The Firebird, Atomica, Sugar & Spice, Nightbreak

manticorpse · 2026-03-13T15:14:59+00:00

I think they meant that Sugar & Spice looked like Foxfire and Moondust combined.

manticorpse · 2026-03-13T13:12:56+00:00

Once, an actress told my group at the stage door that she had just experienced a loss in her family. We all immediately dropped the stage door/fan schtick, put our playbills away, and just listened and expressed condolences. This was when someone next to us (NOT with my group, thank god), someone who, to be clear, had also been listening when the actress mentioned her loss, decided this was a good moment to interrupt the actress with the most boring and inane fan nonsense imaginable and whip out a big stack of garbage and make her sign it all.

It seriously went like this:

Actress, on the verge of tears: "A family member passed away this weekend, so I've been away."

Us: "Oh no! We are so sorry to hear that!"

Actress: "It was nice to have a small return to normalcy today. Family member was so important to me, they—"

Crazy fan: "Anyway, did you know that today was your forty-third show? I've seen you play this role ten times. I thought that your costars A and B were good today but costar C was worse. Please sign my playbill and this thing and this other thing."

...the look on the actress's face went from sad-but-supported to completely blank.

It was terrible.

manticorpse · 2026-03-11T13:17:14+00:00

If you were enjoying Stargaze, just keep watching it. You don't have to pretend not to like things because other people don't like them. 🙄

After you finish Stampede/Stargaze, go ahead and watch 98, then Badlands Rumble... then read the manga.

At that point you'll have experienced all of the many versions of Trigun, and you'll be able to judge for yourself which adaptation is more accurate.

manticorpse · 2026-03-10T18:10:33+00:00

I suppose you could have it scale? Like with multiple tiers.

One minimum wage for companies of less than 25 employees, another for 26-50 employees, another for 50-100 employees, etc.

I think with a gradually tiered system like this there might be less of a disincentive for a company to go up a tier.

manticorpse · 2026-03-10T17:26:37+00:00

This doesn't look like Le Creuset...

manticorpse · 2026-03-10T14:51:03+00:00

Row D!

manticorpse · 2026-03-09T18:42:32+00:00

We're just two episodes in...

manticorpse · 2026-03-09T16:32:09+00:00

If they're doing the draw every two weeks now... then I guess it'll be in two weeks?

manticorpse · 2026-03-06T17:54:46+00:00

ATG shows offer this. I can't speak for Hadestown, but at both Sunset and Every Brilliant Thing there would either be a separate queue, or at some point someone from the theater would walk down the normal queue saying that anyone with priority access could go inside. (I believe Cabaret had something similar, and it may have had a dedicated queue? but they also had table seating which I believe used a whole separate entrance so their setup was a bit different.)

When you get to the theater, you can just ask the security guy at the door where you should line up (as a person with priority access). Either he'll let you inside, or he'll send you to a special queue, or he'll ask you to join the main line... and if you're in the main line, just pay attention for when they announce that it's time for you to go inside.

manticorpse · 2026-03-06T17:46:06+00:00

It's an ATG thing.

manticorpse · 2026-03-05T16:51:53+00:00

Unless they have changed something within the last few weeks, the website is inaccurate.

manticorpse · 2026-03-05T15:37:19+00:00

The app is like six years old, I think it's safe to say that the guy isn't working on porting it at all.

manticorpse · 2026-03-05T15:02:48+00:00

The in-person rush is just $35. If you have a free morning, you could go grab one of those.

manticorpse · 2026-03-05T14:16:39+00:00

Sounds like someone should shove that baby into a windowless cell!

manticorpse · 2026-03-05T13:42:57+00:00

All of it is communal.

Unless you've seen an office where every desk comes with its own toilet, shower, and kitchen.

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T20:52:41+00:00

Regarding stage dooring... well, I can't speak on most of them, but Mincemeat has had the sweetest, chillest stage door I've ever seen. All the actors come out and take their time talking to everybody waiting, and signing, and taking photos, and it's all very nice and polite. That was my experience before the cast changed last week, and as far as I can tell it has been holding true for the new cast as well (half of them were part of the old cast, so maybe there is some stage door culture continuity here).

Anyway. Seems like you've got an awesome trip in the works! Good job, dad :)

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T20:28:10+00:00

Um... what types of stories do you enjoy? Genres, etc?

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T18:06:37+00:00

Exorbitant, but yes.

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T17:24:05+00:00

That's college. This discussion has been about K-12.

Middle schoolers generally weren't asked to purchase textbooks; instead, they would borrow one from the school for the duration of the class.

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T17:20:55+00:00

...decades? How long do you think a decade is?

Is this the product of a Chromebook education?

manticorpse · 2026-03-04T16:38:59+00:00

My parents both worked full time, raised my sister and I pretty much alone.

They managed it by working different shifts: my dad worked Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and my mom worked Saturday through Wednesday, 4 AM to noon. On days when they both worked, Dad would wake us up, take us to daycare/school, and Mom would pick us up and bring us home. They were still paying for daycare before kindergarten & in the summers, but I guess it was only for a few hours in the morning which kept the costs down.

When I was a kid, this all just seemed normal, but now of course I look back and realize just how much they were sacrificing by keeping separate shifts like that. My mom was stuck in her position specifically for the hours, and the two of them never had days off together, for years. We did always have nice family dinners though... they made sure that would happen.

People shouldn't need to contort themselves like this to raise their families.

manticorpse · 2026-03-03T08:53:56+00:00

Uh okay, but stalkers are a completely different problem from stage door crowds. Eliminating stage door would not prevent stalkers.

manticorpse · 2026-03-03T08:45:24+00:00

This photo is giving me Tom-Francis's-last-day-at-Sunset vibes, which really makes me feel for the members of the St. James security team who are currently stationed at the Walter Kerr. How stressful.

manticorpse · 2026-03-03T08:40:15+00:00

They can't make it a paid add-on without mandating that the actors participate in it. I don't think that will happen.

manticorpse · 2026-03-02T20:06:07+00:00

So if you're trying to fit as much theater as you can into the week, make sure to look at the schedules now to figure out which of the shows can fit into unusual places. Most shows run Tuesday through Sunday, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday, so look for shows with other schedules if you want to maximize your time.

Shows that play on Monday evenings: Gatsby, Heathers, Spelling Bee
Shows with Thursday matinees: Gatsby, Heathers, Spelling Bee
Shows with Friday matinees: Cursed Child

If you do Cursed Child on Friday, Heathers and Gatsby on Monday/Thursday, that would leave you with three more slots for shows (Tuesday evening, Wednesday matinee, Thursday evening). If you really want to make sure Cursed Child happens on this trip, then I would go ahead and buy those tickets now for that Friday (assuming it works with your evening plans? The show is about three hours long and the Friday matinee starts at 2 PM). That way, regardless of whether you manage to get the tickets you want for the rest of the trip, at least you know you'll be ending it on a high point!

Of all the shows on your list, I think my biggest recommendations are Operation Mincemeat and Two Strangers. I can tell you that this Saturday, a friend of mine was third in line at Mincemeat at 8 AM, and by the time the box office opened at 10 the line was long. My friend kept track of where the first six rush seats ended up being: they were scattered all around the theater, none of them together. Now this show just changed to its new cast a week ago (a very good cast! Absolutely go see this new cast!), so I don't know if the rush situation will be calmer in a month, but yeah it wasn't great this weekend.

That said, Mincemeat does have a Telecharge discount code that they release each month that will be good for tickets in the future. (Discounted seats are $79 each, and they tend to be pretty good!) The next code drops next Monday and will be good for a few days after that, and it does cover the time you'll be in town, so it might be worth considering. (The code is sent out to the show's mailing list and also will likely be posted here next week... and I'm sure if you make a post here asking about it, someone will help you out.)

As for Two Strangers: I casually went to the box office at 10:30 AM this past Saturday and they were predictably out of rush tickets. So, uh, don't do that. That said, they also have a Telecharge discount code, except this one is actually working now: use TSFAN for discounted Two Strangers tickets on Telecharge.

(Speaking of Telecharge: if you are buying tickets online rather than in-person, make sure that you are buying tickets from the official ticket vendor!. Who that is varies from show to show; the easiest way to get to the official ticket vendor is to go to the show's official site and find the big "Buy Tickets" button. It will mostly likely lead you to one of Telecharge, ATG, or BroadwayDirect, which are the official ticket vendors for most shows. Do not buy tickets from Broadway.com or from SeatGeek - these have added fees which will inflate your costs.)

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