Sticking Foot in Mouth When Meeting Performers

[GatorNY]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 1:53pm

Has anyone else ever really made a fool of themselves when meeting a performer? You know...like saying somthing that came out wrong? My worst was when I was living in DC and had just seen the touring company of "Chicago" at the National Theater. There were some wonderfully talented dancers in the chorus, and several of the guys were working out at my gym on Monday morning. I can't even remember what I said...just walking away thinking "I'm sure they think I am a crazy stalker". Now, I know that no matter how much I loved someone's performance, it's probably best just to say something like..."I saw your show on Saturday. You were wonderful. Thank you for your performance".

[nealb1]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 2:40pm

Sounds like the perfect thing to say. Performers will know that you're a stalker when you've asked for their autograph and had your picture taken with them 50 times like some people on this board. Those dudes, are clearly whack jobs!

[morosco]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 2:51pm

I was introduced to Gerald Schoenfeld once and I said, "Oh. You're the head cheese of Broadway!"

(My mind was thinking "head honcho" and "big cheese" and my mouth accidentally combined the two.)

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 2:58pm

When stage dooring Boy from Oz all I could do was hand Hugh Jackman my playbill, I was completely speechless I didn't know what to say!
not so bad as saying something ridiculous, but still a tad embarassing, lol!

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:11pm

The one time I saw Wicked, I was staging dooring. This way during the time where Sebastin Areculus (I know I just killed his last name) was Fiyero. So he was going down the line and signing autographs and this girl in attempt to make small talk goes "Sebastin when is the wedding with Stephen?!" and looks at her and goes "Stephen? Idk a stephen. I'm getting married to a girl name Stephanie though"

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:28pm

I can't remember specific incidents, but I've pretty much reduced my interaction to "Would you mind," presenting the Playbill and saying "Thank you" when they hand it back. If they initiate something, I try to be careful because something stupid inevitiably comes out.

[feline0favenueQ]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:37pm

Remember- a closed mouth gathers no foot.

I saw Marcus Paul James walking down the street the other day- and I said: Oh my god, you're Marcus Paul James!! I loved your performance as Angel (awkward silence) OH! I mean Collins!

I felt like such a retard.....

[Eponine3]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:44pm

I completely agree that sometimes the less said the better. Often they are just going down the line signing playbills and want to be on their way home and don't really have the time for a full conversation. One thing I do believe in saying though is please and and thank you! I can not stand it when someone just shoves their playbill in an actors face or when they just start snapping pictures of a performer. I have always asked and gotten the performers ok before I took a single picture of them. That just seems to be the polite thing to do.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:44pm

When I met Julie Reiber on Sept 14 at SD all I could say was "OMG WOW". Nothing else would come out. Now I have met her before but I was so tongue-tied for some reason that day it was ridiculous. She laughed at me...LOL. At least I didn't say anything totally stupid like I usually do to her.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:55pm

two come to mind... the first was when someone told me they knew a cast member from a touring show... i didn't believe him and he told me that this cast member's sister was getting married (or something like that)... well at the stage door i saw this actor come out and i asked him if his sister was getting married and he looked at me like "who the f*ck are you" with a look of being creeped out... i fet like such a stalker! haha

second... my friend is in love with Joey McIntyre... so when he was in Happy Days up in LA both of us went to see it... now i could care less about Joey (don't hate the guy... he is what he is.. nothing more nothing less) and i was there just to see the show... afterwards she wanted to meet him badly... she met him and took a picture with him... then she asked me in front of Joey.. do you want a picture with him... and very blase i just say, "yeah sure whatever"... and Joey looked at me like... OK you jerk... and my friend told me that was the rudest thing i'd ever done... and i swear i didn't mean to be rude or mean.. i was just indifferent about meeting him... but i will say this... Joey McIntyre is a VERY nice guy...

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 4:02pm

The worst time for me wasn't theatre, but opera-related. During the '70s, Maria Jeritza, a famous diva of the 1920s, was in the audience. I was totally speechless in her presence -- in fact, she asked me "Do you vant my signature on something?" While she was signing my program, I started gushing about how sorry I was that I'd never seen her on stage, etc., etc., to which she replied each time, "You are too young." After she's signed, it was clear that it was time for me to go, but she proferred her hand as a thank-you goodbye. Forgetting I had my pen in my hand, I grabbed her hand, which was in white gloves. I hadn't put the cap on the pen (it was a magic marker sort of thing) and the next thing I knew, I'd messed up her gloves. I think I died on the spot.

[sparkleplenty]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 4:23pm

OK This is not a Broadway incident, but I met Ann Blyth once and not knowing she was a major Joan Crawford friend/supporter, I said, in a conversation with several others there about "Mildred Pierce" - "Wasn't that ironice casting in M.P.? - ( meaning - Blyth sweet in real life played nasty, and of course the opposite true of Crawford - playing devoted mother, but really Mommie Dearest) She got very frosty, very fast and said, "What do you mean by that?" I got it instantly and mumbled a backtrack fast...but the damage was done and she ended the conversation quickly after.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 4:48pm

When I met Hugh Panaro (yesterday), I made a joking comment about the 'toilet brush' sideburns he wore in Sweeney Todd, thinking they were something the director made him wear.

Turns out they were his idea, that he had some kind of historical reasoning for them (basically that Anthony is a sailor and he shouldn't be too squeaky-clean and pretty-boy against the scuzzy backdrop of Sweeney Todd), and he gave a long explanation... also, they were real.

So I basically dissed one of his acting choices AND his appearance. Nice, Schmerg. Nice.

[winston89]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 4:49pm

I am never one that gets too scared to talk when meeting a performer. Instead I just ask them very nicely if they would sign and that is it and then say thank you. There have been a couple of times where there were actors who would joke with me about how I was so quite etc.

[jarretSF]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 5:44pm

When I was in high school we took a theatre group trip to Broadway. Stage doored How to Succeed w/ Matthew Broderick. While signing, I felt the need to tell him several of us from my group had just watched Ferris Bueller a few days earlier. He just looked at me with the oddest look on his face. Myself and several friends wanted to crawl under a rock.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 6:05pm

Not really a foot in the mouth, but I will never forget the priceless look on Dee Hoty's face when I handed her a "Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public" cd cover, this was when she played Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes years later, to sign. I never thought eyes could be rolled that far.

Updated On: 11/6/08 at 06:05 PM

[Mekroth]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 6:06pm

This actually happened to my mom, but I just love the story:

When my mom was in college, she and her speech team went to LA to see Macbeth, starring Charlton Heston. Well, as we all should know, Macbeth's head is severed at the end of the play, and paraded about during the final scene.

After the show, the speech team went to the stage door. They were the only people back there, and so the team members got really excited, thinking that they would be able to talk to him for a while before he left.

Well he eventually emerged in his jogging outfit (he would run to and from the theater every day) and my mom first yelled "THERE HE IS!!!" She then proceeded to run up to him, and she shook his hand vigorously, saying "Gee, your head looks great on your body."

He left.
Her teammates wouldn't even speak to her for a week.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 6:08pm

That is amazing.

I will probably quote that for years to come.

But isn't it bad luck to say the name of the Scottish play on a theatre website? Doesn't it make the server collapse or more shows close or something?

[Mekroth]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 6:15pm

People say it a lot around here. Some think it doesn't matter some think it does.

But if it makes you feel any better:
*goes outside, spins three times, spits over left shoulder*
****

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 6:27pm

Several years ago I attended a dinner party and called Keith Roberts "a ballet dancer". He wasn't too pleased but he DID clear-up my "label" of him a few hours later. He was determined.

Poor guy. I guess its a stigma he can't seem to shake.

[JeaniusIsMe]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 7:14pm

A couple years back I was studying in London and went to see Rock n' Roll. I was on the phone with my friend- who's also quite the Broadway fan- and suddenly noticed Michael Cerveris standing about 10 feet away. I was so surpised at seeing him in London (it was about a week after Sweeney closed) that I blurted out "Michael?" not thinking he'd hear me. But he did, which started an awkward conversation (and made me hang up on my friend), but he was extremely gracious and lovely and we actually got to talk a bit about the show and Sweeney. But ever since, I make sure to think first, speak second.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 7:34pm

Upon meeting Celia Keenan-Bolger after Spelling Bee in LA, I accidentally blurted "Woah, my friend Elyse wants to be you!" (In my own defense, I was fourteen?)

She was very gracious and laughed it off, but I felt like such a nerd.

[jessica0414]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 12:28am

At the risk of sounding like a vapid fangirl...

My friend and I went to NY for my 21st birthday and saw Spring Awakening. At the stage door afterwards we got almost everyone to sign our playbills, including Jonathan Groff. The people whose playbill he had signed right before ours had gotten pictures and hugs from him, it was cute, but more importantly to the story, HE was cute! So he signs our stuff and my friend and I are somewhat conversing with him. I was too scared to ask for a hug and so what came out instead was "Can I shake your hand?" It was...awkward. But he didn't seem too phased, I guess stranger things have probably happened at the SA SD? haha :)

[jennafan]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 2:25am

Hahaha probably shouldn't mention this here but I met one actor and asked him about a show he had done in the past. The actor was so friendly and asked if I had seen it. I said "Not in person." hahaha whoops.

Totally answered too fast there. lol

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 8:29am

Oh, I do remember one...

1983....My One and Only...while getting Tommy Tune's autograph, I say how much I enjoyed him as "Silent E" on "The Electric Company," to which he politely says, "That's not me." I wanted to crawl into a hole.

Turns out Tom Lehrer was "Silent E."