Sticking Foot in Mouth When Meeting Performers — Page 2

The very first time I ever met a celebrity was in the mid 80's while I was in college. Mandy Patinkin (my idol) was starring in SITPWG. I former grad of my college theater program (Mary D'Arcy) was also in the show, although we didn't know her persoanlly.

Just inside the stage door, we told the guy at the desk who we were there to see (MARY) and he told us to go right in! Just as we were opening the inner door (and excited as all get out to be going back) who walks OUT, but Mary?!! We had no choice but to talk to her there. She was meeting her husband a few blocks away, so we walked with her and chatted. It was delightful and she was quite gracious, but I was dissappointed to have missed my chance to meet Patinkin.

We headed BACK to Shubert Alley where we were meeting friends that had been to see something else. THERE in the alley was a long white limo.....waiting for Patinkin! (Who knew he was such a big deal then?) Since I had been the one to drive us all in: we weren't going anywhere.

Finally, Patinkin came out, and spent a few minutes with us. But all I could say was: That was soooo beautiful. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. He was kind, but I suspect a tad wary of me.

I was mortified and fodder for jokes from my friends for quite some time.

I've had lots of opportunities since then, and am proud to say have maintained my power of speech each time!

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Haha. Okay, I've never told this story, but this thread is a PERFECT opportunity.

During the winter of 2005 my roomate and I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, my roomate and I met Kevin Cahoon (who was gracious enough to tour us around backstage). Well as we were coming out of the stagedoor. I asked him about his CD that he had out, and he said they were 10 bucks and just happened to have one in his bag. So I reached in my pocket to grab out 10 dollars and my roomate made the comment that he'd like one too but just didnt have enough money. So, I replied, "Oh don't worry about it Jon. I'll just burn you a copy when we get back to Charlotte" (With Kevin standing right there)

It didn't hit me until we got back to the hotel what I said. I could have died.

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My most recent faux pas was not a something I said, it was something I did. Now, I know that Cry-Baby had very few fans on here, but I found the show to be a lot of fun. So one day I was corssing 43rd street and I saw a beautiful blond haired woman crossing the street. I recognized her as Elizabth Stanley and said, "Ms Stanley?" After she nodded, I thanked her for her hard work, told her how much fun I had each time I saw the show....blah blah blah." She seemed generally appreciative. She told me that she would tell "all her friends from the show" how much I enjoyed the show. However, instead of just moving on, I hugged her!
At that point I bet she thought...Nice guy, but he just crossed the line.

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Not necessarily a foot in mouth moment, though, I met Judy Kaye after a performance of Sweeney Todd. She was in the midst of a great story that she was telling people at the stage door, about a bootleg copy of "Follies", that a fan had made her that was almost professional quality. Afterwards, she moved on to my friend and I as I commented, (Sheepishly of course), "So, when can I get a copy of that video?", to which she replied, "Don't hold your breath".

This one's not really mine, but I witnessed it.

I took one of my friends with me to In the Heights. After the show, we were one of the first people at the stagedoor. Mandy Gonzalez came out and signed our Playbills. The people next to me didn't have a Sharpie, so Mandy asked if she could borrow mine for a second. I said yes. But my friend jokingly whispered (LOUDLY, I might add), "Bitch stole your pen!" Mandy looked up and gave her the weirdest look. I wanted to die!!

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I think it depends on the performers. The ones new to this LOVE people talking to them and staying after, but the ones who are super used to it might be on or off depending on the day of the week. And some of the "legends" are still amazing with their fans, some not. BUT I've been reading people are just shying away from talking to the performers after the show and thats silly! They love their fans! I think most of you made these peoples day!

My friends and I stagedoored when Anthony Rapp was touring with Little Shop of Horrors. (My first time meeting Anthony! ) Anywho, he was very gracious and made small talk with us. He asked where we sat, and when we told him we were in the balcony, he asked how the acoustics were up there. My friend Christian told Anthony, "Great! You guys were real loud!" Anthony gave him a very funny look and mumbled something along the lines of Um yeah... we've got microphones. Poor Christian was so embarrassed... But not me. I've never stuck my foot in my mouth. Nope. Never... Bye now!

Glad to know I'm not the only person to make a fool of themselves when meeting someone! Last year, Anthony Rapp gave a talk at my college and they gave people the chance to meet him and get autographs afterward. I was so excited and nervious I was just talking really fast and blathering on and on about how awesome he was! I must have seemed so stupid, but then I guess performers are used to people being starstruck...

After the final performance of [tos], I spaced out a little and hadn't realized that Susan Blackwell had come over and said hi. I was embarrassed that I hadn't been paying attention and went (really loudly) "HI!"

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When I stagedoored for Tale the only person that got me "nervous" so to speak was Natalie Toro. She somehow took what I said about her being in EVITA as calling her old and she was being pushy (right word?) about it and then a mixture of stammering on my part!, then was just like "Just kidding" and walked off laughing about it. I suppose the actors get to have some fun too with the stagedoor :).

And for the record, SOO many people when I stagedoored for Tale made a fool of themselves with James Barbour,...and one young-teenaged girl who was a big Brandi Burkhardt fan from Passions or something. Ha funny.

I got a little star-struck around Leigh Ann Larkin at Gypsy too :). She's really preetttttttttty! And then I yelled "YO PATTI" after not one, but two middle-aged women blocked me out. She looked flustered a bit but smiled and whatever you want to call Patti talking at the stagedoor to you I got the most haha. And then the middle aged woman attempted to give a hug and Patti looked at me and pointed at her. Hahaha I had nothing to say!

To Michael McGrath last January at the stage door to Spamalot:

"I can't believe you've been in this show THIS long."

Didn't come out as positive as I'd meant it.

He left the show two weeks later. I feel responsible.

I have been on my high school's theater study tour for the past 2 years and after hanging around these boards I immediately knew I had to stage door when I went with my high school. I was really persistent about it and we stage doored all but 2 of 6 shows. We met Chris Fitzgerald and Sutton Foster after YF and they were both incredibly nice. Sutton Foster was really shy and I had just finised playing Jimmy in our TMM. And I was super excited to meet her and I was speechless. We are from Troy, her hometown so she stayed quite a bit after and talked to us. The next experience was Curtains and I can't say enough good things about that cast. They were so nice. Talked for a while with alot of them. Debra Monk was incredibly kind and so was Jill Paice. DHP was also alot of fun. That was 2007s trip, so I made sure I would not be stupid on the 2008 trip and I was boss at the stage door. I realize all you need to do is say "you did a great job tonight, I really enjoyed this show, you guys look like you are having a lot of fun up there" and then I ask for a picture. I think that works the best and then if you have a little anecdote I think it would be great to incorporate that.

Luckily this didn't happen face-to-face, but a few years ago I emailed Stephanie J. Block to let her know that I was going to see her in Wicked. I said something like "I'm really excited to see you even though Idina will always be my favorite Elphaba." Maybe that's why Stephanie was out that night.