Best Stage Door Experiences

A few of my favorites:

SPRING AWAKENING
The entire cast was very friendly and enigmatic, but I was shocked how much Lea Michelle and Jonathan Groff actually seemed to "care" about what you had to say. Lea and I had a hilarious moment where she mistook my friend for Corey Feldman (he does NOT look like him) but I've said that before elsewhere on the boards, and it's great to see such a beautiful, talented star be as nice as you secretly hope she is. And Jonathan actually struck up a conversation with me for a good ten minutes when I didn't expect him to and he had no reason to. They are both great people.

ON THE RECORD
My first show ever, and the cast, especially Ashley Brown, Andrew Samonsky and Emily Skinner, were all quite charming and sweet for a person in awe of their talent on a cold street in Cleveland.

NERO
I'm not that huge of a fan of Idina Menzel, but she was such a class act outside the stagedoor, talking to everyone for a few minutes and getting our names (and REMEMBERING my name) a few minutes later. Such a sweetheart.

Meeting Norm Lewis... I have the hugest crush on him, and I was standing at the back of a big crowd, and I couldn't see the stagedoor over the head of the really tall guy in front of my. So I meekly tapped him on the back and said, "Excuse me? When Norm Lewis comes out, do you think you could let me come up to the front?"

I was expecting he'd be like, "HAHA, NO WAY," but instead, he laughed and said, "Sure, I know Norm!" (Now, what are the odds of that?) So, the second Norm Lewis comes out, this guy just calls out, "Hey, Norm! There's a little girl here who wants your autograph!"

I'm sixteen, and I'm not that little, but I ignored that because I was too busy trying not to drool. The nice guy who let me up to the front of the group let me stay up there, so I got the rest of the cast members' autographs as well, and I got to talk to a bunch of them. It was really thoughtful, especially it was my first-ever stagedoor experience.

(Great thread, by the way!)

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Updated On: 10/7/08 at 08:00 PM

A couple of weeks ago at Wicked. Lindsay Northen ran out of the SD(she had to go to a benefit) looking for me and as soon as she found me she gave me a great big hug. I wasn't expecting that. Julie Reiber is always a sweetheart too.

Just on Sunday I met the Wicked touring cast and they have to had been the nicest people I ever meet. Taking the time to have a convo with you and being interested in what you had to say to them. It was amusing trying to explain to Carmen Cusack where I lived even though she never heard of it.

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Great thread idea!

I can remember Whoopi Goldberg, Chita Rivera and Alan Alda as being particularly nice and thorough. Donna Murphy was very gracious. And when all the hoopla was over, the very young Lea Salonga looked a little lonely and lost in the big city, waiting for her ride in the dark by the edge of the curb on 53rd Street.

Chatting with Douglas Sills after Little Shop.

What an absolute gentleman. So kind, gracious, and generous.



Sidebar: He needs to be back on Broadway NOW!

Great thread idea!

Just some examples from my NYC trip last month: Priscilla Lopez thanking the SD crowd at ITH for being such a great audience, Larry at the [tos] stagedoor striking up a conversation about [tossers] from abroad (like me), Roger Bart signing my YAGM Charlie Brown Playbill like he used to (with a Snoopy paw), Christian Hoff apologizing for coming out really late (I didn't mind at all) and being incredibly gracious after I wished him all the best with Pal Joey,...

I think the key is never to expect anything. That makes every memorable experience even better.

My best stagedoor experience was probably in August when I went to get a picture with Chris Fitzgerald before a performance Young Frankenstein. My dad and I were walking up 43rd street (which is where the stagedoor is) and we saw him walking. We started talking with him and walked up the street with him until we got to the stagedoor. When we got there, we asked if I could get a picture with him and he was really sweet! We talked for a couple more minutes before we left. Then I went back a couple weeks later and I asked if he could sign my abbynormal hat, and he remembered me!! It was so awesome and he was really nice!!

My niece is partially handicapped. While she's able to walk, she has to go very slow. For her birthday I took her to see "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". She had never been to NY before so this was a HUGE treat for her - expecially since I'd arranged with Greg Jbara for her to get a backstage tour. Normally Greg would do this for people after the show. On this particular day he had to leave fairly quickly so he arranged to meet us before the show and gave her all the time she needed to get around. We spent a full hour with him backstage. He noticed her souvenir program and asked her if she'd like for him to sign it. She did and he took it and told her he would return it to her at the stage door after the show. When he came out through the door he came immediately over to us and handed her the program. During the show he had gotten every cast member to sign it for her! He spent a long time chatting with us before moving off to the other (now impatient) people waiting. It was a wonderful thing for him to do and I'll never forget it!

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I am always blown away by how kind and sweet the cast members of SPRING AWAKENING are. I've had multiple conversations with John Gallagher, Jr. and the second time I saw the new cast, I had about a 10 minute conversation with Hunter and Alexandra. They were amazingly nice. The whole cast was/is. I love SDing SPRING AWAKENING.

Also, I saw [title of show] a few nights ago and we all had to wait 45 minutes for the cast to come out. No one said why. It was FREEEEEEEEEEZING out and almost no one came prepared for how effing cold it was. But everyone waited anyway. Finally, they came out. Turns out, Michael Berresse was giving them notes. So on top of the cast, we met Michael as well. Susan and Heidi came out last, Susan immediately greeting me with "God. I can't believe you f***kers waited in the cold. That's so sweet!" Heidi: "Yeah. Sh*t." Hunter and Jeff were incredibly nice. Michael was great too. Larry was so funny and he gave some pretty exciting (possibly) news. It was great.

My best stagedoor experience happened this past August at A Tale of Two Cities. I'd actually on planned on meeting just Brandi Burkhardt & Natalie Toro, but the rest of the cast came out before them, and all of them were extremely kind! Anyway, Brandi was so genuinely sweet, and didn't mind talking to me for however long about what future projects she's doing with Frank, and LOL asked my name (that doesn't usually happen to me for the record!). These are the kind of performers that I love. Those who love not only their fans, but it's more than obvious you know they love what they're doing!

Most of my stage door experiences have been good ones, but two stand out.

During the run of Victor/Victoria, I went with a friend to see the show and while we were walking to the theatre she realized that in that friend of a friend way, she had a connection with Ms. Andrews. After the show, I spoke to the man at the stage door and we were able to wait for her to come down.

She, her assistant and her little tiny door came to greet us. She was so graciously and lovely -- the stage door manager said that she didn't want to take pictures or sign anything, so we didn't ask. However, we mailed our show posters to her and asked that she sign them, which she did and returned them to us. Really a terrific lady!

The other was New Years Eve 2003, I went to see Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz. At the end of the curtain call, we all stood up and sang "Auld Lang Syne" and it was magical. I waited at the stage door and it was FREEZING. Although it was New Years Eve and I'm sure all he wanted to do was go home to his wife and celebrate, he took the time to sign for everyone there. Such class!

Fortunately most of my stagedoor experiences have been positive, but Norm Lewis probably takes the cake, although it wasn't at his show. I was at Hair with a friend, and he was at Hair's stagedoor after seeing the show. My friend, who's from Norway, absolutely adores Norm, and went up to tell him she loves his work. He got a kick out of the fact he had a fan from Norway, and told us if we came to Little Mermaid, he would give us a tour backstage, which he did a week later! The [tos] cast was also ridiculously nice.