Sitting next to a celebrity at a theater — Page 4

This November, I sat behind Mary Rodgers Guettel at Juilliard's production of Savage in Limbo.

As far as sightings go, some confirmed ones include Fyvush Finkel at Jonathan Pryce and NLB's last Dirty Rotten Scoundrels performance, Peter O'Toole at Blithe Spirit, and Jerry Stiller at Exit the King.

One that I saw but am not 100% sure about is that I think I saw Judi Dench at The Producers.

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I sat 2 rows in back of tennis player John MacEnroe(and his kids+their friends) at Wicked a few months ago. I sat next to New York Times photographer Rob Bennett at Wicked last Sat night. He is Julie Reiber's boyfriend and she was on at the time.

At Defying Inequality I was surrounded by celebrities.

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oh I meant John and Kelly. Oops

Sat in the row behind Connie Britton (Mrs. Coach!) and the lead dude from Counting Crows at Saved off-broadway. I will never understand how he gets so many hot chicks.

What's with all these celebrities leaving these shows at intermission?? Pretty disburbing trend. I'm sure they wouldn't want people leaving their shows!!

Maybe they're going backstage. Most of the time when you see pictures of "So and so visits such and such" the photos were taken during intermission.

Take this picture of Miley Cyrus for example. The cast are all in their costumes for the Act II opener.

And maybe they don't return to their original seat so as not to disturb the production because they often end up having to take time to chat with reporters and the show has started up again.

But there are so many reasons. I doubt they're trying to be rude.

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Updated On: 12/22/09 at 01:45 AM

I sat a two rows behind Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara when Gypsy was at City Center (Interestingly enough, it was the same night the musical version on Hairspray opened in theaters).

I sat a few rows behind Maury Povich and Connie Chung at American Buffalo last year. Can't say if they liked the show, they left in a huge rush.

I sat directly across from Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs at Everyday Rapture in May. It was particularly amusing watching their responses to Sherie's routine about Rent and Aida.

And finally, I sat across from Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith at Desire Under The Elms that following Tuesday. They arrived right before the lights went down. It seemed like they enjoyed the show.

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I sat beside Matthew Broderick at Die, Mommy, Die .. it was kinda surreal. I was hoping that Sarah Jessica Parker would sneak in right before the curtain, but unfortunately she didn't come. Matthew was with an older gentleman caller. Or a friend. I dunno. But not SJP. Boo.

I saw A Little Night Music tonight from standing room and at the end of intermission, Stephen Sondheim came in and was standing directly behind me for part of the 2nd act.

I've seen many celebrities at the theatre over the years, but these were my favorite incidents.

I was directly behind Helen Hayes at the Angela Lansbury revival of GYPSY. The show was so great that I was able to forget that she was Helen Hayes and just be grateful that she was short, which gave me a perfect view of the stage.

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were sitting two rows behind me at a touring production of a Noel Coward review which played Milwaukee. (They were retired by this time and living at their country home west of the city.) I've never approached a famous person at the theatre, but a number of other people approached them at intermission. The Lunts seemed wonderfully gracious to all of them.

The person laughing uproariously behind me at ME AND MY GIRL turned out to be Liberace.

I was across the aisle from Katharine Hepburn at CARMELINA. Everyone noticed her. Nobody approached her. I couldn't focus on the show. What a thrill!

One of the many times I saw the original production of SWEENEY TODD, I was extremely annoyed by a man and woman behind me who kept explaining everything to two young girls who were with them. In a break between scenes, I whipped my head around and threw them the angriest, nastiest glare I could muster. It was Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. They shut up for the rest of the performance.

When you said Bill Nye, I thought you meant Bill Nye "The Science Guy". I was like good lord that's amazing!

Oh, Bill Nighy? See, that's pretty freakin' cool, but Bill Nye the Science Guy would have been AWESOME. (And I'm English and scarcely know who Bill Nye is... D: )

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I totally would have been more excited if you'd meant Bill Nye The Science Guy.

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