Don’t Try it With Patti LuPone, Though

An actress from Beauty and the Beast talks about the other side of waiting at the stage door (in the midst of a long, fascinating thread about what performers do and do not owe to their fans):

Another fan was a man with two teenaged daughters. When he and his daughters showed up at the show on my birthday with a birthday cake for me, I thanked them sincerely, but I knew there would be trouble, and there was. My family had come into town to spend my birthday with me. After the show, I thanked this man and his daughters again, and left with my family. Well, I got a 13 page angry letter from him, telling me that I had some nerve spending my birthday with my family, and that he considers himself a Christian man but when someone hurts his family, who knows what he’ll do. The beat cop advised that I tell him, in front of the cop, to cease all contact with me and never come to the stage door again. I did so and also apologized to the daughters for having to do such a thing.

Don’t be those people. Be the normal people who stand there and fumble for words and just want to be thisclose to Raul Esparza and wonder what his hair smells like (sandalwood? bergamot? desire?)