Any bad stage door behavior?

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?

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.

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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.

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 :)

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

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?

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

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

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?

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.
:)