Stage door stories from 2009

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I'm a fangirl. A part of me still finds it amazing that after I see a Broadway show, most of the time I can meet the actors and actresses whose work I've just enjoyed. (And it's not just the more famous ones. I'm thrilled to meet the cast of every show.)

So I can't end 2009 without mentioning some of my favorite stage door experiences of the year. And of course I want to thank the performers who took the time to sign my Playbill, talk to me or on a few occasions when I was brave enough to ask, pose for a picture.

Sadly, I did not get autographs from Hugh Jackman or Daniel Craig after A Steady Rain but I was smart enough to hand my camera to Steve On Broadway, who snapped some nice pictures of the man from Oz looking very jaunty in his gray scarf and fedora.

Among the other highlights:

James Gandolfini from God of Carnage. I'm a Sopranos fan, so this was exciting. Usually, if it's someone I know from TV or movies, I manage to say something along the lines of "loved you on this TV program or in that movie and it's so wonderful to see you on stage." This time, maybe because he came out so quickly after the play ended, I was tongue-tied. Gandolfini was quiet, although he did laugh when someone asked about a Sopranos movie. ("I don't think so.")

Neil Patrick Harris. This was completely unexpected. Apparently, NPH attended the same performance of Waiting for Godot that I did because I saw him going in the stage door. People were clamoring for autographs and he promised to sign when he came out - and he did, as well as pose for pictures. This was the day before he was hosting the Tony awards and I'm sure he had a busy schedule but he was exceedingly friendly and gracious.

Ernie Hudson from Joe Turner's Come and Gone. It was great meeting the entire cast but best of all was spending a few minutes listening to Hudson talk about it had been like the previous week, when the president and first lady were in the audience. He was clearly still excited about it. (Hudson said everyone onstage was temporarily blinded from cell-phone cameras going off when the Secret Service brought the Obamas to their seats for Act II.)

Steven Pasquale from reasons to be pretty. I saw this play in the afternoon on the day of the Tony awards. Pasquale's character is a creep and not very nice to his wife. In real life, Pasquale is married to Laura Benanti, who was hosting the Tony preshow. As he walked away with an assistant, I heard him inquire about her in a way that struck me as so sweet and caring. Quite different from the character I'd just seen him portray. Yes, I know it's called acting but the contrast just reinforced what a great job he did onstage.

Jessica Hynes from The Norman Conquests. Hynes played the frazzled Annie, who cares for her needy but unseen mother and desperately needs a break. I told her how much I enjoyed her performance, how it related to the circumstances of my life and really resonated with me. She asked me whether she'd "gotten it right." I assured her that she definitely had. And I was touched - and impressed - that she cared enough to ask.

Alice Ripley from Next to Normal. This was after her second show of the day and Ripley took a long time to make her way around the circle of fans. She was stopping to talk with almost everyone and I could tell some of the conversations were intense. My guess is that because she plays a woman struggling with mental illness, she meets a fair number of people who have a family member in a similar situation. And from what I could tell, she wasn't brushing anyone off but was taking the time to listen.

Catherine Zeta-Jones from A Little Night Music. In the past three years of going to Broadway shows I've met Oscar winners and Tony winners and Emmy winners. But when Zeta-Jones came out of the stage door, looking perfectly made-up and glamorous, I thought to myself, "That's a movie star." She signed autographs, acknowledged fans from Wales and and Scotland who'd come to see her, and in minutes, was whisked away by a waiting SUV, leaving some Hollywood glitter in her wake.

Special bonus celebrity sighting - While I was waiting for the cast of A Little Night Music, I saw an elderly man being helped into the front passenger's side of Zeta-Jones' SUV. It was her father-in-law, 93-year-old Kirk Douglas! I wanted to rush over and tell him about the key role he played in my life, but I resisted. Still, it was awesome to see that unmistakable profile. (And he blogged about going to see ALNM on MySpace!)

Sarah Rosenthal from Ragtime. Sarah, who's 13 and making her Broadway debut, was very sweet at the stage door. She signed my Playbill and asked me, with all the seriousness and polish of a seasoned performer, "So, where are you from?"

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Sarah talked about how she spent weeks practicing her signature to make it distinctive. "There have been so many times that I've waited outside a stage door in the cold to get someone's autograph," she says. "It's exciting to think that now, someone might want my autograph."

Always something new to do in New York

Okay, I don't actually spend every moment of my New York City trips in Broadway theatres. It's an immensely walkable city with more things to see and do than probably any other city I've ever been in. So here's a rundown on my Memorial Day weekend:

Breaking the curse of the Jacobs Theatre stage door

On my two previous outings to the Jacobs, to see Frost/Nixon and The Country Girl, I was spectacularly unsuccessful in getting my Playbill signed. So I wasn't getting my hopes up for God of Carnage. But surprise - James Gandolfini came out pretty quickly, followed by Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden. They were all very gracious. Gandolfini was quiet but laughed when someone asked about a Sopranos movie. ("I don't think so.") Sadly, I missed out on the Holy Grail of stage-dooring, getting everyone in the original Broadway cast of a show to sign my Playbill. Jeff Daniels made a hasty exit. Hope Davis said he had out-of-town guests. Well, okay. Three out of four is 75 percent.

Sampling eclectic cuisine

Ninth Avenue (aka Hell's Kitchen) is my favorite street for eating in New York. Just a couple streets over from the bustle of Times Square, it's like another world. The sidewalks aren't nearly as packed with tourists and it's more like a regular neighborhood. It also has dozens of tiny and not-so-tiny restaurants serving up every type of food you could possibly imagine. I've eaten at half a dozen different ones and they've all been great. This time, I went with my friend Chris and his entourage to the Zen Palate - my very first Asian vegan restaurant, where I had some delicious whole wheat noodles with stir-fry vegetables. And no one looked at me funny when I asked for a fork - because I am chopstick-impaired.

Walking to Brooklyn

Sarah and Kari invited me to join them on a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on a beautiful, sunny Memorial Day. Now I can say I've done it in both directions. It was very crowded and you've got to watch out for bicyclists and I should have put on some sunscreen. But it's such a fun walk with great views. As I remarked to Kari, what a photogenic bridge! Look at her pictures and see if you don't agree. That day, we rode the subway, walked, took the water taxi and a land taxi. Just about every mode of transportation except a helicopter ride over Manhattan. Okay, not sure I'm up for that but someday I would like to take one of those horse-drawn carriages around Central Park.

Witnessing literary history

I'm not a huge fan of short stories but I do love two that I remember reading in middle school or high school - The Ransom of Red Chief and The Gift of the Magi. When Sarah led us to lunch at Pete's Tavern, little did I know that I'd be stepping into literary history. New York City's oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant is the very spot where Mr. William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, wrote The Gift of the Magi in 1905. His booth is set up as a little shrine. Made me want to buy a pocket watch and grow my hair long so I can get some fancy combs! Pete's Tavern, on East 18th Street near Gramercy Park, has been opened since 1864 and it stayed open during Prohibition disguised as a flower shop. If you go, I highly recommend the grilled chicken salad.

Relaxing in a lawn chair in Times Square

I got to New York on Sunday of the holiday weekend, the first day of the city's experiment closing Times Square to traffic. And it was pretty neat to be able to walk down the middle of Broadway. But I had to laugh when I came back from my excursion on Monday and saw people sprawled out on lawn chairs and chaise lounges that had been set up in the street. It looked like a massive installation of performance art. How incongruous! A little bit of suburbia in the heart of the city. I saw a sign inviting other chair manufacturers to display their furniture. I'm hoping when I go back this week, there'll be Barcaloungers.

God of Carnage

Gratuitous Violins rating: ***1/2 out of ****

Seeing God of Carnage reminded me of the narrator's line at the beginning of the MTV series The Real World: "Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real."

The play start off politely enough. Alan and Annette, an affluent New York City couple played by Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis, are in the home of another affluent New York City couple, Michael and Veronica, played by James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden.

The four of them have come together because Alan and Annette's son has hit Michael and Veronica's son in the mouth with a stick, breaking two of his teeth. (I think both kids are around 11.) Michael and Alan have a much more "boys will be boys" attitude while Veronica and Annette find it much more upsetting.

Alan is a high-powered lawyer annoyed at being taken away from work; Annette, a wealth manager, is kind of meek and very apologetic. Veronica, a writer, is justifiably angry; and Michael, an importer, is low key and seems a little embarrassed by the fuss his wife is making.

As you can probably guess, things don't stay polite for very long. The characters undergo some surprising personality changes and by the end, it's the adults who need a timeout. I don't think it's a coincidence that set designer Mark Thompson has painted the walls of the Jacobs Theatre stage a fire-engine red. No warm, soothing tones here.

What I found so enthralling to watch is the way events unfold, which I think is a testament to the skill of director Matthew Warchus and this terrific ensemble cast. (Yasmina Reza's 90-minute play has been translated from the original French by Christopher Hampton.)

There's a lot of physical and verbal sparring and it would be easy to let things get out of control. But the actors make such a seamless transition from civility to acrimony that by the end, I couldn't quite remember when things began to go wrong. It all just seemed so inevitable.

And it was so great to see four actors I've loved from movies and television tackle meaty roles onstage, making them so memorable in the process. Harden's meltdown is especially amazing to watch.

It's not terribly difficult to make me cry but making me laugh is another matter. God of Carnage, which had a 2008 run in London with a different cast, is hysterical. At one point, Davis' Annette erupts in a way that you wouldn't think would be funny but all four actors working in concert make it one of the most hilarious moments I've seen on stage.

I'm a big fan of The Soporanos, so I was especially thrilled to see Gandolfini. A few moments, like when he's talking on the phone to his mother, gave me some "Tony" flashbacks. But Michael is a much quieter, less thuggish character and Gandolfini mostly made me forget his larger-than-life tv role.

And Daniels, whom I've loved since Terms of Endearment and The Purple Rose of Cairo - what a treat. He has wonderful body language and facial expressions that show you just how impatient and annoyed he is at having to be at this get-together.

There were parts of Reza's play that didn't work quite as well for me. The subplot involving one of Alan's clients seemed like too much of a coincidence. Still, she makes some good points about humanity's propensity for violence, how adults sometimes act like children. (And we wonder where the kids get it from!)

As civil and well-mannered as most of try to be in our daily lives, we all have our buttons waiting to be pushed. While Reza's characters move to the extreme end on the scale of human emotions, what she does so well in God of Carnage is make us think about how close we are to that breaking point.

Back to Broadway

All right, soon I'll be off for my first trip to New York City of 2009. And to coincide with my visit, the city is closing Times Square to traffic. Boy, do I feel special!

Today, it's God of Carnage and Hair. I loved The Sopranos so I'm especially excited about seeing James Gandolfini on stage.

Hair has always been at the top of my list for 2009. I've loved the score for as long as I can remember and I've been interested (obsessed with) the history and culture of the 1960s for as long as I can remember.

On Monday night, I have a ticket for Rock of Ages, which I thought was funny and sweet when I saw the cast on Live with Regis and Kelly, and heard them on the Playbill Radio podcast. Now, I'm not sure.

But love it or hate it, I'll definitely have an opinion on it.

And the Tony hosting job goes to ...

Wow, I was very surprised and very happy when I heard that Neil Patrick Harris had been chosen to host the Tony Awards. He's so cute and funny and charming and he has a great voice and he's had several Broadway roles. (Who knows, maybe this experience will lure him back!)

Still, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not so sure the host is that big a draw. Don't get me wrong - I think it's a great choice for theatre fans. But if I weren't already inclined to watch the show I don't know whether NPH - or anyone else - would make me tune in. Well maybe a few fans of How I Met Your Mother might tune in who wouldn't otherwise. (Also on CBS - what an incredible coincidence!)

I was trying to think about what would make me watch something I have absolutely no interest in watching - say the Indianapolis 500. If the cast of Seinfeld were calling the race I might watch for a few minutes but I'm not sure they'd hold my interest for all 500 laps.

Seriously though, I can't believe the American Theatre Wing approached James Gandolfini, Tony-nominated for God of Carnage, about the hosting duties. According to Michael Riedel in The New York Post, Gandolfini replied that he was flattered but politely declined, saying he isn't a song-and-dance man.

Whew, that was a close one. As much as I loved The Sopranos, I don't think Gandolfini has the kind of vibrant, outgoing personality necessary for a good host. Plus, I think singing and dancing is kind of a requirement.

The 63rd annual Tony Awards air live from Radio City Music Hall at 8 p.m. June 7 on CBS.

For your reading and viewing pleasure

I'm not usually into mob stories but I loved The Sopranos. It's so hard for me to separate James Gandolfini from Tony Soprano that I can't imagine what it would be like to see him on stage.

Gandolfini is currently starring on Broadway in God of Carnage and there's a good, short interview with him by John Heilpern in Vanity Fair. Part of the interview is conducted in Gandolfini's Toyota hybrid SUV, as the pair drive around Manhattan looking for a quiet spot for lunch on a Saturday.

In 1995, Gandolfini appeared on Broadway in a very short-lived production of On the Waterfront. He tells Heilpern that he was fired for "being too mouthy." In 1992, he was an understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire that also featured his Sopranos sister, Aida Turturro.

But he says he's had a lot of experience playing small roles in small theatres. “Standing in public in other people’s clothes, pretending to be someone else. It’s a strange way for a grown man to make a living.”

Then in Variety, Gordon Cox wonders whether nonmusicals can give Broadway a boost. I like this quote from Geoffrey Rush, who's starring in Eugene Ionesco's absurdist drama Exit the King, which Cox says some theatergoers might consider a "gloomy existentialist downer."

The youngest theatergoers might be the ones with the fewest preconceptions, Rush theorizes. "Anyone under 25 has no problem with Ionesco," he says. "They all grew up with Ren and Stimpy and SpongeBob SquarePants."

Okay, I never connected Ionesco with those two television shows but maybe I should check them out.

And finally, Sheila O'Malley, at The House Next Door, writes a very moving tribute to Natasha Richardson. She remembers what it was like to see her on Broadway in 1998 as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. "It was one of the most exciting nights of theater of my life."

It was really interesting to read how Richardson took a role that had been so inextricably linked to one actress - Liza Minnelli - and made it her own. O'Malley gives you a great sense of what it was like to see that memorable, Tony-winning performance.

Also, while she was doing Cabaret, Richardson took part in an American Theatre Wing Working in the Theatre panel discussion, which you can watch here. She also participated in an ATW panel in 2005 on interpreting Tennessee Williams and in a 1993 program on Anna Christie, with her soon-to-be husband, Liam Neeson, among others.

My Broadway year - the downs

Now that I've praised some of the amazing moments I saw on Broadway this year, I want to take a moment to mention some things that bothered me, as well as one disappointment.

• I've written before about the couple sitting behind me at Billy Elliot who were talking so loudly when the musical began that I had to turn around and glare at them as I asked them to be quiet. It was the same thing at Shrek, the people sitting next to me were talking and unwrapping candy. Is it me or is the talking and eating during shows getting worse? It makes me a little wary of seeing the musical Rock of Ages, since Variety reports that there'll be in-seat cocktail service during the show when it moves from off-Broadway to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Maybe it fits with the story, which I guess partly takes place in a nightclub, and it'll be done in a way that won't bother non-drinking theatergoers, but I don't know.
  

• I've decided that there are simply some things I don't particularly want to see or hear on stage - the farting and belching competition in Shrek may have worked in the movie but in a Broadway musical I just didn't care for it. And the urinating porter in Macbeth was one special effect I definitely could have done without. This poses a bit of a dilemma. I really want to see Yasmina Reza's play God of Carnage on Broadway in the spring. (Although it'll have a different cast than the London production. Sadly, no Ralph Fiennes.) But I know there's a particular bodily function in the play which I'm not too eager to experience. Still, the Broadway cast reportedly includes James Gandolfini, and for a chance to see Tony Soprano, I'll steel myself.
  

• Speaking of Macbeth, I've mentioned a few times before that I'm pretty squeamish and I knew last spring's production was a particularly bloody one. I was looking forward to seeing Patrick Stewart on Broadway but I got a little nervous when Ben Brantley compared the horror level to a Wes Craven movie in his New York Times review. Now, I've never actually seen a Wes Craven movie but it sounded ominous. Well let me tell you, it was quite a letdown. I didn't feel squeamish at all. I only took my glasses off briefly and I didn't once have to put my head between my knees to ward off fainting. Don't get me wrong, what I saw was plenty, but given the buildup, I was prepared for more blood, more guts. Thanks Ben, for getting me all worked up for nothing!