Superfans

Shows with child actors have to protect the children hence why they have to be overzealous with stage door policies, social media etc

My own limit for seeing shows, films more than once unless they are revivals or different production is about 3. I prefer seeing new shows and I think seeing something multiple times does lose its charm after repeated viewing but that's just my opinion.

Hmmm, I saw Shakespeare in Love 8 times including twice in one week (I'd seen a particularly depressing matinee of another show and needed cheering up so bought a spur of the moment ticket). Otherwise I'm not a repeat paying customer unless there is an interesting cast change.

I've seen stuff multiple times when working FOH though.

There have been two times I have seen Wicked twice in one week... Louise and Gina's final performance on the Saturday and then Willimijn and Savannah's first show on the Monday (if that counts as one week?) and also, whilst Gina and Louise were still there, I saw Wicked twice in one week because Marc McBride had a week on as Boq and I loved him in that role!

I have seen Wicked far too many times (67) and would say I am a super fan, but not an obsessive.I think there's a big difference

I don't have to run down to the theatre every time the fourth cover midwife is on

I have witnessed lots of what I would see as bizarre behaviour over the years. I really don't like the 'stand outside the theatre all day' thing. Pre stage door ing, between shows and then after. Baking things (why?) The giving of seemingly endless expensive presents (encouraged by twitter as they want a gushing online thank you now. A one in person no longer enough apparently...)

I go the stage door maybe a couple of times per cast to get a program signed and maybe a photo. Why you would want to go if not doing this, just going for a "chat", even though you were at the stage door yesterday. .. and the day before..... I will never understand it. They are not friends. This is a job! Perhaps performers want to get home and not have to have long conversations about that different note they did in the second number...

My most bizarre experience was not at a theatre but involved a super fan. In the days when players used to be allowed to sign autographs before matches at Old Trafford I saw a Ryan Giggs superfans give him a tie for his birthday and a cheque for £50!!! God knows how many tens of thousands he was on a week at the time. Would have loved to know the thought process behind that one! (I bet he cashed it!)

You mean taking buns round to the stage door?  And what sort of expensive presents? I mean, examples?

I'm horrified yet fascinated  

Superfans do seem a sense of entitlement, when their favourite show closes, they want to go to the final show claiming it was them to kept the show ignoring the fact they likely were a small percentage of a show's overall audience

That makes my 5 times in 6 days look almost restrained! And that was only because it was at my local theatre, I certainly couldn't do that in London. I too only stagedoored once, on the final evening (bad choice as they were doing their own get-out).

I saw The Boy From Oz 10 times over about 9 months. With most of them being over two week long trips. I was 19, I loved Hugh Jackman...what can I say?

I believe I've seen Rent 10 times or more, but in various productions across the years.

Nothing else (aside from when ushering) has ever tipped over the 10 mark, but I did see Avenue Q and Wicked twice in one weekend (seperate weekends) due to different groups of friends booking tickets for me.

I think as with anything there's a small minority of 'superfans' that give fans a bad name. I've written a book chapter (shameless self promotion) on Punchdrunk fans, the research for which conveyed to me just how charming and lovely a group of fans can be and how great it can be having other fans to enhance a theatrical experience.

Conversely it's an old cliche but genuinely some of my closest friends I know from being a fan of one thing or another.

I find it even creepier that she knew his shoe size.

I kind of agree Michael. If i hear someone say superfan i think of someone who is there all the time and behaves as if cast members are friends etc.
I see someone like yourself with the big tally of trips to see Wicked as just someone who loves seeing the show.

Not sure I like the idea of "real fans" (because by extension the implication is you have to qualify somehow to be considered a fan of something, and that way snobbery and gatekeeping lie), but as a Drowned Man superfan myself, going by the thread definition of someone who's seen a show 10 or more times, I can say that yes, we'd be envious of your one-to-one experience, but the vast majority of us would also be delighted that you had one. You can have a great show without being singled out by any of the performers, but there's no denying that a one-to-one can tip the evening over from merely "special" to "unforgettable"; we know how much it means to someone to have that, and although we all wish them for ourselves, we rarely wish it at the expense of someone else's experience.

Re: after-hours private sessions. I know that higher levels of keyholder, which is the Punchdrunk version of friendship or membership, do sometimes get invited to events just for them, and they can be taken away from that for a one-to-one experience especially for them, but it's a lot less like prostitution of the actors than you make it sound.