Rude Stage Door Experiences — Page 4

Bwaydoc: I think you said you were at Apple Tree this past Saturday night? My sister and I were there as well. Marc came out about five-ten minutes after Kristin left. (No motorcycle from what I saw, but this was a veryyy cold night and nyc streets were still a little slushy.) Most people only care about Kristin so just leave after she leaves so there were very few of us still out there. However, the guy outside, I guess he is the stage door manager? not really sure sorry, said several times that Marc had not come out yet.

As for the rotating, I loved it. The barricade is not set up well there so instead of a line to go down and sign its just one big mob on either side of the door. My sister and I were right against the barricade on the right side and Brian did come down that way, but Kristin stayed in the front. There is no reason to stay up there if you already have gotten something signed so to leave and make room for everyone else I think is very nice and considerate, and then if you want to stay for anyone else just hang in the back until everyone else is done. If Kristin had walked around the barricade and not just stayed in front, it would have been worse with people pushing to get to the sides and shoving things through. I thought the system worked well, not at all diva-ish.

Marc was very nice of course, but he is also a distant cousin of ours so that may have contributied to his pleasantness. He signed our posters and playbills and took a picture with us.

I will say the only rude experience I had with the Apple Tree door was the crowd that night. Tons of I guess maybe older teens or very early twenties and all very loud and obnoxious. And of course there was the woman behind us who used my head as a table for her poster when Brian was near us. (Being 4'11" really stinks sometimes )

Everyone just sort of shoved their way in even though Kristin signed for absolutly everyone there. Even after she left some girl shoved me and my sister over when we were waiting for Marc to come out. I don't understand where manners and common courtesy go as soon as people get to the stage doors (a lot of times, not always but a lot). Why can't people say "excuse me" or "hey thats my friend/sister/brother/whatever, do you mind moving down a bit so I can stand with them?" I mean most people are understanding enough to say sure but when you just shove someone over, not so nice. Okay I am done, sorry for the super long post.

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Updated On: 2/21/07 at 08:02 AM

I went to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last year and unfortunately it happened to be on a night when they had a photo session after the show to take pictures for the new program. Someone (not the stage door manager) came out early on to tell us this and that no one would be coming out for a while. Most people decided to stick around and I guess the stage door manager didn't know that someone had already explained the delay to us and went on to tell everyone out there several times that all the actors had already left or gone out different doors and we should all leave. He apparently wanted to go home because he told us this several times. Of course he was lying to us and all the actors eventually did come out and were very kind about signing and pictures. I just thought it was a little mean that the stage door manager was obviously lying to us to get us all to leave.

Sounds like most of these rude stage door experiences are because of stage managers, security, and over zealous fans. Doesn't sound like the actors are a problem, I know I've never had a problem with any of them.

just to clear things up, it's the stage-door managers, not the stage managers that you have a problem with. stage managers have nothing to do with it unless their name is ... well.... there's one in particular who's a real asshole. but anyway. i've also had some rude actor experiences and it is their own fault but it's not their job to sign your playbill. it's their job to be on that stage and act. once that's over and they are out of costume, they're done. they can go out whatever exit they want, they can run to their cars, they can sign as many or as few playbills as they want. many actors are extremely generous in their post-show behavior, but it's not their job to do that. get over it.

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secret-soul

I think perhaps if you read the first sentence of the original post you would find that this was not a thread about actors rude behavior but specifically about the rude behavior of stage door managers, security, etc.

"I was just interested in any rude experiences people had had at the stage door, not so much with actors (I know that thread's been done) but with stage door managers, bodyguards, etc."

I can't believe Mickey Rooney would act like that--I've always thought him to be quite humble considering the dips his career has taken. Guess not.

I've seen some interesting things.

At Wicked in summer '05, people stood in front of the walk areas. One actress was trying to walk through and a woman standing directly in front of her would not budge for her. The look on the actress' face was of complete disgust, and justifiably so...
Same day. A man called after David Ayers, who seemed tired, and told everyone he had to go. He called after him by addressing him as "Scarecrow."

Mary Poppins during the last weekend of previews. Some of the worst behavior I've seen. I was standing under the fire escapes waiting for my friend, so I could see the full picture. The stage-door manager set up the baracades and told people to stay off the edge of the sidewalk for pedestrians. The SAME PEOPLE continuously moved to be the pedestrian area to get to the "front." I felt so bad for the manager, he was sweating from stress, and it was totally unfair to him.

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A group of about 7 people, including myself waited about an hour at the Criterion stage door in London after Mack and Mabel's closing performance to get autographs. My favorite ensembe member did not sign, instead just shouting to us to send an e-mail to her website. Then, when David Soule came out, he was the rudest performer I have ever come across. He did not want anyone mentioning starsky and hutch (even though it was mentioned in his bio), along with not signing anything. Someone wanted to get a picture with him and her camera was not working, so he exclaimed, "JESUS CHRIST!" and ran away in a huff. Janie Dee on the other hand was a sweetheart.

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I have always had enormous amounts of respect for Constantine for what he puts up with. I find his sense of entitlement and arrogance very offputting, but he does deal well with his fans and while he doesn't seem overly gracious, he just strikes me as a guy who keeps his feelings in. He may not show it, but he seems to appreciate his fans....I just think sometimes he seems like he a huge celebrity.

And to turn this around for a second, my BEST stage door experiences are always at the Palace. Richie is the best stage door guy ever. He runs that stagedoor so efficiently and I look forward to stagedooring LB there.

Back to the bitchfest :-P

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Buscee, I've heard other stories of Mr. Rooney. I always thought he looked like one of those teddy bear, always nice, talky people person. He's not. It's sad because he's a great actor. I don't know how he acts now though. I've never met him.

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I agree, the New Amsterdam guy is great. It's too bad people aren't more cooperative with him. Even though people were being extremely rude to him, not once did he yell.

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millie,

I did carry my book to the theatre in a bag but when the show was over two people in my group didn't want to wait at the door and decided to meet us at a restaurant down the street afterwards. We gave them our extra bags and everything so we wouldn't have to deal with them in the crowd. I did have a purse, but the book didn't fit in it.

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When I met Norbert, the security officer told us (me and another Norbert fan that was at the door for DRS LA... eventually more people came) that the whole cast wasn't going to come out and sign because they were eating dinner. About 5 minutes later, when we had not left, he told us to leave, and we stayed because Norbert came out of the door. The security guard told Norbert to go back inside and Norbert told the guy that he was here to sign for his fans. He took pictures and signed for about 10 minutes until the guard FORCED him to go back inside. Norbert is my hero.

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i don't remember any particularly bad ones, HOWEVERR--
i've seen spring awakening twice, and both times they were GREAT! the first time was with my school, and skylar astin came onto the bus to talk to us, which was awesome of him. the second, skylar astin and jonathan groff (separately) had pretty long conversations with my sister and i about...everything. they took TONS of pictures with us and another group of teens, and seemed really appreciative and all-around fun. they came out just to sign, because it was a VERYYY COLD! afternoon matinee and they just went backstage after. great experience from a great show.