Broadway legend and recent star of Gypsy Audra McDonald unfortunately finished the show's run on a sour note, as she informed fans on her Instagram.
The Tony-winning actor and singer, 55, started by explaining that the "stage door" practice, where Broadway actors exit through a side door of the theater to greet fans and sign autographs, is common but not expected or required. Some actors love to do it, others would rather not, and she stressed that there are countless reasons an actor might choose not to on any given night.
The Gilded Age star said:
"There's a lot of reasons that performers don't do the stage door. There've been shows that I've done it and shows that I've not done it."
"But some of the reasons are: They're exhausted; some people get anxiety about doing stage door; some people are in a rush to catch trains so they can get home; some people avoid the stage door because of health reasons."
Fair.
She then called out a fan who recently followed her out of the theater and all the way to the building where she was staying, and said she eventually had to call security to help her with the fan.
Upon questioning, the fan said they thought they deserved an autograph because "[they'd] come all this way—and they named some town, some city that they'd come all the way from."
Yikes.
McDonald wrapped up her message with advice on how best to interact with actors after the show:
"When you see an actor leave the stage door, if they don't stop, leave them alone."
"There is a reason that they're not stopping, and it has nothing to do with you."
"It's them protecting their space and peace, whatever that may be, and if they do stop or wave or take a picture with you or sign an autograph, great, but please respect the proper boundaries."
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Commenters were quick to say how crazy that behavior was.
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Fans in the comments were quick to call out the fan's behavior for what it really was.
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A show is not the actor's actual life, a fact that seems to escape many fans, unfortunately.
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Finally, commenters found this fan's behavior to be indicative of a larger problem.
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The run of Gypsy that McDonald starred in just closed on August 17.
