It really depends on the venue. I've seen it from the extreme sides at the O'Neill on Broadway, the Orpheum in San Francisco, and whatever banking theatre of the month that is in Chicago.
It was not a great seat at the Orpheum (deeply discounted), and if it'd been my first time, I'd probably have been annoyed and a bit confused. At the O'Neill it's just fine. At the Bank of Whatever in Chicago it was mostly fine — but again, I'd seen it a lot. Not a ton of plot points happen on the extreme sides, but you'd miss some laughs and fun visuals.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt