is that when the play lets out, there are already hundreds of people waiting who have not been in the theatre, so when the audience lets out, pandemonium ensues. it MUST be noted, however, that from what I could see, the people who were coming out of the theatre. having seen the play, who were the ones pushing, shoving, and generally acting in an obnoxious manner. Those waiting before the show let out got the raw end of the deal, essentially shoved to the far end of the barricade by security. Adding to it is the fact that the security staff at the Broadhurst is absolutely HORRIBLE. I saw some astonishingly bad behavior by these guys towards people who were waiting very patiently, and peacefully--some for hours. While I can understand that crowds at the EQUUS stage door are perhaps the largest in recent memory on Broadway--I was quite surprised at how aggressive and bullying these people were--they were actually screaming at people, many of whom seemed stunned. W

[jordangirl]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 6:54pm

Yesterday after the Broadway Originals concert it was CRAZY. Mostly on the part of the much older (gray hair, canes, etc.) crowd. They were practically blocking the door so no one could get out. The guy who I guess was Town Hall security kept having to ask them to back up. I've seen better behavior at Disney shows with all the kids than I did out of some of those senior citizens. (Granted, there are no barricades at Town Hall, so it's sort of hard to corral people...but still, it was ridiculous.)

[matty159]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 7:13pm

All of this talk (on this thread and others) about the EQUUS stagedoor is making me really nervous. I am going next Saturday night and really hope it isn't as bad as people are saying...though I fear it really is.

What have people's experiences at Billy Elliot been like? Is it nuts there too?

[A Fleur De Toi]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 7:56pm

I had a terrible SD experience at the Royal Albert Hall Chess concert. I wasn't really waiting to get autographs or anything but I thought it might be fun to hang around the SD to see how Idina or Kerry looked like in person. I wasn't even that near to the barricades and suddenly Kerry Ellis came out and this surge of humanity from god-knows-where just shoved me right up to the barricades... and needless to say I got squashed and shoved around quite a bit during the process. And many people were just thrusting their programme booklets over my head to Kerry. Poor girl. She looked so afraid and I saw that, because I was pushed like, this close, to her face and I gotta say I did see her in person that night!

But all I could think of was trying to escape that pulsating mass before I died from suffocation. :P

[rentheadca]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 8:03pm

Equus stagedoor sounds crazy! I'm planning on seeing a 2pm show and then stagedooring after the evening show in a few weeks :O

[CJR]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 8:25pm

One thing I really hate when stage dooring a show is if you happen to be having a nice conversation with someone in the cast and then all a sudden, here comes someone out of nowhere that completely interrupts you so they can have their time with said Broadway actor. Clearly, if whomever you are speaking to is taking their time to talk to you, they will take the same amount of time to speak to any other fan waiting. Patience is a virtue.

Yeaaaah that happened when a friend introduced me to Denzel after Julius Caesar. This woman in line started snapping pictures and talking to him and he got REALLY annoyed. Sweetest man I've ever met, but he was heated at her for being so rude. It shows in the picture we took. He was actually signing her playbill when we took it, just to shut her up.

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 9:20pm

I just hate when people ruin stage door experiences for others. Like, if there are really obnoxious and loud people around you, and the performers avoid you because of them and you don't get an autograph- that's unfair.

Updated On: 10/20/08 at 09:20 PM

[legally_popular]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:00pm

^That's EXACTLY what happened to me at Xanadu during Whoopi's run. And the obnoxious women who did it didn't even see the show. I posted about it on another thread.

[NDR]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:07pm

In The Heights: I had a group of women with their little girls screaming at the actors behind me while I was asking for autographs. They were saying stuff like "You are so hot!" and (to Lin Manuel) "I work with your mother...blah, blah, blah...all while I am trying to talk to him. Their little girls kept pushing forward until they were in front of me. I know kids get excited but back off you little b**ches - just because you are small doesn't mean you can push in front - wait your turn - remember learning that in kindergarten? Can you tell I was annoyed?

[BroadwayBound115]

Posted: 10/20/08 at 10:33pm

I went to LB on Friday night. I sat in the Orchestra, Row J, Aisle seat. About 6 rows in front of me, there was a girl filming on a camera, well the dumbass went to press the button to start recording and instead it took a picture with a big flash. This was during Blood In The Water, she had continued recording every song until So Much Better, when an usher finally came over and said you need to put the camera away. Is it that hard to see a camera from the back of the house??? And boy was the stagedoor FULL of screaming little girls. Bailey, Kate Shindle and Nicolette Hart were the only leads to come out of the door. I didn't know Richard Blake and Orfeh never came out, according to the doorman/woman

[sydneyboi]

Posted: 10/21/08 at 2:59am

What a good idea for a thread,
I will share my story - in August 2006 I was in NYC and Usher was appearing in Chicago. I just happend to be walking past the theatre and there wasnt many people at the stage door. I waited and a few miniutes before he came out people just came out of nowhere. Usher was really nice and signed a autograph and took a picture. I was expecting more people to be there. A few nights later I was walking past at the same time Usher came out I saw there was so much more people and security outside the stage door.
People were screaming and shoving it looked very unsafe as well, cause people were pouring out into the street.
:)

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 10/21/08 at 3:09am

""#2 - People who hog the actors' time. This is probably my pet peeve at any stage door. This includes people who interrupt others' conversations thereby forcing the actor to move on to him/her, and people who keep talking to an actor when he or she is clearly trying to move on to the next person. Both practices annoy the crap out of me. "

I have to admit that I haven't really had too many bad stage door experiences, but what I hate the most is the above! Honestly, if you want to talk to a specific actor(s), just go wait at the end of the barricade/line. Not only does it speed up the line, but then the actor can feel inclined to talk to you more if that's the case."

When I stagedoor Wicked I'm usually in the middle and I can spend up to 10-15 minutes talking to Lindsay Northen. Does that make me a bad person or have bad behavior even if it's her that comes over and is talking to me that long?