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The following Lobby & Backstage Comments were overheard in theatre lobbies and backstage.
Lobby Comments
Overheard recently during intermission of The Pajama Game in Toronto:
First Person: "I don't get it. The review in the Globe and Mail was just glowing.
Absolutely raved."
Second Person: "I didn't read it, but for most of the show I'd rather have been
reading the Globe and Mail."
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Overheard in the lobby of the Stratford Connecticut Theatre at the intermission of a performance of Shakespeare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:
Two deb types, with the Veronica Lake hair falling over their faces and their long cigarette holders, were puffing away and one said to the other `Sheesh, that Cleopatra.' And the other one said `Yeah, ya know she's just so like a lot of women.'
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In England at the Princess Theatre two terribly English fellows were watching Laurence Olivier in Ibsen's GHOSTS. In the interval one of these stuffed shirts said to the other: `You know, I think something's happened to Larry since Birmingham*.'
*Laurence Olivier began his professional career at Birmingham Repertory Company.
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Submitted by Tedde Moore: I was attending a performance of Shakespeare's MACBETH at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto. It starred Christopher Plummer and Glenda Jackson as well as Stephen Markle and Paul Soles, among others. As I was walking up that long aisle at the O'Keefe to go out at Intermission, I passed a yuppie couple still in their aisle seats. The woman was saying in bored voice, `But, I don't know, she's so over the top.' To which her companion replied, with all the condescension he could muster, `Well, my dear, it is
Shakespeare.'
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Backstage Comments
The moment you meet a friend backstage who has just given his or her all in a show that was not... absolutely stellar, shall we say, can be very awkward. The following are actual comments that have been made to actors backstage in the dressing room after a curtain.
This was said to me by a woman in the chorus after my husband gave me roses at the end of a performance: "You got roses? You didn't have that big a part to get roses!"
-- submitted by Ty and June Long
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"What a nice little hobby you have."
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After a show, Guthrie once greeted an actress backstage with: "And, how's your dear mothah?"
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Fletcher Markle heard this story in New York: "Someone had gone backstage and said to an actress, `Darling, you should have been out front to-night.'"
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"How did YOU feel about it?"
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There are various versions of the lines: "You've never sung better" or "You've never looked better" (which leaves it open to how badly you may have sung or looked before...)
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"We can talk about the show later."
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"So....are you having fun with it?"
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"I don't think you could have been any better."
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"I saw Jessica Tandy do that part on Broadway, but you were... just as good."
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"What an interesting interpretation, was that yours or the director's"
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"You must be exhausted!"
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"I felt you felt it wasn't quite right."
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"You certainly exceeded my expectations."
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"Darling, you looked absolutely marvelous."
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"You scare me."
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"This is a very brave performance." Heard on closing night: "All it needs is a little fine tuning."
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"Pity about the directing...."
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"Well I enjoyed it anyway."
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Then there was the leading actress who said to another actress, who had come back stage to visit following a matinee, "Oh, good heavens, you didn't come to a matinee. I NEVER give my ALL at a matinee!" Commented the visiting actress: "You little spendthrift!"
Do you have Lobby or Backstage Comments you would like us to add to our list?
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