The stage door management at A STEADY RAIN is absolutely HORRENDOUS

If I am imagining this correctly it sounds similar to what they do at the Broadhurst for Hamlet, only there it is organized and the people in front just keep moving forward.

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I just was so upset because (and I'm sorry if this sounds dorky) I woke up to buy the tickets the SECOND they went on sale and made sure I got an aisle seat so I could get to the stage door because I regret not stage-dooring TBFO. I rarely stage door. This experience was complete bullsh*t. I hope the guy is working the stage door again tomorrow so I can let him know what happened was completely WRONG.

Literally, the people who were the last to leave the theater got to go to the front of the barricade. I mean...seriously? Especially with a hit show like this with A-list stars, you think they'd have some kind of a system worked out. I'm going back tomorrow, like I said, and giving whoever it may concern a piece of my mind. It's just not right at all.

SO many people were upset and I hope they said something like I did. Or plan on it. Because what happened at the stage door was really very wrong and very frustrating.

Thanks, WAT. I can't believe this is not a one night only thing...people were screaming at the guy working the stage door (mainly me..haha) and he just ignored us all. I mean...after like two weeks of performances, eight shows a week, and complaints at every performance (there's gotta be complaints at every performance) don't you think they'd figure something else out?

Oh and do I complain to the house manager about this? Or do they not have anything to do with the stage door activity?

Anyway, WAT, what time should I get there tomorrow do you think? 9? 915?

I'm sure that the stage door man has little to do with the arrangement. Yelling at him does little.


While I don't SD for shows (and didn't even consider it for this) I think a worse "offense" is how people are permitted to line up at SD DURING the performance, so that most of the actual PATRONS have little chance.

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The exact same thing happened to me when I went two weeks ago. I had a great spot and then all of a sudden was about six people deep in a sea of people.

YOu should be fine by 9.

Possibly they only have one security guy at the door, which I dont think solely he would be able to manage 2 diffrent barricades (Ticket holders & fans) and watch out for the safety of Hugh and Daniel as well.

I'm sure he is just much more concerned with the actors saftey than worrying about who is getting a autograph.

I do however agree 100% it is very anoyying how some people show up for a autograph a hour before the show even ended. I knew when I go to see the show in late October it would probably be the same thing. So I just mailed a request for a playbill.

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I have to agree, the sd is organised chaos. The fella with the beard, who appears to be some sort or manager - and I use that term loosely - is one of the rudest people Ive had the displeasure of meeting. Upon asking him a polite question on behalf of my wife - he continued to answer it as he was closing / slamming the sd. Even then it was a half cocked answer. He even said he cant understand why people wait around for autographs. Granted some want to make money, but some people collect as a hobby, and have done since the year dot.

The NYPD arent much help either once the door opens, but I can only assume that they move the barracade and widen it as to prevent the crowds spilling onto the roads. But if they had a system in place for ticket holders, it would negate the problem somewhat.

I kind of expected a mad rush and scramble for autographs, what I was not prepared for was the disgraceful attitude by the "gentleman" at the stage door.

Fosse makes a good point. When I asked the folks in the box office about it, they said, 'Hey, we just sell the tickets!'

I understand what Fosse is saying and I'm sure I got upset at the wrong person. But you have to understand (and I understand it's just his job and he doesn't care) how rude the security guy was. It's not like he apologized and said that's the way it was, he just glared at us and walked away. I mean, like I said, if this has been happening since the first preview (which I'm sure it has), then people have been complaining eight times a week since then. Don't you think he would say something to ANYONE to get this a little more organized?

And I get the points about the barricades but I paid a LOT of money for my seats for this show. I made sure I bought them the second they went onsale. I rushed out of the theater and THOUGHT I was near the front of the stage door "line." The fans and the thousands of people shelling out a crapload of money to see these shows should get a little more courtesy and should be treated with a little more respect. I mean, it was just ridiculous. If it's such a huge problem then they should just sneak them out another way and avoid the stage door altogether because they know that the fans are going to be there waiting for a signature.

And if the security guy would have made the actors wait two minutes or if he would have reorganized the barricades two minutes later, he could have done it in an orderly and fair fashion that would have also been safe for the actors. He could have at least put up that barricade, asked the people in the back of the line to stay there, and told the people near the front to move up. It still probably would have been hectic but not anywhere near as hectic as last night was.

There's about a thousand ways this could have been avoided. The simplest would be for the security guard to walk down to the end of the line and put a barricade there so that where the sidewalk traffic was would now be where the actors would walk up and down and sign. This is a better solution on many different levels and it took me literally two minutes to think of it after I walked away from the theater sans autographs. I mean, seriously, what genius thought of this system? It's terrible and unfair.

Updated On: 9/25/09 at 01:06 PM

Wow. Seriously? Alright maybe I'll get there at 8:30ish...

I think I'll be fine. I'll just stand where they set up the first set of barricades, closest to the street, before they blocked off the rest of the sidewalk. Right? Thanks, WAT.