Getting Engaged at Broadway Shows

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 3:43pm

Forgive me if this has been posted before (I did a search).

Cinderella posted on Facebook today that two audience members recently got engaged at a show onstage. I've heard about this happening before and was even at a performance of the Wedding Singer where this happened.

How does one usually go about this? Is it an easy request or do you have to jump through a million hoops? Does management usually ask for donations? Not that I'd want to get engaged at a show...just curious how one goes about this.

Thanks! Hope everyone is staying cool in this heat wave.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 3:54pm

To be honest, I think it's the most self absorbed idea on the planet. People pay $150+ to watch a Broadway show. You want to show off in front of people, rent your own theater.

Oh, and you can arrange it through the producer's office.

Updated On: 5/31/13 at 03:54 PM

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 3:57pm

The publicist's office is the briefer and surer route.

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 3:59pm

I think its sweet when performers get engaged at their own shows, like when Darren Ritchie popped the question to Janet Dacal during the closing curtain call of Wonderland, or when Patina Miller got engaged post Pippin opening night.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:06pm

I agree with you Maddie. Very cute and appropriate when performers in the show do it like at Wonderland and I think Memphis if I recall correctly and really obnoxious and annoying when it's random audience members.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:08pm

What if the other person says no? Could be reeeeaaaal embarrassing.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:09pm

"Very cute and appropriate when performers in the show do it like at Wonderland and I think Memphis if I recall correctly and really obnoxious and annoying when it's random audience members."

I agree..more appropriate when a cast member does this, but it seems odd when it is random audience members. Once was fine, but now I've heard this happening more frequently lately.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:10pm

Or you could do like Patti LuPone and get married after the matinee.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:11pm

I would only do it after something like VIRGINIA WOOLF.

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:44pm

I read an article years ago about a couple who got engaged at Beauty and the Beast. They weren't currently in the show, but they were former cast mates, and had MET when they were in the cast together. That's okay in my book, too.

[KirbyCat]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 4:56pm

http://www.cinderellaonbroadway.com/packages

ROYAL PROPOSALS
Begin your "happily ever after" on stage after CINDERELLA! For no cost, pop the question to your Princess or Prince Charming in front of a kingdom full of audience members! Make it even more memorable with an optional post-show celebration for friends and family, where cast members might stop by to say congratulations to the happy couple.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:01pm

Personally, I don’t think it’s a way to show-off for everyone. One of the biggest things my girlfriend and I share is theatre, so if we got engaged onstage after seeing a show together, it would be very meaningful (perhaps the difference is it wouldn’t matter if there were people in the audience or not).

For theatre goers who are just looking for a venue to propose publicly, no matter whether it’s a theatre stage or the top of the Empire, then I understand this frustration.

That being said, I can't believe "Cinderella" actually advertises for this!

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:16pm

I just hate how EVERYTHING has become an EVENT. Is nothing private and personal anymore?

Re: the actors -- while I can understand how they might want to, this is another example of inviting fans into their lives.


To each his own.

[mikem]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:39pm

I think The Wedding Singer was the first show to actively market the idea of a post-show wedding proposal. From a marketing and revenue standpoint, it makes business sense to market this, although I don't know how special it is when it's being marketed like that.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a couple taking up the production's offer, as long as it's relatively short. I happened to be in the audience at a post-Wedding Singer proposal, and it didn't take any longer than a BCEFA fundraising speech does. The couple also seemed very nice (of course, who can really tell from something like that).

[LesMiz24601]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:48pm

I was onstage at the Kennedy Center rockin out to the reprise of Let the Sunshine In when this happened. It was a little like huh? What is going on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmJaIHTIO5g

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:51pm

After a performance of "Anything Goes," Joel Grey made a speech about how grateful we as a nation are to the service provided by the Navy (this was also during "Fleet Week," when AG had that obnoxious "Snap a Sailor" contest), and invited two naval officers (a man and a woman) onstage to receive thanks from the cast and audience. The man then proposed to the woman, and the audience ate it up.

The best part for me? When the couple climbed onstage, Sutton Foster held out her hand saying, "Hi, I'm Sutton," with that I'm-famous-but-am-introducing-myself-anyway smile, and the female officer cocked her head like, "yeah, I know. What, you think I didn't read the Playbill?"

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:55pm

I think it's an awful practice. Unless you're in the show or are working on it. The show isn't about YOU, it's about... well the show.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 6:01pm

The show isn't about the actors either...it's about the characters.

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 6:06pm

I knew the second I saw the title that there would be naysayers in this thread. Two people want to get married at a Broadway show that they're in with their significant other? Great. It's a huge part of their lives that they share with one another, and it makes sense that it would be part of their proposal. Someone wants to propose who isn't in the cast? Also great. Theater is probably a huge part of their lives.

People's proposals aren't about you, assholes. You don't want to watch them, leave the theater.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 6:10pm

And unless you are on an aisle, you are rather held captive. SO...they are forcing their activity on the audience at large.

Note: no one here really made a big deal about sitting through it, people just voiced their opinions on it.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 7:15pm

"People's proposals aren't about you, assholes. You don't want to watch them, leave the theater."

NO, I DON'T want to watch them. It has nothing to do with the show. If they want to share their private, OFF STAGE life with hundreds of strangers, they should have some event to that effect, asshole.

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 7:38pm

When I saw Memphis one of the ensemble members proposed to his girlfriend who was in the front row and I thought and was very cool and a great way to share that memory.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 7:41pm

Each to his own!

I know that I'd never want a public proposal like that.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 6:37am

I'm a romantic (though single) at heart. If permission is obtained from the show, then I don't see anything wrong with it. from RC in Austin, Texas

Updated On: 6/1/13 at 06:37 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 6:46am

Except Jane doesn't like it.