Posted: 7/7/15 at 10:35am
I've never been to New York, but some of the nicest people I've ever encountered have been the folks at the stage doors of various national tours.
As far as actual "stars" go, I would definitely say Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana are every bit as sweet and dorky in person as they seem onstage. Met them after a concert, and they were incredibly gracious, took the time to actually chat with everyone. I was wearing a pin that had been made as part of a charity partnership with Cinderella, and Laura saw it and got all excited. Christopher Sieber, definitely. Met him years ago on the La Cage tour, and I happened to mention how much I loved his episode of "Pushing Daisies", and in return he stood around for several minutes gushing about how much fun that show was with my mom and me. Lin-Manuel Miranda is also amazingly cool. When I met him, he was with the ITH tour but hadn't officially rejoined the cast yet, so no one else was at the stage door and even I was shocked to see him. I was just a teenager but when I mentioned I wanted to write for theater, he was so encouraging and gave me writing advice that I still use to this day.
As far as non-famous folks, I would definitely say most of the younger ensemble casts over the years, like the Spring Awakening and Once touring casts. Every Wicked cast I've ever seen, for sure. Andy Jones and Audrey Cardwell from the current Cinderella tour are especially sweet- when he found out I worked at the theater as well as saw shows there, he started chatting with me about his own theater-staff days. I'm sure I could think of more but those are the real standouts.