Well a couple of things...
First off, I want to apologize if something I wrote was misunderstood. When I said one doesn't love someone as they do, I simply meant as they do, in their way, I wasn't trying to say one does not love someone or that one person loves a person more than another--I just meant as they do, in different ways. People express their love for things differently, and all I was trying to say is a person who thinks it's ridiculous for some fans to do what they do really doesn't understand how or why fans would do this, it's kind of back to point of the suicidal girl...we just don't live in their heads, you know? How you act as a fan has no bearing in my opinion of how big a fan you are, it's just how you choose to express your love. Sorry if that was taken another way.
But...I don't mind giving specifics. B/c so many bway events are benefit performances, also memorabilia that goes to BCEFA...just since September...I have given $745 to different charities. That doesn't include $200 I donated to the Hurricane Katrina fund. Not saying I should be praised or anything, just demonstrating that I mostly indirectly give lots of money to charity in addition to all the shows I see...
Finally...I think there is a lot more to people who view theatre as a "necessity" than just being "spoiled." I had a friend who's brother died 2 years ago, she spent the year attending lots of shows and it helped her to get through the very difficult time, to want to go on living, and get out of depression. I know a friend who had a mental breakdown after going away to college and got through that as well by seeing lots of theatre--now she's back in school doing very well. And there are plenty of people who are clinically depressed or have been dealt very difficult circumstances that they do need something like theatre or sports or a TV show or whatever to get through everyday, to have a reason to get up in the morning. I'm glad they embrace that instead of either committing suicide or lying in bed all day and not going anywhere and essentially not living.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli