Worst stagedoor — Page 3

Regarding Frechie:
Not me but a few people I know went to see rent, and Frenchie snuck out, and so they left her a note and asked the security man to give it to her, and it was kind of short, and they drew a picture, anyway, they left one person left there cell number as a joke, WELL LATER THAT NITE FRECHIE CALLED HIM, AND BECAUSE IT WAS HIS B-DAY SHE SANG HAPPY BIRTHDAY OVER THE PHONE, now tell me that isnt nice.

I never denied her being nice. When I met her at Bryant Park, she was absolutely lovely. When I went to see RENT, she snuck out as quick as possible. The first time I went, she actually snuck out so fast that she walked home, in the freezing dead of January, leaving her very confused driver to show up 10 minutes later, not knowing where she was and, when we told him, getting very confused.

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Updated On: 12/12/05 at 08:53 PM

I haven't had any really bad stagedoor experiences. The worst was Wicked in August, but that wasn't even that bad. When I saw Rent in October, we stayed outside for about an hour, and were about to leave because absolutely NOBODY had come out, but then everybody came out at the exact same time. I figured they had a party or something. The only person that did not come out was Frenchie. They were all great about signing and taking pictures and everything, but I was kind of bummed that Frenchie didnt come out.

Harvey's philosophy is "pictures are for buildings, not people." He doesn't mind having pictures taken while hes signing, though.

Good lord. I love Wicked, but thats just insane..Its like an Nsync concert...

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That's what I've heard, CJR. A friend of mine-who is friendly with a member of the current cast-went to leave a note for said performer, and whomever was working said that they didn't even know who the person was. The performer is a principle, not an ensemble member/understudy, and pretty well-known. On top of that, my friend said they were quite rude.

Updated On: 12/13/05 at 06:42 AM

Mine by far was at the Gershwin January of this year. It was Idina's last week, so of course that was half the reason for the craziness right there. As everyone lined up at the stage door, it started to POUR. Not just rain, but COLD rain. So everyone opened their umbrellas, when there of course wasn't room for it in the first place. The majority of people waiting were high school girls who were loud and planning out how they were going to get their pictures taken with Idina, Jennifer, or Joey, and what pose they were going to go with. Add that with a bunch of mostly overweight mothers in the line, whose ONLY reason for standing in line was to snap the picture for their kids, or surprisingly to push other people which I guess was to make room for your child. I started out against the barcade, but I'm a very skinny guy and after this one mother started telling her daughter how she'd take the picture of her and Idina, she pretty much pushed me out of the way and I found myself behind them as they were against the barcade now. Of course after waiting outside for a half hour the main stars came out. JLT and Joey took the time to sign everyone they could and take a couple pictures if they could with th epeople in the very front. There were ALOT of people obviously, and of course all the people behind me were hitting me in the face with posters and programs because they were so far back, but most of them didn't get autographs as I can remember. Then, Idina finally came out, and of course the whole crowd moved forward which I'm surprised didn't break my ribs from how I was crushed. Idina did not take her time. Even though it was her last week, she was still having the problems with the threats against her, so I think her nerves were still shot at that point. She basically quickly walked thru the line signing quickly as she walked. Even though I was so close to the barcade I had to extend my arm to get my poster to where she could see it to sign quickly. As she came up to us the mother knocked my hand away to take a picture of Idina, which was pointless because she wasn't stopping. Luckily I think Idina noticed my arm being hit, because she took a step back and looked up above her where my poster was at that point and pulled it down and signed it. That was the positive that even with how fast she was walking thru the line, she took a second to walk back for a second to sign my poster after I was pushed around. What was horrible was that I had a tee shirt in my backpack that I quite using to wipe the poster every five seconds to pray that the rain didn't ruin it. Luckily it worked and the poster and autographs suffered no damage, however my best friends program which was in her bag was water ruined. After we left the stage door though we were soaked, sore, mad, but for the most part excited about seeing the show and getting autographs. I guess the funny part is the next day we flew home to Chicago, and a couple days later of course I got pretty sick, lol. Ah well.

I'd say my worst stagedoor experience was when Nathan Lane made fun of me at the Producers. I should have stepped on him. I was talking to Roger Bart and holding my playbill casually in my left hand, and Nathan walked out, grabbed it, and started signing. I was surprised, but I'd seen him before so I wasn't excited about him (I know he can very rude), and because of how taken aback I was, I managed to stutter something like "Oh, you're so cool." He gave me the most condescending look, and with sarcasm dripping from his voice, said "Ohhh. 'So cool.' Well, that's interesting." Asssssss.

And when I was younger and a huge Bebe Neuwirth fan, I would often wait for hours in the cold outside the Shubert for her, only to be told she had left through the front. I did get to meet her a few times and she was very sweet, though I've had a couple of chilly encounters with her as well. I don't really stagedoor anymore, except for Patti, so I haven't had many bad ones lately.

MEF, the door guy at the Ambassador isnt the nicest at all.... at least that hasnt been my experience.

Nothing like the guy at the Shubert, that's for sure!

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For the most part I've had great stage door experiences. In fact, all of my Wicked stage dooring has been positive except for the few times where the young teenaged girls were a little too giggly for my liking. But then again I don't get mad when the actors don't come out, because I can always go back. But I'm lucky. The only "bad" experiences I've had have been at Hairspray...almost everytime I'm there, there's a least one woman (and I mean woman, not girl) who is chanting "Penny! Penny!" before Tracy Miller comes out. It's bad enough that they are chanting, but even worse that they insist on calling the actors by their character's name. That really bugs me for some reason. The most obnoxious was when Michelle Kittrell was on as Amber, and she came out the stage door and no one recognized her and she was meeting someone for dinner (it was after the matinee) so she walked through the line without signing...that is until some obnoxious woman recognized her and started screaming at the top of her lungs "Amber! Amber! Come sign!" I wanted to kill this woman, and by the look on Michelle's face, so did she. All my experiences with actors, though, have been pretty positive, with the exception of actors being in a rush or not being very nice, but not really being rude either, just cordial. But everyone has bad days so I never hold it against them.

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Yikes to say the least on that one, OS. At least she had them sign. I've seen people who brazenly take back their autograph books or whatever they bring when they hear the person wasn't a principle in the show. Rude as can be. I really haven't had a bad stage door because I am of the philosophy if the actors don't come out, they dont come out. They are human and tired. Its nothing personal to me or other fans. Though of course, some take it like its an insult to their very being....

the cecurity guy at the Imerpial was really bitter, I went there last week and he was just rude but the actors were nice.

When I went to Lestat it was bad because it was raining and I had to leave because the train was going to shut down but I have never had problems with actors they have all been really nice.