Playing before stars

My wife says I need to blog more often and tell more stories so here goes. As I mentioned in my last blog we played before several celebrities while we were at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA. While we didn't get to meet but two of them it was a great experience and very humbling. I was reminded that the way we felt in meeting these stars is the way many "Annie" fans feel in meeting us. Every cast member waited anxiously for these stars to arrive and a few even asked for autographs.

So, the first one we meet was Molly Ringwald. I am not sure what all she has been in but I think I am correct in saying she was in "Sixteen Candles." She was a very beautiful lady who had brought her daughter to the show. They came backstage and said hello to the cast and we had a group picture taken with her and that was pretty much it. She seemed a little uncomfortable around so many people. I can only imagine what she was feeling and thinking. You come to a show to treat your daughter to a special time and end up being the center of all that attention.

The next night we got to meet Debra Messing. I was down by the stage door waiting to go out and meet the audience after the show when Debra, her niece (I think) and the mom came down the hall with our company manager and our "Annie." They were headed upstairs to meet with the cast as I met Amanda to go sign autographs. Debra was half way up the stairs when she recognized me as being "Daddy Warbucks." She ran back down the stairs, offered me her hand, and introduced herself. She was genuinely excited to meet me and was very complimentary. It was a joy to meet her and speak with her family. She was "just another fan."

After both of these events I went out and met our audiences and signed autographs until everyone had the chance to get a name on a page. Some may think of this as being egotistic and I suppose to some degree it is. I like to think that I am attending to the needs of the audience, offering a thank you for paying all that money to see the play I am in thus keeping me in a job, and being an ambassador of good will for the show and for my profession. Too many people in "show business" are distant and aloof. They have forgotten that we are able to do what we do every night because of the people who come to see the show and then hope for a glimpse of us and possible an autograph.

I have also found that we as performers often have an effect on people in ways we can never know. I have discovered a few of these by taking the time to say hello and thank you, and sign an autograph. Next time, maybe I will share a few of those with you.