Celebrities not from the show coming out of the Stage Door

Annoying is leaving a stage door on Broadway with an actor friend and having people ask you for a selfie and/or to autograph their Playbills assuming you’re in also the show. The desperation for anything Broadway. They truly don’t care who signs their stuff.

When I saw Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall in the 80s, I was stunned to see Gregory Peck walk out the stage door.

Or, OR, and this is only a wild suggestion...it's difficult to know whether or not a person was in the show unless you have memorized the entire cast, perhaps of more than 20 people, and are able to recognize them based on their headshots (which rarely look like post-show reality and certainly not on-stage recognizability) to know that it is indeed someone from the show so if you're not a stuffy know-it-all theater snob - and you aren't because such a person would NEVER stage door - you assume that anyone coming out of the stage door was in the show.

Trust me. I have a distinguishable trademark on my face. You couldn’t miss me in New Jersey. They’d have seen me easily on stage. Even in a crowd scene. That’s what makes it annoying. Like, really people?

Ohhh, see, clearly I was supposed to know that you were easily distinguishable from others and jumped to the snarky conclusion. lol

Next time I see someone with a notable facial trademark exit a stage door, I'll ask if it's you.

Rachel Bloom attended a performance of War Paint last year and was backstage visiting Patti (who is both a fan of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and has appeared in the show as Rachel's character's former rabbi). She stage-doored with Patti and signed a few Playbills for people who asked.

Happens all the time. Most recently I saw New Girl's Max Greenfield come out the stage door of Boys in the Band. He took some selfies with people who asked. And speaking of...I saw Matt Bomer come out the stage door of She Loves Me. I remember seeing Brian Cox come out after a performance of Love Letters, and just recently I saw Stokes come out after Saint Joan. And these are just off the top of my head!

Whenever big actors attend the show, they always either know someone, or they're invited backstage simply because of their celebrity status. And naturally they will leave and enter through the stage door.

Updated On: 6/3/18 at 11:47 PM

haterobics said: "The worst part of exiting the stage door as a civilianis when the crowd whoops it up when it opens, and then as soon as they see you're not famous, it just dies out instantly. ;-("

This happened to me when I left the Great Comet stage door. But I managed to make the crowd laugh after saying I wasn't going to signing tonight.

Updated On: 6/4/18 at 12:25 AM

Nycat63 said: "James Cromwell at Dolls House Part 2, Bobby Cannavale at Falsettos and Joe Lo Truglio at Front Page, who also happened to be seated next to me during the play and was super nice. Cromwell smiled and waved to those waiting at stage door, Cannavale did not acknowledge anyone, but no one tried to engage him, either. Which I think is appropriate when a celeb is not in the show. "

Not technically a stage door experience since this happened at the Barrow Street Theatre after Buyer and Cellar, but Tony Shaloub was in the audience. He exited into the lobby afterwards with the rest of the audience. I spoke briefly to him when I was waiting for Michael Urie and he walked by me. I was able to tell him how much I enjoyed his work on Monk (I’ve since seen and loved him in The Band’s Visit). He was trying to stay relatively incognito as the lobby was still pretty crowded, but was polite. I thought he left, but after the lobby cleared out and I was only one waiting for Michael Urie (who couldn’t have been lovelier), he came back out (from no doubt going backstage to congratulate Mr. Urie) and initiated a selfie with me (which he had respectfully declined earlier). He said something to the effect of “let’s get that photo now.”

haterobics said: "The worst part of exiting the stage door as a civilianis when the crowd whoops it up when it opens, and then as soon as they see you're not famous, it just dies out instantly. ;-("

This has happened to me a couple of times when leaving exiting the stage door at the Gershwin. I always almost want to sign the playbill, but ultimately don't do it.

Also, back to OP, when I saw Next To Normal Ben Stiller was at the show...i cant remember if he and his now ex-wife Christine came out of the stage door or not, but they both hung around the stage door area for a bit. I visited with Christine for a bit while he was chatting it up with some cast members and stage doorers...she was super friendly and then introduced me to Ben before they left. Ben was incredibly friendly an and Christine offered to take a picture of the two of us which he happily took with me! Great experience!!