213 replies to this topic

[Dorothy]

A homemade Kerry ellis bag??? Yeah, sure the cast know who they are... they have their pictures up inside the stage door with a big red WARNING - AVOID AT ALL COSTS label over the top of it.

I'm pretty sure they actually do. I know that the cast are quite well informed on fans either way.

Im sorry ive got to ask again- do they actually live rough on the streets of London for weeks! I mean sleep on the street, get up, get food, eat it in there place, sit there all day, then go to sleep again in the same spot for a week!?!? They're mostly kids arent they!?!? Are they seriously living rough for a week!?! Sorry, but i can see people doing it for a night, for a laugh on a big occasion sure, but a week! What the ****!

Same, I don't get when people camp for like a week in advance at cast changes... do they just put their lives on hold for it? I wouldn't be able to get a week off work just to see a musical and then there's things like school/college/uni? If they're young don't their parents care? It might be a little hyperbolic, but London isn't renown for its lack of violence.

Camping comes across as a pointless inconvenience to me. I think they see it as a sort of 'passing of rites' social event or something, though - kind of like "you must camp for cast change tickets/center row seats or you don't deserve them".

[Dorothy]

Its the sense of entitlement that pisses me off most. Ive never out right experience this, but have read many stories about it. I think it only occurs in the day seats queue but seriously if some 15 yr old kid was telling me i couldnt get a certain seat because i hadnt been to see the show 15 plus times i would lose my shit big time! We dont all happen to live in London, and we dont all have parents that are rich buggers who can fund trips. I live in Cornwall, if i go to a show it will cost upwards of £100 and thats with getting a sleeper train home, not even staying overnight in London, so they can jog on if they think they have more right to a ticket than me, i bet i save longer, plan further in advance and ultimately i bet it means more to me to be there because its such a treat to be able to make the trip. Sorry for the rant but if i encounter any such behaviour when i day ticket next week they are going to get such a reality check i swear.

I don't understand why people don't tell them to shut up either. I've never had any problems, but if one of them tried to talk down to me I'd certainly alert them that some people have lives outside Wicked and have better things to do than arranging the next camping trip while discussing Kerry Ellis' hair and dog on a pretentious forum. I've seen certain shows quite a few times myself, but I don't feel it makes me better than someone who hasn't. I don't think I'd otherwise care, but it's the fact they act self-righteous and assertive that bugs me - it seems they're desperate to make it apparent they're part of what they probably think is some esoteric clique.

[Matthew Winn]

Apparently there's a girl who uses her illness to get backstage (its not terminal btw). She writes letters saying stuff like 'hey I have this disease and its my dream to go backstage' to Kerry and the rest of the cast as a weird way of getting backstage. Its quite disgusting really that someone would do that, theres not really any reason to bring up that you have a disease to cast members of a musical you like unless you knew them.

A few years ago - around the time of Kiss Me, Kate - there was a woman who went around with bandages on her arms claiming that she had loads of stitches in them and therefore needed an aisle seat so she could spread out or she'd be in too much pain to watch the show, and she was so ill she wouldn't be able to return another time, and she didn't know how much longer she'd be able to keep going to the theatre, and she was going to die soon, and the whole sob story thing, complete with tears. In theatres with a centre aisle she used it to get people who'd booked central seats to swap with her so she could get a better seat than the one she'd bought. Curiously, whenever I saw her in theatres with no central aisle she didn't need to relocate to the end of the row and was perfectly capable of sitting in the middle. Evidently her poor stitch-ridden arms only played up when it would get her a better seat rather than a worse one. To my knowledge she spent at least a year and a half doing this. Infuriatingly, it often worked.

[strallenfan]

While I'm sure Kerry appreciates her fanbase and their loyalty [or their loyalty while she's still Elphaba, we'll see how they act once she's left for good] I'm sure as hell she doesn't appreciate the things her so called fanbase say about her or ever to her. I'm a huge fan of the show and the cast, been numerous times but until cast change, I shall refuse to go to stage door. Which is a shame, as I'd quite like to meet Kerry. But the people that go week after week, stage door before and after the show, wear all the merchandise, act like they know the cast etc etc.

The thing is, with other shows, it's totally possible to forge a bond with the cast if you've seen the show a lot. Because most other show's fans arent crazy and will have a decent conversation with a performer and get to know them over a period of time. It can happen but the key is to know your boundries. There is no way I'd stalk any cast home like they did with Kerry. There's no way I'd ask any inappropriate questions. There's no way that I'd stand at Stage door before AND after a show, ask for numerous pictures and get every thing I own signed by the cast. I wouldn't do it because THAT'S what sets the crazies from the non crazies. I mean, do they really need 100x programmes signed? No.

I will say, sometimes innocent people get misunderstood at SD. I went to say hello to Summer quite a lot at Sound of Music because she has got to know us and it feels rude to go to a show and not go and say hi after. She'd come say hi to us when she came out and then we used to stand to the side while she signed merch/take pictures with whoever was at SD [and it was never more than 5ish people] to wait for her to come over and have a little chat and the looks we got were ridiculous. So that CAN work both ways. Sometimes cast have come out the door and met with people they knew and the fans have thrown daggers with their eyes at these people like "HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY CAST AWAY FROM ME!!!!". It's quite sad really.

And dayqueue. Don't even get me started on that madness. To be told you're in a certain seat because you haven't seen it enough is ridiculous.

[Dorothy]

All the fangirls stand that side of the stage door. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQZctTgxJs I suppose the "we saw you trip last week!!!" is the idea that fans like that, from that Noone But You forum or whatever it's called where they think they're friends with the cast, seem to believe is a conversation. And Kerry's expression following it means "we're best friends".

[strallenfan]

I'm a member at NOBY and while I hardly post there, I get angry that that forum gets all the flack and they are not the crazy ones, most of the girls there are actually genuinely nice people. It's the other forum thats the crazy place.

And I think Cat meant that she didn't like that they were being mean about Andy as a person. It's fine if they don't like him as a performer on that stage because as you said, everyone is allowed their own opinion. But labelling him as a jerk is out of order, they don't know him offstage afterall.