Stories from those who have been to the play, 'Once In A Lifetime'

By: Sabrina

Sorry I haven't gotten on before now, but I have been out all day. I have so much to tell you all, but not much time now, so briefly I MET LAUREN! ack - it was so great. I got a picutre and her autograph and had drinks with her. Well sort of. There was an opening night party at a local bar and we went and she was there. I had already gotten a picture and given her a gift earlier at the cast door after the play. Anyway I have so many details, but no time. I'll come back later to give more details about meeting her, but for now quick play details:
All seats are pretty good, but the front row was obviously fabulous. She was hilarious and was the main focus of the play. Quick info for outfits. First one: Ivory silk pjs and red silk robe with slide on slippers with purple embroidery. Second - a navy blue below the knee flare skirt with a white sailor blouse and open toe black t-strap capezios. Third - greeny-gold drop waist dress with chifon skirt and sparkle top. Forth - similar to the blue, red skirt and pleated white sailor blouse and black t-strap capezios, and final and favorite white sailor blouse with green trim and bow and green tweed skirt (same length and flare as the blue and red) and camel capezios. Okay - after the show she was wearing a camel and red and pink paisley-swirly pattern halter dress that was straight and hit above the knee and pink espadrills and no jewlry. She wore fresh water pearl earrings and necklace for most of the play and a curly brunette bob wig. Okay gotta go for now, but I'll be back later with more details of my encounter.

Okay back for a few minutes with some more details. Ask me anythinng you want about the play and I can get to those either tomorrow or Monday, but there are others who can answer those questions as well I'm sure. Quick clarifications since I was typing super quick yesterday the play shoes were character shoes and she wore the wig the whole time in the play. The most of the time was for the pearl jewlery. She had different jewlery for the grenny-gold formal dress.
Okay - So the person who answered about the cast door is right. There was security by that door before the play and we figured she'd already be inside then so we didn't stalk the door then. We did see "Franci" coming in. They had signs up inside about the after party so we knew were going to go and try to see her there. THey also had cast pics up so I'm not sure what the hold-up is on the website. After the play we went and waited by the cast door. There were really only friends and family waiting at the point. The whole cast slowly filtered out including that woman with the super-whiny voice who worked in the coffee shop on "Ellen." She was everywhere that night. She was next to us forever talking to her family at the door and then again at the party. Too bad I wasn't super interested in meeting her. Anyway as people filtered out and there were only a hand full of people outside the door, finally Lauren came out. All I can say is she is exactly what you expect. You know how some people look different in person. She looks and sounds exactly the same as on TV and in magazines. I forgot to mention before that she had her hair pulled back in a low ponytail at the base of her neck. And also what appeared to take her so long as compared to the rest of the cast is that she actually took off her stage makeup and put on her own. Everyone else had left on the stage makeup, including false eyelashes.

Anyway she was talking to a handful of actor people she knew, including a woman she had worked on Conrad Bloom with. She was saying "Yeah I know you from there, and I'm a big fan of your work on Six Feet Under by the way." Anyway they talked with the other people about how awful Conrad Bloom was and what a horrible show it was. But Lauren said the one thing she liked about it was working with this one woman, Jenika I think, who came into work on new drug everyday. Anyway, while she was talking she looked over and saw me waiting and sort of smiled. Then she finished her conversation and came over. I said "I have a gift for you" and she said "You do. AH. Thanks." I handed it to her. It was a bunch of little stuff in a Bloomy's bag which I will tell you all about later. I asked if I could have a picture and she said, "Of course. Pictures are always good." Then she said "You ladies look wonderful this evening" and then "I love your dress. It's beautiful" to my girlfriend. ::dies:: We took the picture and she asked where we came from and we said Boston. And she said "Really. God Bless you. Thank you so much." At some point she asked how we enjoyed the play and we told her it was wonderful. Then she asked if she would see us at the party and we said yes and then we all said goodbye. She went to find her car, but she started to go the wrong way and someone told her and she said "Ah - It's always in a different place."

We were gonna stalk her to see the car, but security was waving our car out of the lot. We went to the bar and it was packed and all the stars were there. We went to get our drinks at the bar (vodka tonics) and then I heard her voice and turned around and she was at the bar next to us. She was asking her friends what they wanted so she could buy for them and they asked her what she was getting and she said "anything with Vodka." She then turned turned to us (we had our drinks at that point) and asked what we had. I told her and she said to the bartender "That's what I want." Her friend was then asking her how she liked doing the play and she said it was great and that it was crazy with the matinees and the evening shows, but it was good because there was no time to come down. She then said her "other job was fun, but this is more radical, because of the intensity of the actors and everything." We then scooted away so we wouldn't appear too stalkerish and then Tate Donovan ran into my girlfriend and apologized and "Francie" was there tripping on her heels.

A little bit later as we were finishing our drinks and deciding we should head out, someone came up to Lauren and said there are some young girls outside looking for you. So she downed her drink and went out to give them pictures and autographs. I still had my TV Guide in my bag at that point, so as we walked by, after she had finished up with the girls I said "Can I bother you one last time and have you sign this" and handed her the TV Guide and a sharpie, and she said "Of course. It's no bother" and took it from me and signed it. She asked my name and then as she was signing it she said "Ah. There's too much black on this picture." But the signature turned out great anyway. I photographed it and I'll scan that with the other picture of us when I get it developed. She then asked if we were taking off and we said yes and told her to have a good night and thanks. And she said "Your welcome. Thank you." I wish we had more time to hang out at the party, but I also had gotten everything I wanted at that point and most of the people at the party were friends and family of the actors and I didn't want to but in too much and be a totally annoying fan. Well that is all I can remember for now. I'm sure there's more, but I'll let you know if more comes to mind later.

OH - the gift. There was a tube of homemade "vicious trollop" lipstick, a handheld homemade shell mirror (yes we copied Rosie) with shell stickers with a card quoting her from Rosie. A Mount Holyoke funky vintage baseball T-shirt that we ironed on GILMORE and 07 (for the class year) with a little packet on Mount Holyoke and our cooked up fantasies of why they should go there. I have to watch every talk show she is on now to see if she mentions the random gifts like she did with the mosaic of her face. Although nothing can compete against that for random. I keep thinking I should have put something with my name and address in there, but then realizing that's stupid because it's not like she is going to write me and tell me what she thought. Anyway, hopefully I'll have the pictures up sometime next week. But as I said, no more one hour photo for me. I'm going to a real developer and waiting it out. Well I guess that is enough rambling for now.

Oh yeah - CAMERAS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE THEATRE. You are supposed to check them with the usher. They didn't search bags and I had mine in there but I left it there for the whole show. No one else had cameras out and no one took pictures. So I wouldn't do it unless you have already met Lauren before the show and don't mind being escorted out. Also I figure it'd be pretty rude. THe information is in the program. Anyway, no electronic equipment of any kind is allowed in.

Back to answer a couple logistical questions I think were asked. Sorry I haven't had much time to read through stuff but I definitely will read through all the posts with a fine toothed come on Monday and answer any and all questions with VERY SPECIFIC details.
The theater temp was comfortable but the Lobby area was miserable, so if you get there early pop in to look at the pictures, but then go wait outside until they let you in the theater.

Scan the audience for actors because there were lots of actors and relatives there (Not any well known one the night I was there, but I could tell from the conversations outside the door). Lauren did not have any of her own friends or family there that night. They were just people there for the festival working on other plays.

There are several parking lots, but as long as you are there by 7:15ish you can park in the main lot where the actors park behind the theatre. Damn, I realize now from the other poster that I must have just missed her out front. I was either in my car gathering things or inside looking at the cast pictures. Oh well, I did get to see her plenty.

Okay that's it for now. Let me know if there is anything else you want to know.

Oh yeah- please excuse the typos in all my posts about this. I am usually a stickler for that stuff but I have been too excited to get everything up and don't have time to go back and edit. And "Francie" is Elizabeth Bergl I think. I just forgot her name before and am too lazy to get the program.

sorry it's Emily Bergl, not Elizabeth and the woman from Ellen who's also in it is Clea Lewis. There are lots of other people in it who I should know but I am having trouble placing. I'll work on it and get back to you all later, or maybe somone else will before me.

The 07 on the shirt is because if Rory graduates from high school next year then that is when she should be graduating from college. As for the flaired tweed skirt, it had two rounded hip seams to help if flair. Have I mentioned that was my favorite outfit? I love funky green colors. Okay most dramatic or funny moment for her character? Hmmm. Her scenes with Peter Frechette who plays the playwrite going insane are amazing and he is really wonderful and they work well together, particulary in the scene on the train when she is heading back to New York and talking about all of George's mistakes.

Lauren didn't make any mistakes the night I was there, but Tate Donovan definitely did. I really wasn't all that impressed with his performance. In fact the brief review comment that someone posted about the cast not supporting her made me think of him. He may have just been really off that night, but it didn't seem like he could pull off stage acting. The funniest moment was actually a mistake of his in the first scene. He had his arms around Lauren and he said "We'll talk about it on the plane" rather than train and Lauren elbowed him in the stomach and he was like "ooff train." It was hilarious.

Let's see, Lauren definitely is as nice as everyone has said or inferred. She was soooo sweet. As for her smallness I noticed that too. She is definitely several inches taller than me but she didn't seem towering at all. But what I also noticed is she wasn't overly small either. She wasn't like ridiculously skinny or petite. She was healthily filled out. The other thing I noticed that I loved, is she wasn't overly toned like she goes to a personal trainer everyday. She just looked normal, aside from being her fabulous beautiful Lauren self of course. My only critism, and don't throw tomatoes at me here, was her hair. The ends seemed totally overly processed and fryed. I only mention this because I mentioned that heat process to my hairdresser and she said she went to this elite training in NY at this top salon and they refused to teach her the process, because they said it was not good for the life of the hair. Anyway, the rest of it was definitely shiny and beautiful and I'm sure part of it was having it up in a wig all day. Onto other positives, I think Eliii mentioned her eyes glowing. They were amazing. So much so, I was wondering if she was wearing colored contacts. They just positively glowed on stage and they just poped afterwards when we met her outside in the dark.

Her dress was tan with reddy/pinky patterns. I thought the bright color looked more red but her shoes were bright pink so it may have been more of a magenta. There was lighter pink too. The shoes were way cool. They had big chunky espadrille bottoms and then bright pink suedey cross over.

By: Eli

On the way there I was, luckily, in charge of directions so that gave me something to do. Then when we got there I could really feel the excitement. Actually I felt kina sick for some reason. I hadn't "prepared" anything before we got there (like pics of her or such) but I really wasn't sure I was gonna get to see her at all since we were on the afternoon show and all.

Anyhoo, we were sitting on some bench outside the theatre to grab a cig before the play, and we quickly realised it had to be close to the back entrance, cause all the actors started coming there. Then when there was less than 30 minutes til the play started my friends were suddenly like "Eli, look!" and there came Lauren, running right past us. I, of course, went into immediate shock or something and couldn't really move for a little while. She was past us before we knew it, but we did get a chance to see that she had really cool pants and sunglasses. Obviously very important things. And looked very cute running. :giggle:

Then the actual play. She was fabulous. Just fabulous. It was so cute, cause she ****ed up a few lines. Okay, **** up might be overdoing it a little, cause she made it back in in a whim. Naturally my focus had it's obvious center, but luckily I have good side vision so I got the rest of the play as well. I don't wanna say much about the play, since some people haven't seen it yet, but we can talk about that later when it's over. I loved her, though. She really pulled this off.

Then after the play we immediately put our stalking boots on just to see if there was any chance she'd come out before the evening show. And she sure did. It was a rather small crowd there, so it wasn't like we had to fight our way over to her when she finally came out. So we got her to sign our play bills. Then my friend said to Lauren that I was a huge fan and came all the way from Norway to see her. I was in a bit of a daze the whole time, and suddenly lost too much ability to speak. Anyway, so she felt she had to say that, which of course I had to sort of laugh off a little. Wouldn't wanna come across as a stalker, now would I? Besides, it wasn't really the truth either. And then she was like "To Norway?" and we were like "no, from" and then some aahh'ing and then she was like where is that? So I told her, and she was like she knew it was out of the country (which made me think geography isn't exactly her fave class) and then that she knew it was north of Amsterdam'ish. Loved that she said 'ish, well cause I think that's cute. Bla bla bla, took some pics while we stood there, and then some other people had more of the attention. Just for the record, she did, indeed, have to return the dress from the Golden Globes, and didn't seem too happy about that. Someone commented on that, so there was a hint of a pout. While on the subject of clothes we, of course, had to comment and ohh and ahh at her awesome, green pants. They were just excellent. Then she said that she "did some online shopping". Then we were just standing there. It was such a small crowd that you could just stand there and chit chat in a way. Tate Donovan came out as well, with a box of pizza and coke, and I got him to sign my play bill too. Then we decided we wanted to take this all the way, and ask her to take a picture with us. So we waited while two, rather creepy men stood there and simply wouldn't let her go. Bla, bla bla, smarm. I swear, one of them was like 80. While we were patiently waiting for them to feel done taking pics and god knows what, she turned to me and I swear, she had a somewhat wild look in her eyes, and was like "you guys wanted to take a pic?" and she seemed very eager to do exactly that. Bla bla bla more men, and she was like "yeah, we're just gonna do this first" and then she was mumbling some snide remark while we turned around which I of course found rather amusing. So we took the pic and then the men wanted more but then she was like "yeah, I think we're good now". A few more random comments a little pat on the back, back and forth and we left and she went back inside.

Yeah, was that too deailed?? Anyway..

Oh, and yeah! She was smaller than I expected. Cause everyone's rambling on how tall she is, but I'm apparently a tad taller than her. Very slim and absolutely absolutely stunning. That kinda blew me away at first. Not that I didn't know, but it's always different in real life.

First for the comment when we took the picture, I really can't remember. Dude, she had her arm on my back. How in God's name was I supposed to focus? It was just the way she said it, like jeez'ish. And like "alrighty then". Little hard to explain. Me and my friends like to say that we saved her from them. Well, we probably did.

When we sat at the table first and she came running by her hair was straight and dude, so beautiful. So apparently she likes to do that, and probably does it herself. Me and my friends came to that conclusion, at least, and we were pretty impressed by that. I just love it when she has her hair like that. When she came out after the show she apologized for looking like crap with a ...umm, bandana? Cause she'd been wearing a wig during the play and needed something to hide her hair. Of course she still looked amazing, and it was really cute. Then the green, awesome pants (I can't really describe them), and a black, simple tank top or something similar. Wish I'd get a better look at the sunnies first, cause I just love sunnies. They looked cool from where I sat, at least. She didn't wear them later. Thank God, cause her eyes are so beautiful. Big and bright. She also wore the cutest flip flops. You know the very simple ones. With something shiny on them. Little too big, cause I kinda stepped a little on them when I was standing with Tate. Well, how was I supposed to know it was her shoes and not the grass?!

Yes, Alexis, since I'm taller than her she did seem smaller. But it's not like she's small small. Still tall, slim and cute. We're about the same height I should think, cause I was wearing shoes with more heels than her flippies.

One of the bloopers I remember was when she was gonna say "use his voice" in the beginning and she said "lose...use his voice". Or was it the other way around...hmm, I'm really not sure right now. It was all very cute. I haven't had time to read any of the reviews, but I thought she was really good, and I hope she does more plays.

It wasn't just Tate that had pizza. Some other of the cast came out with like 20 boxes, so it was probably time for lunch before the evening show. So they were juggling all this through us standing there.

Yeah, I know! Wasn't it just too cute that she said 'ish? I loved that part.

All in all she was, indeed, very friendly and approchable. When she signed she asked everyone for their names. Actually when she was signing mine she was yapping about the Norway thing so she didn't at first. I, of course, made sure she did when she was done talking.

By WitterGirl28

The cast door is on the side of the building, you drive past it when going into the parking lot ... there's a sign on the front that says "cast and crew only", so it's easy to find. -- There wasn't too much security. The only people I noticed were the people directing you where to park. They didnt check bags. I didnt notice anybody taking pictures during the curtain call. I think whe would have signed for anybody who went up to her... there weren't too many people who tried. We got a pic with her outside of the bar instead. I forget the exact name of the place... but it was a Bistro & Bar. If you turned left out of the parking lot and kept going straight, you would see it on the right.

we got to the theater a little early to pick up the tickets... so afterwards we were sitting at this picnic table that was on the side of the building. It was about 7:15, and the play was starting at 8. So we're talking... and then my little brother was like, "Lauren is behind you getting out of her car" -- We thought he was kidding, because we figured she would already be inside, but when we turned around, there she was! When she first went by, we just watched her... she was carrying a cardboard box -- then she came back out and got some more stuff and her dress. Then we waved to her, and told her that we drove 3 hrs to see her and she was like "Awww, thats really nice of you... later we can take pics and sign things, after I get myself all pretty" -- She really reminded us of Lorelai at that point. When she walked in she was wearing a white tank top, and dark green cargo pants that were a little baggy.
She seemed like she wanted to get to the party... but she would have stopped for anybody that went up to her, I think --- We waited for the party to go up to her. I'm sure that you'll have no problem getting a picture with her when you go!!

The ride there took a lot shorter than we expected it would!! -- Seeing her before hand would be good. There was nobody around that area besides us at that point, and we were just there because it was the only place to sit! -- The car she was driving was red and she parked in the little parking lot right by the picnic table. I'm not sure she always does, though. Afterwards she walked to the regular parking lot by mistake, then remembered where she parked and turned around.

By: melzer04

Thursday
We—that being me my mother and father—had to wake up at like 3 to get to the airport with plenty of time to go to security and such. Through all of our flights I maintained a cool head and stayed patience; I had been preparing all week and wasn’t gonna screw everything up by acting insane. We got to Albany about 12 and made our way towards Williamstown, only about a 45 minute drive. The minutes lasted days and the hours seemed like years. We got there cruised around to check things out and decided we should go to the box office and pick up our tickets. When we got there, there was a funny looking man standing outside, what turned out to be the cast door, in shorts and a white t-shirt. My father walked past but he didn’t say anything but kind of put on the how dare you talk to me demeanor. It turned out to be Lewis Black, a comedian who can regularly be seen on the Daily show with Jon Stewart. After a nap at our hotel it was time to get ready and go to the play. We arrived, there was quite a crowd, but the place only seats like 500—which sound big but doesn’t look like much at all. It was about this time when I kept thinking “I’m in the same room as Lauren Graham. I’m breathing the same air as Lauren Graham.” She was second on the cast list so I didn’t have to wait long to see her. She played ‘May Daniels’ who was part of a vaudeville act with her boyfriend Jerry Highlander played by Tate Donavan (Love Potion #9 and some other stuff) and their idiot of a friend George Lewis. After seeing the movie the Jazz Singer jerry decided they should go to Hollywood and get jobs basically. They went and started a voice school but it pretty much failed. George got fired up and yelled at the head of the studio –but he sounded like and idiot—and was made supervisor or something. He then set to make a movie but ended up making the wrong one. While all this was going, on Jerry had gone Hollywood and left May behind. They had been engaged to be married but that had apparently not worked out. They made up and George’s movie thought he wrong one ended up being a master piece of its time and all ended well. Lauren’s part wasn’t really the most comedic. She was sort of goofy and had a loose demeanor. Her hair was up to her ears and she was totally a different character than the wonderful Lorelai. She really encompassed the drama in the play, which was her dealing with her boy Jerry not paying any attention to her at all. But he came back, they all come back. After the play everyone was invited to a gala at a local restaurant where you could meet the stars and such. We went and I expected her to be late so we just sort of hung outside the door and wanted to catch her before she got lost in the crowd. Like I said, I expected her to be late and coming from the direction of the theater so I was half looking. About 20 minutes went by and I fully expected more time to go by when I glanced to my left. I saw a woman walking purposefully in a cute sun dress and long black hair pulled back in a pony tail. She had her head bent down kind of looking at the floor and was scratching her nose. I thought nah that can’t be her and turned my head the other way again. But when she walked past it WAS her. The only words I could get out where “That, That, That’s Lauren Graham.” My Dad got her attention and she came over and he asked if she would take a picture with me and of course she did. My mom had to ask her for the autograph. I think I mumbled out that I dragged my parents up here but I was dumbstruck honestly. She was signing my playbook and she asked how to spell my name I actually did it, something I am very proud of considering the circumstances. She was really very nice and seemed genuinely flattered that I would come all tat way to see her in a play. On my playbook she wrote “To Ashley, Thanks for coming! Lauren Graham.” I was ecstatic to the point I lost my vision for a minute and everything turned into white dots in my vision. I had pleasant dreams that night if I never had before. Honestly though, I really would have liked her to be more of the live wire I know she is. I mean I guess she had to be nice though cause she doesn’t know me from Adam and my parents where there.

Friday
I had done what I came to do so Dad said I had no say in what we were gonna get to go do that day. He wanted to roam all over the Berkshires but we finally decided to go to the Clark Art Museum which is right in town. We went in paid for out ticket and where walking into the museum entrance when I noticed someone. It was Tate Donavan, the leading man from the night before. I thought hey that’s kinda cool. But then I noticed someone else. He had with him a very black headed woman by the name of Lauren Graham. She was standing right beside him coffee in hand and I had to pick myself up off the floor (not literally) from the shock, she kept sneaking up on me. We walked in this side thing about Vienna but when we walked out they were right in front of us. Inside the main museum I saw them go left so I went right. It got to be very funny that I had flown all this way to see this woman and all I wanted to do was ignore her. I didn’t want her to feel weird nor did I want to mess up her visit to the museum. She had kinda gone incognito but I know her from the second I caught a glimpse of her. My plan had basically worked but then somehow along the way they got in kind of a wave behind me. I would go into a room and they would come in 1 minute later. She ran off to the bathroom I ****ume at some point and I got in pace with ol’ Tate. I would look at a painting and step to the next one and her would look at a painting and move to the one I was just looking at. I tried my best to not look at them directly and I think I succeeded in the no eye contact area. The whole time I felt sort of like one of those ridicules people who follow around celebrities stalking them though. I kept fleeing and got frustrated because I kept looking at he painting but I couldn’t look at them for knowing they where like 5 feet behind me in he same room. I hurried through and went to the museum shop with my mom. But, what do they do they come down like 2 minutes behind me and start looking at coffee mugs behind me. Part of me thinks she may have been aware of me but just wanted to enjoy the museum. But a teeny tiny apart of me thinks that she may of thought it was funny that someone she met last night who told her she was a big fan would look directly at her or stay in the same room for incredible lengths of time. I or may not have become a game to see how uncomfortable they could make me. I can somehow see her doing that but it maybe my imagination. I hung around a while and waited for them to leave and then departed with this most ironic turn heavy on my head.

I didn’t see any more of her but before we had gone to the museum I dropped a note off at the box office telling her I really was a big fan and that I had been totally dumbstruck the night before. I think she’s probably gotten it by now, they seemed confident they could get it to her but who knows. I put my address on the back of the card just incase she would write back, but I don’t expect anything to come of it. All in all, my trip turned out better than I imagined and even though I felt like an idiot I had a great time.