One of the problems actors today face re social media, at least in film and TV, is that up-and-comers and pretty much everyone save for stars is told they have a better chance being cast if they have a huge social media presence - THAT is a real problem.
But I'm with those who think what goes on today is heinous. The first time I became aware of it was Beauty and the Beast when I had to go backstage to meet friends in the company. I couldn't believe it, really. Someone mentioned Peter Pan - I saw it and went back to see two friends and there were maybe three or four people waiting at the stage door, all parents with little kids, because at that time theatergoing wasn't for little kids or even young teens, not like today. Peter Pan was probably the only show on Broadway at that time that would have appealed to kids so it's more understandable that it might have happened with that show, but I can assure you that this thing called stage dooring is the product of the last twenty years or so, in terms of the way it's been building to what it is today and what it is today is grotesque, keeping actors for twenty or thirty minutes after they've just given a performance. Walk a mile in those shoes someday.
When I began going to the theater in Los Angeles I was probably fourteen. When I saw an incredible performance I went to the stage door and asked if I could meet whoever gave it. And I am here to tell you that on those occasions there was not one other person there, I was always taken to the performer's dressing room, where they were gracious and kind and encouraging to this wannabe kid who wanted to be an actor. I didn't do it much, however, and it was always very brief. And when less than a decade later I did a play at the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center in LA, I was always tickled when someone would come back asking to meet me or be waiting by the stage door. Bud Cort was also in the show and Harold and Maude had rabid, crazy fans, but they never came to the stage door after, ever, not once.
But that was then and now is now and I honestly don't know how performers deal with this today. I no longer go back to see friends after shows - we meet at whatever restaurant we decide on. The entitlement on view is sickening and when it turns ugly, as with Ms. Benanti recently, it goes beyond sickening.
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