Spotting Celebrities at Shows — Page 3

Just curious--were all these sightings sitting in the orchestra? I prefer to sit in the mezzanine for shows since I feel I get a better overall view and I've almost never seen anyone famous. I did see the top of Stephen Sondheim's head at the final performance of the most recent Sunday revival.

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I recently sat next to Ava DuVernay at Straight White Men.I told her I was a fan of her work as we were exiting the theater and she thanked me and shook my hand.

I saw Victor Garbor in the lobby when I saw the out-of-town tryout of Catch Me If You Can in Seattle. I didn't approach him as he was with a friend.

The most recent I can think of was sitting at a preview of Young Frankenstein in London and the ushers and house manager repeatedly getting a couple who kept moving from the rear of the stalls to the two seats directly in front of us. This happened several times with the house manager saying the guests who sat there always come in after the lights go down. That’s when my radar blipped. Finally, the folks retreated, the lights went down, and Mel Brooks (in a Yankees ballcap) and a friend darted down the aisle to the seats! It was really cool seeing him laughing his tail off at his own jokes. I wouldn’t have had the guts to say anything anyhow, but they were most efficient in making sure they were in and out while the lights were down. Regardless, it was a unique experience I’ll never forget.

Josh Groban, Cherry Jones, and James Franco at Shakespeare in the Park

Lucas Hedges with Ben Platt at Spongebob

Kate Winslet at Three Tall Women

Lea Salonga at M Butterfly

Tavi Gavinson at Collective Rage last night

Taye Diggs at Junk

Spike Lee at Pipeline

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz at The Low Road

John Gallagher, Jr. at Hamlet at The Public

Justin Kirk at The Heiress

Chazz Palminteri at Meteor Shower

Alice Ripley at Lobby Hero

Tom Stoppard at Harry Potter

Brandon Uranowitz at Saint Joan

Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton at The King and I

Josh Radnor at This Is Our Youth

Jesse Tyler Ferguson at Peter and the Starcatcher

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Updated On: 9/7/18 at 04:29 PM

Johnathan Groff at Dear Evan Hansen - Orchestra, ended up getting a photo since I liked Glee at the time. Pretty cool to look back on! Apparently, a guy from the Flash was there that night too

Michael Lee Brown at Spongebob - Snack line, Also got a quick photo and had an awesome conversation. Very kind, even though I feel bad for disrupting. Note I'm younger than a lot of the others on here.

Michael Grief at The Lucky Ones - Sat in front of me! Complimented him, didn't ask for a photo but gushed about Next to Normal.

Mike Faist on the street - Didn't stop him, got too nervous. Would have though.

The Platt Family at Jesus Christ Superstar Rehearsal - I didn't say hi since I was in another section, but Jonah performed, Ben Platt was in the section above me, and Marc made a speech. Marc sat with Ben at one point though.

Brittain Ashford on the street - Smiled but didn't say anything. She was walking into the theatre so that would be extremely rude.

Spielberg at the Flea.

Kathryn Erbe at the Flea

Zoe Kravitz (I accidentally kicked her) and Willow Smith at the Flea

Tommy Tune and Patrick Cassidy at some Broadway show

Zach Quinto at AIA (he really didn’t want to be recognized)

Mandy Patinkin at A 24 Hour History of Popular Music (Philadelphia)

Henry Winkler at the Band’s Visit

Ashley Park waiting for TodayTix for Kinky Boots (pre Mean Girls)

Laura Benanti at once on this Island

Claire Foy at 54 Below

Elizabeth Ashley at Betty Buckley at Joe’s Pub

I think I sat next to David Foster’s 2 crazy daughters in the front row at Waitress. They were putting on English accents. I think.

Sigourney Weaver at the 2015 revival of Fiddler on the Roof... I had rushed and gotten third row orchestra tickets and as we were leaving, Weaver was being escorted backstage from the stage. She said hello to everyone but I think all of us were pretty starstruck as no one really said anything to her!

Updated On: 9/7/18 at 07:14 PM

I'd *seen* plenty of celebrities, but had never talked to one until I randomly found myself sitting next to Kate Burton at Boys in the Band in July. She was making her visit as a Tony voter. We both happened to be there solo, and we had a very nice chat for 10 or 15 minutes before the curtain.

Sweeney (Barrow Street): Sara Bareilles and Leslie Uggams!

"Believe it or not, Rosemary Harris at My Fair Lady on Tuesday."

Incredibly easy to believe. She takes over the role of Mrs Higgins next Tuesday.

Patrick Page, Tobey Maguire and Lukas Haas at The Glass Menagerie (the Tiffany revival). Later saw Matt Bomer and Andrew Rannells leave out the stage door as well.

Charlie Cox leaving out the stage door after A View from the Bridge

Steven Michael Quezada leaving the stage door after All the Way

Finn Wittrock (or a look alike) at Blackbird.

Zeljko Ivanek at The Harvest at Lincoln Center

James Franco at Angels in America on a marathon Saturday. Tony Kushner was on the opposite end of the row from me as well.

Barry Manilow at Come From Away; Irene Sankoff and David Hein were there that night as well.

Hugh Jackman and his wife at Three Tall Women.

Last October, I was in town for Comic-Con and on a break I saw a pretty good non-premium orchestra seat for Hello Dolly was available, so I decided to skip The Walking Dead panel at MSG to see Dolly instead. I was the second seat off the aisle and the woman in the aisle seat was there when I arrived, and I paid no attention as she allowed me past to sit. She got up a minute later to say hello to someone she knew, and the people seated in front of me asked if I recognized her, then it must've clicked for them and they said it was Marcia Cross. I looked, and sure enough it was. I'm not one to initiate conversations with strangers randomly so after she returned I didn't say anything, but she ended up asking me if I just bought my tickets last-minute and we made a little small talk before the show began. Afterwards, she asked if I was happy with my decision to see HD instead of going to TWD panel, I told her I was and we parted ways. I never brought up her work or otherwise acknowledged knowing who she was, though on the way out one half of the couple in front of us complimented her work. Across the aisle, Annette Bening was at the show that evening as well.

Twenty years ago, I sat four seats down from Sondheim(and his then partner) at the Mazzie/Mitchell revival of Kiss me Kate. It was wonderful, because everyone recognized him and no one bothered him. They left after Act One.

I met Jim Carrey backstage at Hamilton a few years back... I thought he was a possible KGIII replacement because it was right before Groff left, but no.