Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Steel Pier Fan
Featured Actor Joined: 4/11/11
#1Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 5:57pmWhat is the ugliest and nicest? Best and worst acoustics? Best and worst seats? Least Space? Also best and worst show on Broadway Right now?
egghumor
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
#2Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 6:45pm
My hands-down favorite theater is the Lyceum. I also enjoy seeing shows in the Brooks Atkinson, Walter Kerr, Schoenfeld, Nederlander, Booth, and the St. James. I don't recall ever having a bad seat in any of those great houses.
The worst balcony seats I've had (I don't usually sit in the balcony, but sometimes you got no choice) were at the Palace (miles high) and the Shubert (so much of the proscenium is cut off).
I think the ugliest and most boring theatre is the Minskoff.
Someone just commented elsewhere that the Stephen Sondheim has the most spacious leg room.
I wish I could see the Belasco now that it has been refurbished.
Oh yeah, I LOVE the Music Box as well. Gorgeous and intimate.
Updated On: 4/12/11 at 06:45 PM
#2Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 6:58pmI love the Walter Kerr, the Booth, and the Belasco. I've sat in the last row of the balcony at the Belasco and it still felt like such a small, intimate theatre. Plus the restoration was absolutely gorgeous.
#3Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:00pmThe Kerr is gorgeous, but the legroom is the absolute worst on Broadway.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
rorschach37
Broadway Star Joined: 4/3/10
#4Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:05pmI think the St. James would have to be my favorite. The Palace is really nice, but you can tell it looks rather old. The Booth is gorgeous, but the leg room is terrible.
ahhrealmonsters
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/10
#5Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:05pm
The Longacre is my favorite because the balcony is super close.
The Foxwoods has the most leg room. The mezzanine of Studio 54 has no leg room.
The rear mezz of the Broadway is horrible. As said above, the balconies of the Shubert and Palace suck. The mezzanine of the Shubert sucks, too. I've never been to the balcony of the Walter Kerr, but it scares me.
The set-ups of the Sondheim and August Wilson are pretty cool- floor level of the Sondheim is the mezzanine, and the orchestra is up a floor in the August Wilson.
Not historic in any way, but the lobby of the Foxwoods is gorgeous.
#6Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:12pmThe Richard Rodgers is bad if you're in the back of the orchestra, with the overhang from the balcony.
egghumor
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
#7Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:15pm
This hideous no-leg-room problem is something that has taken place since the 80s when the Shuberts, Nederlanders, and Jujams started adding more rows of seats to make more money. It screwed up the experience for everyone. Just like the airlines. A damn shame.
#8Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:20pm
Richard Rodgers rear orchestra? No way. Maybe the last two rows or so, but I was probably 5th row from the back at ITH once and it was great. Richard Rodgers had the best sight lines.
Foxwoods is also amazing, lobby is very nice.
#9Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:28pmLet me correct myself, the rear orchestra of the Richard Rodgers when seeing Tarzan.
#10Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:39pmA theatre that I really like that hasn't been mentioned is the Al Hirschfeld. I was also just in the Cort for the first time this weekend and thought it was a lovely theatre.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#11Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:47pmI hate the mezz of the Sondheim and the Rodgers! To damn high up!
#12Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 8:11pm
I hate the Imperial. I am 5'1" (on a good day?) and I had zero leg room. I can't imagine what its like for normal people.
LOVE the leg room at the Sondheim. They did a really nice job with the remodel. Same goes for the Belasco.
Aesthetically, I love the Music Box and the Booth.
#13Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 8:58pmThe Walter Kerr should be among the worst for that awful, awful balcony.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
Wanting life but never knowing how
#14Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:59pmNo Vivian Beaumont fans? It's my very favorite. It's such fun to see something a little different than a proscenium and there's really not a bad seat in the house...and I've sat just about everywhere in the house!
#15Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:08pmI love looking at the Al Hirschfeld pictures at the, um, Al Hirschfeld. Plus I like the fact that it's a (tiny) bit away from the other theatres, in what seems like a leafy area.
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dexter3
Featured Actor Joined: 9/13/08
#16Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:10pm
Studio 54 mezz. NO LEGROOM. Awful. If I can't get a decently priced orchestra seat I don't see shows there anymore. I just can't take the mezz...
Updated On: 4/12/11 at 11:10 PM
#17Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:14pm
Ooh, love the Beaumont, especially the way it was used for South Pacific. Comfortable, too. The mezz just feels a little removed/high at times.
Agreed that the Studio 54 Mezz is painful. I have to get a seat on the aisle and sit sideways.
#18Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:36pmThe rear mezz at the Broadway is by far the worst. Surprisingly, even though it's a small theatre, the Golden has a pretty crappy rear mezz too. My favorites are the Kerr, the Beaumont (I think less leg room than the Kerr), and the August Wilson.
Vespertine1228
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
#19Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/13/11 at 12:53pm
The mezzanine at Studio 54 and the balcony at the Palace were my first two thoughts for bad.
The Friedman has very comfortable seats and good legroom. So does the Marquis. I like the Vivian Beaumont as well, especially since you can put your stuff in the lockers.
Can we nominate New World Stages for worst Off-Broadway theater? All five of their spaces are so sterile, and they have so few bathrooms for so many people.
#20Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/13/11 at 1:05pmThe St. James simply because there isn't a bad seat in that whole house and the Stephen Sondheim because it's so damn comfortable and clean.
#21Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/13/11 at 1:12pmThe Ambassador has poor sight lines in the mezzanine on the extreme sides, including the front. Fortunately, most of the action takes place center stage. But, I couldn't see the sides very well or the band.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
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#22Best and Worst Broadway Theatre
Posted: 4/13/11 at 4:59pm
I love every part of the St James, a really beautiful theatre.
Surprised so many people on here like the 'Walter Kerr' when I sat there for the long 1st act for a little night music, the experience was awful, I couldn't even sit with my legs at 45 degrees (right angle) and was counting down the songs for the interval, for the second half I stood at the back of the orchestra. (Even more gaoling when I paid $146 for my ticket.
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