AT THE STAGE DOOR
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My Stage Door Adventures

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I think about how we can’t always live in the moment because moments pass, and when we’re lucky, we have the kind of moments that we can’t help wanting to go back to. We think about them, remember how they felt, and when more time passes we tell stories of these moments that are worth reliving.
— Dana Reinhardt, How to Build a House

When I was six my parents surprised me one half term with a trip to see Cats the musical in the West End. I fell in love - though according to my parents they didn't realise it had made much of an impression at the time. My awed silence meant that, not long after, when I saw an advert for the video production, I had to beg my mum to buy me a copy. She was unconvinced I would watch it, but I proceeded to prove her wrong every weekend for a good few years afterwards - and I longed to be able to see it live again. I was lucky enough to return to the West End once more the year before it closed there, and saw a few shows of UK Tours in the years following, but it wasn't until the tour of 2006 that I discovered a whole new dimension to going to see the show I loved after my dad's casual suggestion that I might like to go to the stage door one night when it was in my hometown. The possibility seemed wild and improbable to me; could these amazing, talented humans really just...leave the theatre every night? Could they really ever speak to mere mortals like me?! As it turned out, they did and they could, and once I had met them and been able to share my love of the show with them I simply longed to be able to see them again and again, to watch the tour change and grow and get to see every aspect of my favourite show again and again, and also follow those wonderful people who had been a part of it once they left the tribe for new shows, all the while finding new stories everywhere, adventuring up and down the country to make new memories and have more fantastical nights in beautiful theatres before tumbling out into the coolness of the night outside to have wonderful conversations with lovely and luminous people. The theatre is about the things I love most: stories, magic and wonder, and it is as close as most people ever come to impossible, incredible things. In the dark of an auditorium, it always seems as if truly anything can happen, and everything is so heightened and beautiful - there is simply never the same night twice. To me, spending time in a theatre is an event in itself, and I don't think there are many experiences which quite compare to a live show, and there is something hazy and delightful about that feeling when the final notes of the orchestra disappate, yet you know your night is far from over as you excitedly make your way around to see what more magic you can find at the stage door.

The Stage Doors of Cats the Musical

From 2006 when my stage door adventure begin after a performance of Cats to all the casts I have been lucky enough to see since in the many iterations of the Jellicle Tribe who have come and gone since my stage door journey first began; Cats is the show which first made me fall in love with the theatre and to make me fall in love with stage door; see me surprise Carbuckettys, be won over by understudies and always find room in my heart for more Jellicles even as Cats goes through its many iterations from tours to revivals.
Cats UK & International Tours 2006 - 2009
The Regent Theatre, Stoke-On-Trent, June 2006
The Bradford Alhambra, July 2006
The Sunderland Empire, September 2006
The Bristol Hippodrome, November & December 2006
The Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, February 2007
The Belfast Grand Opera House, March 2007
The Manchester Opera House, June 2007
The Birmingham Hippodrome, September 2007
The Liverpool Empire Theatre, November 2007
The Southampton Mayflower Theatre, March 2008
The Norwich Theatre Royal, April 2008
The Palafiera Di Forli, June 2008
The Frankfurt Alte Oper, December 2008
Cats UK & INTERNATIONAL toUR 2013 - 2014
The Wolverhampton Grand, March 2013
The Manchester Opera House, April 2013
The Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, October & November 2013
The Liverpool Empire Theatre, December 2013
The Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, April 2014
The Llandudno Venue Cymru, June 2014
The Canterbury Marlowe Theatre, June 2014
The Birmingham Hippodrome, September 2014
Cats London Palladium Revival 2014 - 2015
London Palladium, Gift Giving Trips December 2014 - January 2015
London Palladium, April 2015
Cats UK & INTERNATIONAL toURs 2015 - 2017
The Blackpool Opera House, September 2015
The Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, September 2016
The Antwerp Koningin Elisabethzaal, April 2017

The Stage Doors of Other Shows

I don't always like to simply say goodbye just because a Jellicle leaves the Junkyard; after meeting so many wonderful and talented people at the stage door of Cats I wanted to keep supporting them once they left the show, and as a result I have since found myself at the stage doors of many other wild and wonderful shows from West End productions to UK tours, to tiny off-West End venues and even a pantomime.
Stage Doors With Former Jellicles 2007 Onwards
KEVIN MCGUIRE IN FAME
JOHN MCMANUS IN SUNSHINE ON LEITH
JOHN MCMANUS IN DOCTOR DOLITTLE
KEVIN MCGUIRE IN FOOTLOOSE
CHRIS HOWELL IN SOUTH PACIFIC
JOHN MCMANUS IN THE BUCCANEER
ZAK NEMORIN IN CAROUSEL
CHRIS HOWELL IN SWEENEY TODD
DEAN MAYNARD IN ALADDIN
RACHEL ENSOR IN PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
JOHN MCMANUS IN JET SET GO!
RYAN DIXON IN EVITA
DEAN MAYNARD IN CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG
DEAN MAYNARD IN SOUTH PACIFIC
DEAN MAYNARD IN BILLY ELLIOT
RACHEL ENSOR IN WEST SIDE STORY
MATTHEW CAPUTO AND JOHN MCMANUS IN TOP HAT
BENJAMIN YATES IN TOMMY
BENJAMIN MUNDY IN ANNIE
DAWN WILLIAMS IN SHREK
CASSIE CLARE IN OLIVER!
MATTHEW CAPUTO IN MARY POPPINS
DAWN WILLIAMS IN MAMMA MIA!
CASSIE CLARE IN LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Matthew Caputo in Scrooge
Benjamin Mundy in The Book Thief
Benjamin Mundy in White Christmas
If you can't find the answer to your burning theatre questions on this site or if you simply want to know more about anything you read here, please feel free to get in touch through my contact page or find me on social media.
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