re: The Good/The Bad...Worst stagedoor experiences — Page 5

I stage door a lot and I hardly, if ever, have bad experiences with the actors themselves. I've never had to deal with a rude performer. Some of the best casts I've encountered were The Wedding Singer, Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q, and The Pillowman.

My bad experiences come courtesy of the fans waiting with me. When I saw "Faith Healer" over the summer, I had to content with middle-aged women pushing me out of the way so Ralph Fiennes could sign the DVD of every movie he's ever been it. It was irritating, especially considering one woman decided to use me as an arm rest. I ended up missing Mr. Fiennes but I did get to speak to Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid and they were both amazing.

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I met Amy Spanger twice after TWS and both times she was a doll. I suppose it just depends on the night you encounter her. It's probably that way when it comes to most performers. I know I have days when I don't want to deal with people, let alone talk to them.

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When I saw Eden in wicked in San Fransisco she was so nice, and was very gracious.

I haven't had a whole lot of stagedoor experience, but it was decidedly mixed.

I saw Wicked when Sho and JLT were still in it, and we waited, and JLT comes out, and is as nice as can be, and Robb Sapp comes out who was an absolutely amazing guy, and we were ready to go. (We both did not like Sho at all) So, we walk around the other side of the Gershwin to get back to the subway, and we see Sho coming out of a door, she sees us, glares and walks quickly the other direction. I was really shocked, it was sleety and gross and I had been one of 10 people waiting, for her to behave like that was really unacceptable.

But, I do have a Buckley story:
Now, I love her, I actually grew up with her around (Mom was her Dad's secretary once upon a time), and a few years back she was teaching at UTA, and my senior theatre class sat in on one of her classes. She hadn't started yet, and one of the girls in my class asks who she is (Mistake number 1), to which our director replied, "Original cast of Cats, got the Tony there, Original 1776, best Norma Desmon in Sunset, and was in Carrie" And Buckley went nuts, and called my friend a little (ahem) and ranted and raved and cancelled the class.
That's a rare instance though...she's always been nice to her fans from what I've seen, just that one instance.

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Not necessarily stage door experiences, but I pretty much bumped into Idina in Bryant Park one day and Susan Egan in Theater Circle on a different occasion. Both were as nice as can be, once I realized who they were. Sometime during the run of Lennon, Julia Murney walked off with my keys (I had a mini-sharpie on them that she used to sign autographs.) Her response? "Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't think you want me going home with you."

Every time I've met a performer (granted it's only been two times), they were both very gracious. When I met Anthony he was nice enough to take two pictures with me and he singed my DVD insert of RENT as well as my copy of Without You. When I met Susan Egan she signed my CD insert of Winter Tracks and Here... While she was signing my CDs my mom asked if she would take a picture with me. She said sure and she thought it was great that I wanted one (something along those lines).

I have a Betty story but it does not involve a stagedoor.

I saw Jersey Boys.
JLY was bombarded by fans, but was very gracious and kind.
I met understudy Matthew Scott. He was alone, so I asked him for an autograph and he was so sweet!
Daniel Reichard...CUTE!!! He was so cute. He acted all modest. It was adorable!
Bobby Spencer-Great! He was polite and asked me some questions too!

Wicked-
David Garrison was too cool. He was very nice!

Spamalot-
Christian Borle was great!
I had a picture of him in the ebay commercial and he signed it!!

Sweeney Todd-
Patti tottally ignored me! I said "Hello. May you sign my playbill" and she just looked me in the eye and walked away. But its ok because I still love her! She is a great talent.
Benjamin Magnuson was really nice! He posed for pictures and signed my stuff.

Those are my stories.
Sort of lame but true.

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My friend and I were hanging out on 49th street one day before a Wed. matinee. We were hoping to say hello to Patti LuPone on her way into the theatre. It was noon. She comes up, I see her and say, "Hi, Patti!" She gives us this horrible glare like we're about to kill her, rushes into the door saying, "sorry, I'm late." It was noon. And sorry for what? I only wanted to say hi.

"John Lloyd Young is always the nicest person at the stage door. As is Barrett Foa."

Oh my gosh. Barrett Foa? Whatever! I wanted him to sign a Spelling Bee playbill for a friend at home and he was so rude!

No really, he was a total sweetheart, but he said *oh no, you're gonna post that I am the worst person ever now on the BWW forums.* So I had to post something. Oh, and Deborah S. Craig was too cute and was SUPER nice and told me to get a scarf because it was cold, and Sarah Saltzburg was amazing as well!

I saw 5 shows last week, and stagedoored all of them but one (A Chorus Line, I really wanted to meet Alisan Porter and Natalie Cortez but it started pouring and I had no cash for a cab back to my hotel so I just booked it.

But yeah, Mary Poppins: Ashley Brown, Rebecca Luker, Gavin Lee, Tyler Maynard - ALL FABULOUS. Wedding Singer: Stephen Lynch, Amy Spanger, Nicolette Hart, Laura Benanti, Kevin Cahoon, Constantine even - super nice! Altar Boyz were all absolutely awesome. And Wicked: Jenna Leigh Green, Kate Reinders, Ana Gastayer (despite being super sick even!), and David Garrison were all really sweet.

No problems stagedooring here! (My first Altar Boyz ever was a 'meet the boyz/cd signing' thing so they were all there with smiles on. It was the '3rd'ish cast...)

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I had a funny, somewhat embarassing experience the first time I saw Phantom with Howard McGillin. I had heard some of his stuff before, but wasn't a huge fan and had never seen a decent picture of him. I decided to head around to the alley behind the Majestic and get him to sign my playbill. I was waiting just inside the door, and as people kept coming out they kept asking "are you waiting for someone in particular?" and I kept saying "yes, I'm waiting for Mr. McGillin," and they'd say "Oh, ok. He's usually the last one; he'll be out in a few minutes." Well, I was trying to recognize Howard by his tiny one-inch square picture in my Playbill. When he came out, he had glasses on and shorter hair than in the picture, and I didn't recognize him. He made eye contact as he walked by me, and noticed that I was still focused on the door.

"Um.. are you waiting for somebody?'
"Yes, I'm waiting for Mr. McGillin."
"Oh. Um... that'd be me."

I was pretty embarrassed that I didn't recognize him when he came out, but he was really nice about it - signed, posed for a picture, talked for a few minutes.

A few of you have said your "bad" experiences are when actord don't come out the stage door.

There's no rule that says they have to... and in fact, they're probably doing that because he/she has to go somewhere and would rather not run through a crowd of people and piss them off.