Wicked OBC chain mail autograph collection....

[Emi89]

haha best title ever...


ok, let me explain

i'm a big fan of wicked, especially the OBC, though i never got the chance to see them in person since i live in london

i have 2 OBC playbills (so i have one safe if i do attempt this)
i was wondering if it would be possible to send a playbill from london to somewhere to get it signed by a member of the cast and include means to forward it to the next person so on and so on until it got sent back to me in london? (as apposed to sending it to someone, getting it all the way back here.. sending it out again and risking losing the autograph already on it etc etc) i think once it got going the cast memebers and people involved might find it quite amusing and try to help out, (like the things where people put a teddy bear on a plane and send it all over the world and get people to take photos i'm sure you've heard of something similar)

i just wonder if something like this is possible... and how to go about setting it up in the original package...

i had thought about providing stamps and the next addresses on sticky labels which could then be stuck over the ones on the original envelope to get it to the next destination .. but i wonder if that would be too complex
i thought about numbering the addresses, though i suppose they could just pick out one at random and it'd be fine as long as i mark my return address with red marker to make it obvious that that one would send it back to london (i'd also mark the sticker with the stamps to get it back to london too) i could enclose a laminated letter explaining what this package was doing and that it would hopefully be circulating around the cast (this letter would be left in the package to be seen by each subsequent person), and then also enclose an enveloped letter for each cast member (or their people haha) to open once the package got to them...

putting in seperate envelopes for each person i think would be even more confusing as everything would have to be transferred into different envelopes and it'd cost more to get it places because thered be mroe bulk in the package


i realise this sounds like a very complicated "mission" haha but do you think it could work?
my hope was that its one of those things that people might get behind to try and get it to work because its an inventive way of going about it

i'd also need help finding addresses that still work for each of the cast members

any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!

i've cross posted in collecting help (mods let me know if this isnt allowed)

[TheScarletPimpernel]

I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think it'll work. I've attempted something of this magnitude, but it didn't work...at all.

Examples:
-KChen is out in LA filming (sort of/ending) her TV show; concerts here and there.
-Menzel is touring the country and rumored to be pregnant
-Joel Gray = ??
-Butz will be in Broadway this upcoming season.
-Eden Espinosa - touring the NY area-ish
-Some of the other members have rejoined in San Francisco or Broadway productions again.

The real problem is that irregardless of what the cast may claim, most of them aren't really that great of friends once their runs are over - as seen above, they're all all over the places. Furthermore, they're all extremely busy. It'd be a long shot you'd get past Menzel or KChen in a reasonable time.

What I would do is, send one of the playbills to let's say Menzel (or someone who will def sign) and then get it back; then check with the managament/agent whatever of the next person (for example, email KChen's agent) and alert them what you're sending so you have a better shot at getting it back...get that one back and repeat.

It's extremely hard to do this...you could always give your shot a way - I'm not saying it won't work, but the number of times I've asked other Broadway stars if they still are in touch with X, they usually are not. Or they're best friends. It could go either way...! It's up to you how you want to try it .

[Emi89]

i know idina has finished her tour and i assume will be staying in LA with her husband since he films there... and i'm assuming wont be up and off commiting on anything big because of the pregnancy (which last i heard was confirmed)

it didnt really count on people being friends and knowing where to send things it just counts on them sticking a new label on top of the last (though possibly if an agent is feeling nice and knows so and so's agent and knows that an address is not the right one ... they might change an address, of course i'm not relying on that haha)
though i could see how if they werent friends it would be a bit odd
it'd be kinda nice to think that something like this might encourage them to make contact if they were still friendly at the time they parted ways

but yes i see how getting the best address for the next person would be difficult not knowing how long it'd take to get past each person runs could end people could move etc

i figured i'd try to keep to agent/management addresses (while i think direct to venues seems to work better) as they're not time sensitive generally

i realise it could take a very long time it'd just be really great if it worked haha

i'd put my address as sender on the back so if it ever resorted to being "returned to sender" it'd be directed back to me

do you think emailing agent/management to get them on board with the "sceme" before it even arrived at them might be a good idea?
i've done a thing before with "fanmail" where i've emailed whoever it was beforehand and told them it was being sent and that it'd be in a bright blue envelope (so it stands out from all the others, i'd probably go with a bright green one for this project ;) ) i did get a response from them acknowledging that they got it and thanking me etc so i think it helps but then again i had had contact with them beforehand which let me know that they'd look out for a blue envelope so without getting a reply in the first place its kinda useless unless it peaks whoevers sorting through's interest since it's different

may i ask what you tried?

[TheScarletPimpernel]

Twice:

Jekyll & HYDE - The Musical
I sent something to Robert Cuccioli (Tony-Nominee) from Jekyll & HYDE with Christiane Noll (Emma) and Linda Eder (Lucy Harris), and he said he passed on the picture to Linda's agency address I gave him. I've never heard anything back. All otherwise he said was "Me and Christiane are still pretty good friends." It was fine, he sent me a solo picture, but I never got anything else back.

(I did however, get that trios autographs!)

Woman in White - Broadway Cast
Just didn't work; this cast was all over the world (Maria Friedman was in both London and Austrialia at the time I sent; Michael Ball was in London; Jill Paice was in New York; Adam Brazier was in Canada; Angela Christian was in California; Ron Bohmer was on the national tour of High School Musical; Justis Bolding was either in LA or NY filming a soap; Lisa Brescia was in NY). Both Brescia and Paice pretty much told me that it'd probably be extremely difficult (although all I said was trying to collect autographs from all of them). That was just two years ago at the time I wrote that the show had closed - and most of them hadn't really talked to each other (because of that diversity / busy-ness of all of them).

(I've gotten Maria's, Jill's, Ron's, Angela's, Brazier's and Brescia's...pretty much only with Angela's and Maria's being related to Woman in White)

Certainly you could give it a try...I just can't endorse it without giving you the consequences!

[Emi89]

thanks for your post

could anyone tell me how many US first class stamps to include on an SAE to get it back to the UK in terms of playbills?

i just found 52 of them from my last trip (how i ended up with so many i have no idea)

[TheScarletPimpernel]

A playbill to ship from US to US is roughly $.75-$1.10-ish (2-3 Forever stamps). Therefore, you'll need about 2-3 stamps to cover just from US to US, so probably 4-5 for a UK sending.