leaving items at the stage door (or "i just want my freakin' baseball cap back"

A couple months ago, I saw a matinee of "The Boy from Oz" and, knowing I was seeing another show that night which would end later, I asked the man at the stage door if I could leave something there for Hugh Jackman to sign and he said yes. So, I took a minute to write a short note to Mr. Jackman, asking him if he wouldn't mind signing my baseball cap from the Tony Awards and offering to make a donation in his name to a charity of his choice if he didn't mind doing so but I understood if he couldn't but, if so, could he please at least leave my cap at the door so I could at least get it back. I took the note and put it in an envelope with my baseball cap and a Sharpie and left it at the stage door.
A couple days go by and I stop back at the door on my way to work (like 6pm) and I knock on the door where another an answers and says that he didn't have anything but to check back next week. So a week or so goes by and I do the same thing and nothing. This goes on and on until last week when the person (someone different almost every time) that answered the door said that he doesn't know why anyone would have taken the envelope because they "have no way" to get it to Mr. Jackman but he would check with his dresser anyway. I haven't gone back yet but I was just wondering...

Is leaving something at the door really that out of the ordinary? I've done it a couple times....I left my Playbill and a note for Christine Ebersole after 42nd Street and went back a few days later and she had not only signed it, but personalized and wrote a short note it as well. I've also done similar things with other people (sometimes asking for something signed but mostly dropping something off someone is exepecting) and it's never been a problem at all.

I'll probably stop by the door again sometime this week but I guess I just wanted to get some opinions on this...was I totally wrong to ask/expect to leave something with the hope of getting it back?

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Definitely seems like a very simple request for the actor. I've worked for actors on Broadway and this to me seems about the easiest of all requests to fulfill. Sign something left at the stage door and leave it back down there? What could be easier? I don't understand the stage doorperson telling you they have no way of getting it to the actor. They're bs'ing you because maybe it got lost and they don't want to take responsibility for tracking it down.

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Thinking about it more....I've actually done this a couple different times:

1. Sutton Foster (at the Marquis door) - I left her a note and a picture that she had admired. I didn't ask for anything back but she told me a later that she did get it.

2. Stephanie D'Abruzzo (at the Golden) - was about to leave a note at the stage door. Just left her just a note which I know she received because the next time I saw her she told me I forgot to put a return address. Actually it was left with Jennifer Barnhart (I had met her and Stephanie a couple days earlier) and she offered to get it to her the next day.

3. Susan Stroman (Lincoln Center) - just left a letter, which she had told me, personally, to leave at the stage door because it's the best way to get anything to her.

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I've only left something at the door once and that was for Euan Morton and he was awesome about it, and I had it back by the next day, so maybe it's just because it's Hugh. I don't know.

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"Before I left something for Mr. Jackman, I left a letter for Ms. Keating as well but never heard anything back."

i'm not real sure but i think she might have put her address on the envelope or attached to the note just in case dumb luck she'd mail her something.

and loser. hello i get broadway actor's autographs all the time. i meet them at the stage door and write to them. i know damn well that isabel keating's autograph that i have on both my BFO cd and the autographed picture that i got when i wrote her are the same thing.

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Well you can have a conversation and get someone to sign something too. Sometimes people get it just as a reminder that they met the person.

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The way I look at autographs is that in asking them for an autograph, that is my way of telling them "hey, I like what you do and I respect your work." I mean, I don't want every celebrity's autograph. If I saw Corey Feldman on the street, I wouldn't ask for his autograph, but Hugh Jackman? Definitely.

I'd ask Corey Feldman just so I could ask him to say "The Pizza dude's coming!" like in The 'Burbs. ha.

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"What color is the sky in your world?"

What color is the sky in YOUR world? She's not whining. (happy?)

And if other people were able to get stuff signed by leaving it at stage door, then what was wrong with trying?

Please tell me you don't live in NY cuz honey, ain't no one in this town that lame! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!

Just my two cents.

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Updated On: 8/3/04 at 12:40 AM

edited.

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Updated On: 8/3/04 at 01:24 AM

I just laugh when people buy a poster on ebay that's "signed by the entire cast." Which cast? Who's scribble is where? Could the house manager have a scribble on there too? Who's missing? It looks like the nice show logo covered with scribbles of people who's names we don't even know or care about!!! John Smith, swing #4, is that your signature in the corner there?

BroadwayCares auctions are the only I think someone should buy autographed **** if they're serious. They are for real and it's for a good cause.

It rarely happens but it has. There's a lot of scamming on ebay.