Obviously not something I'm proud of and I've since corrected the issue but at least I can now claim the experience of recently having had problems arriving to work on time has yielded something positive I can relate to the feeling of being really late.
First of all, it isn't true that signing an autograph is a 2 second thing. It doesn't matter if it's actually a 3 second thing. The perspective of the person NOT running that late doesn't matter.
Trust me...you DO NOT stand in the way of a guy who's running THAT late to ANYTHING. Especially if that includes a couple thousand people who paid good money to see a show that he's in and is likely a highlight of to a good number of those couple thousand.
Not to mention, this is BROADWAY. Serious business. Not that being late is OK in the sticks, but you know what I mean.
In my boring, ordinary little world where being tardy once or twice every couple of months is no biggie, the frequency of it reached a point where--I kid you not--I'd completely flip out at cars ahead of me that weren't in such a hurry. Even when I knew I'd make it on time, but just barely, I'd flip out at anything that got in my way even if only for one second. ONE second.
I don't think the OP realizes just HOW LATE Mr. Martin was and how critical every second is. And this is a business where it isn't unheard of for lead actors to go in half hour before curtain. They've got everything timed down to a science, being even a minute late so that it disrupts such a well oiled machine will cause a bunch of pissed off looks and LOSS.
To me, it isn't at all surprising that he did not take 2 seconds to scribble something. The fact he wasted extra time explaining to the OP and even dealing with her at all, AND giving the little girl a kiss, speaks volumes of just what a gentleman Mr. Martin is and how incredibly entitled and insensitive the pre-show stage doorer was. Pre-show stage dooring itself really rubs me the wrong way...let's surprise and disrupt the actors' pre-show routine to beat the crowds and sneak in an autograph...or two, 15 MINUTES before curtain!!!
Come now.
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
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