Best/worst stage door experience? — Page 4

"No one has to be personable to anyone. Why does she care about people after a show? She doesn't. She's had to deal with this for 20 years now? And when I saw that show, she had to exit through the stage door and immediately got into her car. Not all theaters have more than one door. She owes you nothing. Not a smile, not a hello, not an autograph. Nothing. "

Once again, nobody said she owed anybody anything. All I said was that if you are going out to sign for people (once again, her choice) you can at least try to be personable IMO, it is called being a nice human being. If there is only one way out then don't have the stage door guy tell fans you will come out to sign if you have things to do or you are not in the mood. The five people would not have been there if they were told she was not coming out to sign programs etc. Is it going to really kill anybody to say "thanks for coming to the show" and sign your name 5 times. (there were 5 people waiting). I bet doing that would take about 5 minutes at most and you don't come off being rude. I guess we will agree to disagree.

"And thanks Yankeefan7 for agreeing lol, obviously LuPita2 is entitled to her own opinion on the matter."

No problem. Let me relate a story to you that happened a bunch of years ago. My family went to see "Spring Awakening" and my daughters wanted to get their Playbills signed by the cast. It was a very cold night like the one you mentioned and I think the entire cast came out. The cast was very outgoing (especially Jonathan Groff) with the exception of Lea Michele. She did not engage people in conversation or take pictures but she was polite and replied to compliments given to her and the show. I think this is example of the point you and I were trying to make in earlier posts. She was polite and did not come off as being rude. BTW - there were more than 5 people on the line - lol.

We don’t stage door often, it a few stand out.

Best was Sweat. Allison Wright came out and chatted for about 15 minutes - The Americans had just ended and she was talking about her role. There were maybe 10 people out there.

Worst was this past weekend with Burn This. Driver fans were just rude.

I've stopped stage dooring because children get super crazy.

That being said had an incredible experience at Spring Awakening years ago with most of the OBC. Everyone was so gracious.

I also more recently had a really solid stage door experience with The Great Comet. It was the first performance without Groban so no one was there. There was literally 3 of us and it was cool just chatting with the cast.

"I am happy you had a nice interaction with the SA cast, I love the Lea didn't feel obligated to sign or take photos, actors don't have to do that, but she was present in what was going on and came off personable."

Very nice and short story about Jonathan Grof that night. He told one of my daughters he liked their bag (forget what type it was) and my daughter said it was a gift from her Mom. He replied she was a "cool" Mom for getting that bag and than told her to come over and join them for a picture. My wife handed me the camera and I got nice picture of all of them. It was a moment they will all never forget.

Updated On: 5/16/19 at 03:19 PM

Best stage door experiences have been with shows that are either for shows that are meant for smaller kids or shows that are not as family-friendly (BoM, Aladdin, Groundhog Day, Tootsie, Spongebob,TPTGW). People can control themselves and more actors seem to come out because the whole experience is a lot less overwhelming.



Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, and Be More Chill were absolute disasters. Pushing, shoving, complaining when people weren't coming out, following people after the barrier to try to talk to them. It's very disrespectful and uncomfortable for everyone

Best: Three Tall Women. I'm a student at ISU, from which Laurie Metcalf graduated, and she came out and took a picture with all of us and talked for a few minutes about school and stuff.

Worst: Not for a show I saw, but I was in the opera Cosi fan tutte, and the student body hated it (a fact I've learned to live with - the show has some really problematic depictions of women), but I would literally see dozens of classmates in the audience every night, and rush to get out of my makeup and costume, and run out of the theatre to see an empty lobby, which kind of sucked.

I’ve never stage doored. Not necessarily because I don’t have the desire, but maybe I feel that people observing an adult standing at the door for a half hour so he can exchange greetings with and get an autograph from an actress he might then have a “crush” on would wonder what kind of life the adult must have.

The fact that so many of the sophisticated theater goers here stage door I guess proves that it’s a natural desire to want to have an actor be aware of your existence for 15 seconds anyway.

My thoughts about stage footing from the actors point of view are general agreement that it isn’t an obligation of the actors but that it may be in their interest to do it to help advance their careers. Fans who pay to see them perform are more likely to pay if they have a real affection for the actor. I’ve read a couple of times that the number of followers that one has on Twitter and Instagram is a consideration in casting at times. One of the times was during an interview with Kelli O’Hara (yes, I do bring her up a lot) who had learned about this casting consideration and was very put out about it. She’s not an especially big fan of the social media and didn’t believe that this “followed by” number should have a role in casting decisions. The best actor should get the role. True, but box office counts, especially if you’re like Roundabout: always borderline about affording the big splashy musicals that they are remembered for.

To touch on the concert or cabaret scene, Linda Eder sold out 54 Below nine times last year at or near top ticket price. Linda Eder after her performance sits in a chair next to the bar and takes on all comers. I think that this helps her to sell all those expensive seats.