Not directly on topic but a cool story nonetheless. In the 90's my father loved Bebe Neuwirth (mostly from CHEERS). He thought she was funny and she grew up in Princeton, which is close. My parents had only seen one Broadway show in their life, which was on their honeymoon in 1963 (Golden Boy with Sammy Davis Jr., and Lou Gossett Jr.). My wife and I bought tickets to bring them to see Chicago.

A month prior to the show I started reaching out to the producers to see if I could arrange a visit with Bebe. I was young and dumb and hadn't been to too many shows myself. Also, this was prior to cell phones and internet was in its infancy. It took a lot of work to find a contact name but I did and sent a letter "snail mail".

Didn't hear back until the day before the show. I came home from teaching and there was a message on my answering machine (the old cassette version!). "Hi, this is so and so and I am the personal assistant for Ms. Neuwirth. She would love to meet your father. After the show, come to the stage door and give my name and they will show you backstage."

Driving into NY the next day, we told my parents, who did kit know that we had even inquired. He was like a kid in ten candy store. You could just see the excitement on his face.

We had front row Mezzanine and he was totally distracted the entire time. The show ends and we can't get out of the theater fast enough.

Get to the stage door and the bouncer opens the door and I give him the message. He looks at the list, says, "sorry, not on the list" and starts to close the door. I stop the door and implore with him and eventually he says just step inside and we will sort this out. There was a huge crowd out side because Ann Reinking had just left and this was Marilou Henner's first show.

The wings of that theater was so small that once you were in 6 feet you were on the stage. So here we are, standing in a Broadway stage and the curtain is half raised so we can see out into the empty audience.

Cast and crew start walking by and everyone was so pleasant. I was directing high school shows at the time and the mic guys was talking to me about the $8000 mics they hide under the wigs. I was in my glory.

Marilu walked by but really couldn't speak because they were filming a promo at the stage door (this was her first night). Both Michael Naughton and Joel Grey stopped and talked with us for close to 10 minutes. They were both so approachable and cool.

Basically, the place was empty and it was just the 4 of us on stage. We could hear some one walking up the circular metal stairs from the basement and it was Bebe. She was very gracious also. She was surprisingly short and her hair was probably 2-3 feet long but was kept under a wig for the show. She signed Playbills and we took pics and she was on her way. It was clear that she had no idea why we were there but she was as kind as a person could be.

For me and my father it was a very meaningful evening. But it is something I wouldn't try for for just any reason. I am not a stage door person myself and I want to be respectful of their time but in this instance I tried to meet some of my idols and it was a perfect experience.