What was your best/worst stagedoor encounter

I agree with Spring Awakening. (The tour cast is just as sweet!) Also, Stephanie J. Block is extremely nice as well!

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I can't say I have a "favorite" encouter - though meeting John Schnieder after a performance of Chicago was a highlight last year. Every performer I've met at the stage door as been quite friendly. No unfortunate moments there. Usually it's the behavior of other "fans" that turn it into a negative encounter.

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I find that it is the people around me rather then the actors that make it a bad a bad time or not.

I have told the tail before of my time at the stage door at The Little Mermaid. It wasn't any of the actors or the fans that made it a bad time at the stage door. Rather the rent a cop who was guarding it made it a bad time.

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After a Saturday matinee of James Joyce's The Dead my friend and I were waiting to Emily and Alice (we really didn't care about Christopher Walken). Emily came out and was an absolute delight. She also told us, without our asking, that Christopher Walken would not be coming out, and we replied that we didn't care since she and Alice were the ones we were waiting for. We got a couple more pictures in and then she went back inside for a moment before leaving to get her dinner. Then moments later Alice Ripley emerged. She told us that she hadn't been planning on coming out, but Emily had had the doorman call up to her dressing room to let her know that she had some fans waiting, so she threw on her coat and scarf and came down. We of course felt really special, since she had admitted that she had come down just for us, and since Emily had taken that extra moment to get the message to her, and without us asking her to do it!

All of my stage door experiences have been wonderful thankfully. One of my favorite memories is meeting David Burnham after Wicked one night. I was with my mom and sister, and it was both their first times seeing the show. He could really tell how much we enjoyed it. We complimented him on his performance and his CD. He was really appreciative and kept thanking us. He even shook each of our hands and asked us our names and introduced himself (although we obviously already knew who he was, lol). As he was walking to sign for the next people he turned around and thanked us again for buying his CD. Such a sweet guy!

Another one of my favorite stage door moments was after a Saturday matinee at Gypsy. We knew that Patti, Boyd and Laura weren’t coming out (and the stage door man told everyone that), but my sister and I wanted to stick around and see if Leigh Ann Larkin would come out. Most people left when they heard Patti wasn’t coming and the stage door man was even starting to put the barricades away, but we and a few other people were still waiting. I was talking on the phone to someone because we were meeting a couple people for dinner after so while I was busy with that, my sister went up to the stage door man and asked if Leigh Ann was coming out. He said she had left already but he really didn’t know who she was, so my sister was trying to explain that she played Dainty June, lol. Then the guy turns to a girl walking out the door, “Do you know if Leigh Ann is coming out?” And the girl replied, “I’m Leigh Ann.” It was the cutest thing. She was out chatting with everyone for awhile. She first talked to a group of young girls who were a dance team or something. She was asking them where they were from and about their competitions and stuff. Then she came to us. I had her sign my program and I told her “great job” and that Gypsy was our favorite show. And she was like, “Aww, really!?” And after I took a picture of her and my sister, she made sure the picture came out okay. We had to go so we said our goodbyes and she thanked us again.

David Burnham and Leigh Ann Larkin, definitely two of the sweetest people ever.


The worst experience I've had was mostly due to the fans, not the actors. I’ll get into that another time. This was long enough, haha.

I must say that I have never had a bad stage door experience, I guess as long as you are respectful to the performer(s) you are there to see, and don't act all "crazed fan"-esque, you will have a fine experience. I also have done more stage-dooring in Boston, where the practice hasn't exactly caught on as it has in NYC (that being said, it is getting more popular).

Ones that stick out would be the touring companies of Wicked and Little Shop, who took the time to talk to you and interact, and sign.

If I had to choose a mediocre stage door experience, Legally Blonde on tour wasn't so great - everyone was nice and all, but I think it was because it was so crowded, and there was no real control, so everyone was crowing around all the actors, making it nearly impossible to move... not the fault of the actors but the door crew.

Every stagedoor experience I've had to date has been s positive, except ONE (well, one moment, anyway). SPEED-the-PLOW. Jeremy Piven's ego, women foaming at the mouth to meet/snap a picture/chat it up/ask for his number/etc. Ridiculous. Totally ruined my night and my chance at a photo-op. I approached him kindly, and AS I'M TALKING, he retrieves his cell and starts taking down some someone's number... Two seconds later, I'm extending my Sharpie, and he's slamming his car door in my face. Therafter, I dropped a BUNCH of F-bombs. What made up for that 110% was meeting Ms. Moss and the super-incredible, RAUL! Pictures, autographs, splendid conversation. The works! I wholeheartedly thank the two of them for giving me the time of day, and shining that light on a cold November evening.

Updated On: 3/17/09 at 10:27 PM

My best stagedoor experience was at Shrek in January.
I was supposed to be meeting a friend for dinner after the show, so I went to the stagedoor to wait for her, and a man with a notepad in his hand started asking for "Chrissy"...which is me. I told him who I was, and he opened the door and told me to tell the doorman who I was. I did, and she told us to go behind this black curtain covering the doorway to what I thought was a backstage area. Well, it was the actual stage! So we stood there for about 10 minutes, just staring out into the empty house, when my friend comes down from her dressing room, ready to go out with us, when she offered us a tour. We took a short tour due to her having to be back from dinner for her next call time, and we saw a lot of cool things, like Fiona's tower, Fiona's books, the Gingy puppets, the rat tapshoes from 'Morning Person', and we also saw the Farquaad understudy trying on his brace so he could practice walking on his knees. We met a couple of the stars on the stage too, like Chris Seiber, Noah Rivera, and Jen Cody. That was the best stagedoor experience I've ever had.

I've stage-doored twice so far and both haven't been worst luckily.

My first one was at WICKED in London. I saw the show a few days after it opened a few years back and was completely blown by it.
I got to the stage door after the show and managed to meet Idina Menzel, Helen Dallimore and Martin Ball - they were all very nice. I missed James Gillan as he left when I got there, I nearly had Katie Rowley Jones but a fat person pushed right in front of me. I also nearly had Adam Garcia but he got stampeded by a huge gang of screaming girls. Nigel Planer didn't come out and Miriam Margoyles was tired (I was at the end of the line by her cab and she said she was tired) so I let her go.

My favourite so far has to be the Final Performance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang UK Tour at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, UK. I met a lot of the cast members and they were completely nice. I met Kim Ismay, Nigel Garton, Aled Jones and Rachel Stanley. I knew Rachel as I speak to her on Facebook so we had a good chat. The only ones I did miss however were Edward Peel and Tony Adams as they were sharing a cab and I also missed 'H' from Steps (he was the child catcher) as he didn't come out at all.

Spring Awakening definitely ranks high on the positives...all these talented kids getting their frist flush of success and acclaim and just learning how to deal with it. All very gracious and a little overwhelmed.

Worst happened way back in the early 80's and I can't even remember what show it was. A bunch of us were waiting for someone and I guess a grew a set and opened the stage door to find Catherine Hicks (post-Marilyn, pre-Seventh Heaven) behind it. We scared the crap out of each other and I kind got the look of death from her.

"Best - a tie Mary Martin at tryout of Peter Pan in San Francisco and Angela Lansbury at the original Mame

Worst - Yul Brynner twice - Home Sweet Homer and King ans I"

Do tell us about meeting Mary, Angela and Yul! :)

The bus and truck company of GEORGE M! came through the Seattle area years ago. Everybody autographed my program and were far from being aloof or impolite. It made an indelible mark on my psyche. There's no people like show people.