Sitting next to a celebrity at a theater — Page 5

I sat in front of Richard Dreyfuss last week at WISHFUL DRINKING. Carrie Fisher brought him up on stage at the end of Act 1.

My friend had standing room during SPAMALOT and stood next to Mike Nichols who was taking notes the entire time.

Encores dress rehearsals are always the best for sightings. For me the best was sitting right behind Sondheim for the dress of 70 Girls 70.....after the first act he let out a huge WTF groan.

Several experiences with celebs . . .

In the 90s my mother and I sat next to Jerry Van Dyke at Les Miz. Got this autograph as he was very nice. He and his wife left at intermission and did not return.

More recently:

At HAIR I sat behind Andrew Samonsky of SP and across the aisle from David Hyde Pierce. At intermission, Tovah Feldshuh came by to talk to Mr. Samonsky (and his mother) and told him how much she enjoyed his performance in SP. DHP was really trying to keep his presence low key but he was up and singing and dancing with the rest of us at the curtain call.

At NEXT to NORMAL, I sat in the next section over from Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor. I walked out the doors of the Booth next to them though. Outside the theater they were mobbed in Shubert Alley with people wanting pictures . . . I left them alone. Partly cause I was a mess after N2N.

At SPRING AWAKENING, I did the on-stage seats and sat by the infamous groupie girl who had seen the show 400+ times. All the ushers and cast members who are in plain clothes new her. Still can't believe she saw the show that much!

I sat behind Ian McKellen several years ago at a play at the National Theatre in London. Near the end of the interval, he and I ended up being the only people left in the lobby and I sheepishly approached him to tell him how much I've enjoyed his work. He was absolutely lovely and took some time to chat as we went back into the theatre. A really wonderful experience.

Washed hands next to Michael Patrick King at Sweeney Todd's most recent revival, also at that show were Debra Messing and David Carnary. When I saw Caroline or Change I was a few rows in front of Disney's Michael Eisner. When I saw Adding Machine, Martha Plimpton was directly behind me. Please note that in every instance I had better seats.

Sat by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz at one of the first San Fransisco previews of Wicked. Sat by Megan Mullally in a show, that I forgot the name to. I talked to Winnie during the intermission, she asked me if I liked it and told me to go see Wicked in NY. I saw it the for the first time since then in May of 08. lol Megan and I talked about why I wanted Will and Grace to come to Broadway! Big Will and Grace fan!!

Couple of big ones, but rows behind, not next to:

At ROMANTIC COMEDY, the Bernard Slade play with Mia Farrow and Anthony Perkins, Ruth Gordan, Garson K., ... and Ethel Merman were all in the row in front of me. My favorite thing to watch: The Merm seemed more interested in Ruth.

And at Annie, I was there when Streisand and Jon Peters attended. She was wisked out at intermission.

At SEUSSICAL when Rosie O was in: two rows behind Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and opposite them, Shirley MacLaine.
My favorite, Men's rooms: I was next to Dylan Baker in the, uh, row of Men's Euphemisms, and complemented his performance in HAPPINESS as he completed his biz. Bigger yet: I was next to Burt Bacharach at TORCH SONG TRIOLOGY, and was dying to say "Raindrops keep fallin' in the head..." Yeah, I didn't think it was funny the next day, either.

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Updated On: 1/7/10 at 01:37 PM

Sat directly in front of Oprah and Gail day after opening night of The Color Purple. They wouldn't shut up the entire first act. And when the audience realized they were there, people went crazy. Some burst into flames right in front of her. And, I thought the reactions to every line and song were a bit 'forced' as in "see Oprah how much I love the show!"

Bottom line= I had better seats than Miss O!

From what I can remember:

Jenna Leigh Green/Neil Patrick harris were in front of me at RENT
Taye Diggs sat next to me at Idina's LA concert

BUT THE BEST was when I went to see Caroline, or Change at the Ahamanson. Alfre Woodard (sp?) was right next to me, and before the show and during the intermission we were chatting it up like old friends. I told her "I feel like I know you, that I've seen you in something." She said "Oh who knows..." and we kept on talking. Finally during the end of the Curtain Call i looked toward her and said "ALFRE!" and she just laughed and said "Oh, child." It really was a pleasant experience.

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OMG, Alan Rickman. I really WOULD die if he were sitting next to me. I think I'd possibly blush to death (and would of course be too shy to say a word to him.)

I sat two rows behind him once and when the show ended I waited until most of the crowd had filtered out and politely said 'excuse me, Mr Rickman', his female companion got his attention for me (I was nervous, so kind of quiet) and I simply said I loved his work and he smiled and said thank you and offered his hand to shake. It was lovely.

When I was at uni in London I sat next but one to Lord Attenborough at This Is Our Youth, when it was starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Hayden Christensen and Anna Paquin. It was also the night of HC's 21st birthday (Jake stopped the applause at the end to make mention of that).

We only noticed he was there at the interval when we were at the bar and my housemate, in a painfully obvious stage whisper, said "The man from Jurassic Park is standing right behind you". I turned around just as he looked up, alerted by my friends gross unsubtlety, and he gave us both a 'Yes, girls, yes I'm the chap from Jurassic Park' wry little nod. We didn't fan-wank him or anything, but it did look a bit like we were stalking him when the bell rang for the second act and we unintentionally more-or-less followed him and his companion back to their seats, which were right next to ours.

Sitting next to him for the whole play also made us feel especially smug about having got our tickets (centre, stalls) through student stand-by, and only paid £10 for them 5 minutes before the start of the show.

I sat two rows behind Naomi Watts last night at A View From The Bridge. I said a quick hello at intermission because I'm a huge fan of her work. She was very lovely.