stage door stories

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:16pm

just joined the board this week, and this is the first thread i've started, so hello to all!

in response to the stage door thread from a few days ago, i thought this would be an interesting one. I absolutely love going to stage doors. It's such a huge rush to be able to meet people that I admire and respect so much, and tell them how amazing they are.

So... what's everyone's favorite stage door story? who you met... something funny that happpened, whatever!

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:20pm

I was at the last performance of Little Me, starring Martin Short. Dan Aykroyd was in the audience- I asked him for an autograph and he was very sweet. Later, we were told Martin Short wouldn't be coming out for awhile because he had guests. My dad spotted Dan Aykroyd going backstage and asked him if he'd take me with him, and much to our surprise, he did. He was very sweet, chatting with me and asking me questions, and he introduced me to Martin Short as his "friend." I died. :)

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:30pm

Waited for Chita Rivera after 9 to get her to sign my "Bajour" program

Her eyes lit up & she said something the the effect it was & old & weathered as she was. She was very nice about it though. My niece happens to live in the same building as her on W 43 rd St I believe

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:36pm

when i saw tmm i was with my mom and dad. so i wanted to wait by the stage door but then i relized i didnt have a pen to have them sign with. so when Harriet Harris came out my mom ran like a mad woman to get a pen from a security guard and in the mean time me and my dad had a conversation with Mrs. Harris! it was a great night =D. and in the end i did get my program signed. l8r

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:47pm

After Nine, Antonio came out, but was on the other side of the barricade, so I yelled "Donde esta Antonio Banderas?" and then cam over. It was pretty cool. Besides that, I get really nervous around celebrities. Updated On: 12/12/03 at 09:47 PM

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:51pm

I met Jackie Hoffman on the street outside the Neil Simon and asked her for a picture. She was very funny and said, "Oh God! I don't even have makeup on!"

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:57pm

forgot mine...

when Adam Pascal was doing AIDA, my friend met him, but I couldn't be there, so she called me and asked him if he would talk to me on the phone. He did, and he was SO sweet. It was amazing. I finally met him a few weeks ago, and it was great to be able to tell him how happy it made me that he did that for me.

[StageDoor]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 9:58pm

After seeing LOST IN YONKERS with a few of my high school theatre students, we decided to wait at the stage door. Most of the cast came out in relatively short order and politely signed autographs for the croud. By the time Kevin Spacey (pre Usual Suspects) made his way out the stage door, everyone but my students had left. Seeing that they were adoring teenagers and aspiring actors, he stood and chatted with them about the importance of college and so forth for about 10 minutes and then rode away on a bicycle.

[Hello Gorgeous]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:02pm

I got to walk out of a stage door actually. I went to see WICKED with my sister's school, and we got to have a backstage door. And the door they led us out to was the stage door. When we opened the door, it was so funny. Everyone got ready with their pens and everything.

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:04pm

Walking out of the stage door with Sutton Foster was pretty cool (the story is waaaaaaaaaaaay too long for me to tell, but lets just say Sutton gave my friend and me a backstage tour- and waved to us during curtain call)

[Hello Gorgeous]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:05pm

WOW THAT'S COOL!!!!!

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:23pm

come on little dancer share the story! haha sounds interesting =D! but that sounds soo cool wut sutton did =D

[robyn525600]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:30pm

I have always had great experiences but the one that sticks out the most is when I had a photo taken with Raul Esparza at his final performance of ttB and it came out so well I had it blown up to an 8 x 10. Well, when he was in CABARET, I brought it to the stage door for him to sign. He was touched that I blew it up and he commented on how nice it came out. But the best part is he signed it "With Much Love - Raul E. Esparza". *sigh* He is such a nice guy.

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 10:35pm

I really can't share the whole story. But Sutton is the nicest person I have ever met. She just really cares about her fans.

Another cool experience was when I was doing a paper for school. We got to make up our tpoics and my topic was "Why there will always be live theatre." I just happened to be visiting NYC right after we got the assignment, and I decided to interview a couple people. Everyone I asked was really nice about it and gave me some great responses.

[corfriends]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 11:09pm

I have several stage door stories...

after Nine, I met Antonio, Chita, Jane, and Mary
after Man of La Mancha I met Brian, Marin and Ernie
after Gypsy, I met Bernadette, John and Tammy
after Urinetown, I met tom cavanaugh
afte Millie, I met Harriet, Leslie, and Sutton
after Into the Woods, I met Christopher Sieber
after The Producers, I met Mathew
before Wicked, I met Joel (saw Kristin but did not say anything)

I met all of these ppl just by waiting outside the stage door. Hopefully, this christmas I'll be able to meet Idina and Kristin, that's my goal.

Actually, I have a kind of interesting stage door story. During intermission of Nine a lot of ppl were going outside of the theater to stretch their legs, so I did too. I waited by the stage door, not particularly on purpose, just leaning against the wall, when a man peeks out and asks me if I was seeing the show. I replied yes and he asked me if I wanted to draw a July 4th raffle for him. He took me backstage and introduced me over the intercom as I drew the winner. Pretty lucky! Also, on the way back into the theater, who was right behind me but Harvey Feirnstien! I knew I had to say something to him, so I congratulated him on his Tony Award, and he replied in his very Harvey voice, "Oh Thank you." See, it pays to wait by the stage door! lol

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 12/12/03 at 11:26pm

Lol, after Little Shop of Horrors, there was this obnoxious man who kept telling EVERYONE in the cast that they should be in The Producers. It was so strange and out of place.

He'd say: "Have you seen The Producers? You should be in it!"

Very strange. I wanted to tell him to go away. I'm sure Kerry Butler, Hunter Foster, and the rest of the cast did too, lol.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 12:09am

Well, I have a nice Brian Stokes Mitchell story. I was in New York on May 10th of this year, my birthday. Some friends had taken me out to dinner and to see Enchanged April and they had also given me a birthday card featuring a picture of the Don Quixote bear from the Broadway Bears collection. Walking back to our hotel, we passed the Martin Beck (now the Al Hirschfeld) just as Stokes came out. There were just a few people around, so I said hi to Mr. Stokes and showed him the card. He exclaimed, "How cute," and asked where I got it, and I mentioned it was a birthday card. "It your birthday? Today?" he asked. "Well Happy Birthday!" He signed the card with my name and a birthday wish. I was thrilled!

Two nights later I actually attended Man Of La Mancha and spoke to him again after the show. And then, that Saturday, I ran into him AGAIN at a street fair on 9th Avenue!

So it was my trip of meeting Brian Stokes Mitchell three times. He was sweet and gracious each time. What a guy!

[mebice]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 1:00am

Iluvemcee...i think i have seen you on another board. Do you belong to the Sh-k- message board?

[bob8rich]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 3:51am

I am not someone who frequently visits stage doors but there have been three occasions when I have done so. I met John Barrowman by accident BEFORE the performance of THE FIX at the Donmar in London when he was on the way in. He stopped and chatted and signed my program. He is an extremely nice guy as well as being one of the most talented - and possibly under-rated - actor/singer/dancers in the theater.

During the Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theater last year I met most of the stars of the Cy Coleman concert, including Julia Mackenzie, Bonnie Langford, Pamela Isaacs (what a lovely lady!) and Cy Coleman himself. Meeting a Broadway Legend face to face was an incredible experience.

More recently I waited at the stage door after GYPSY and saw John Dossett (another really nice guy) and the Divine Miss Peters - which is immortalised as my new icon.

Updated On: 12/13/03 at 03:51 AM

[Bonnie]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 5:01am

For an Aussie visiting Broadway for the first time this was really something back in 1999. After seeing Phantom I went to the stage door hoping to get the autograph of Hugh Panaro in his first run in the show on my poster. Missed him as I didn't know what he looked like in the flesh! but a crew member stopped and on hearing my Aussie accent said I was welcome to drop my poster off at the stage door the next night before the show and she would get the whole cast to sign it......I leapt at this chance:) Next night dropped the poster off and was told to come back after 10.30pm to pick it up. Did so, and before I knew exactly how it happened I was invited through the door and was back stage visiting the wig room, seeing the large cast photos on the wall, looking at racks of costumes, seeing the boat and standing out on centre stage looking up at the chandelier and saying Hi to various cast members (who I had no idea who they were)sprawled out on stage signing posters for charity stuff. But it wasn't finished yet...was taken upstairs to the Phantom's dressing room, met Hugh dressed in much less then a tux (i won't say more!) for a quick chat, admired the cloak and boots in the room before being showm the latex makeup pieces that had been prepared for the next performance as Hugh was singing in the shower nearby. To me this all was amazing and the only reason it happened was because I have an Aussie accent which to my ears is not even obvious! Certainly that is a night I'll never forget.

Bonnie in Oz

[BwayLover]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 5:12am

My best stage door experience was when I saw "Mamma Mia!" and I got to go backstage and sit and chat with Louise Pitre in her dressing room. So it's more backstage then stage door, I guess... But I did come out of the stage door with her afterwords, so it counts, right? :) It was one of the most memorable nights of my life- Louise was so incredibley nice and she asked all sorts of questions about me and my life, and of course answered the questions I had. I also got to walk around backstage a little bit, which was extremely exciting.

Updated On: 12/13/03 at 05:12 AM

[CaTheatreGirl]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 11:12am

I met Brad Oscar at the first show after 9/11. Since then our paths have crossed a number of times. He's taken me on a backstage tour. When he played Max in The Producers, he had a very roomy dressing room. At his last performance in the show, I told him before the show that I'd wait outside as he'd probably have close friends and family visiting him backstage. To my surprise, he popped his head out looking for me. Brad is one super nice guy.

Denis O'Hare is another nice person. I've gotten to know him during his time with Take Me Out. My first experience was missing one cast member's signature on my poster. He took it from me and said he'd get it signed. The next day he had it for me with that signature. We once took a picture together on my digital camera and when I looked at it and commented that I liked the photo, he eagerly asked to see it and exclaimed that he wanted a copy of the photo and whipped out his business card with address and e-mail address. When I saw him at a restaurant a few months ago, he said, "I have our photo on my dressing room mirror!" Nice guy #2!!

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 3:46pm

I was at the stage door of Gypsy one night (talking to a friend who works with the show). John Dossett was not far from where I was standing/talking, and all of a sudden I saw Donna Murphy walk out (I hadn't seen her walk in). I screamed out, "Oh my God! It's Donna Murphy!" lol and John Dosset looked at me with a huge smile and screamed out, "Yeah! It is." lol She had been there to see him...apparently they're friends. I didn't mean to say it that loud, but I don't care. I was the only person there who even recognized her. Everyone else was like, "Who?" John got a laugh out of it anyway, and so did my friends and I.

[say what?]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 4:11pm

Went to visit a pal at The Music Man, and we left via the stage door. A school group was outside waiting for autographs still and yeah, I signed a kids shoe.

Good fun.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/13/03 at 4:43pm

mebice, yeah... i post there on occasion. either my friend or I has probably put it on the sh-k-boom board. it'll randomly come up and people will want to know the whole story. like a lot of times, people will say he isn't nice to his fans, and i'll say something about it sort of in his defense, because he asked people who wanted autographs and pictures and whatnot to wait so he could talk to me. he didn't have to do that. if he wasn't nice, he wouldn't have. i'm so obsessed with it, because it's kind of uncommon... and because it was adam.


to everyone else.. great stories, especially the one about sutton! unfortunately i haven't met her yet, and probably won't get to before she leave Millie.