Will San Jose ever get a decent theatre? (Hairspray)

San Jose is trying hard to become a real big city and to attract theatre patrons. Next season they will be getting touring shows that, in the past, would have normally gone to San Francisco first("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "Sweet Charity", "Camelot" for example). Their downtown is clean and is not littered with the homeless unlike San Francisco's Golden Gate and Orpheum. However, they use this huge symphony hall called "The San Jose Center for the Performing Arts". They've put in new carpets, new seats, and a new sound system. However, it is still an awful place to see a show, just like the Flint Center in Cupertino which has abandoned it's once ambitious touring show schedule (Broadway By The Bay back in the early to mid 1990's). I drove down and back last night to see "Hairspray". There is no center aisle in the theatre so people can only enter from the right or the left. Every single time someone needs to get to or from their seat, the rest of the aisle has to get up to let them by. After a while, it becomes a pain in the neck. And, of course, there were several late arrivals and all of them got up for Intermission and came back late from that, too.
Then there is the orchestra pit which is in front of the stage, not really a pit, but is placed in such a way that the first row would probably be the fifth or sixth row in a normal theatre. Also, before the show, the head of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose comes out and gives a talk/commercial for "Brooklyn" which he described as a "wonderful show" and then the upcoming season.

I'm glad to see that they are supporting the arts but they really need to build or find a real theatre.

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Updated On: 6/19/06 at 10:30 PM

' There is no center aisle in the theatre so people can only enter from the right or the left. Every single time someone needs to get to or from their seat, the rest of the aisle has to get up to let them by. After a while, it becomes a pain in the neck. And, of course, there were several late arrivals and all of them got up for Intermission and came back late from that, too.'

Jim, you are also describing the San Diego Civic Theater.

I grew-up in San Jose (well Saratoga), and I saw it go from a dump to an absolutely wonderful downtown. My mother taught at a downtown school, and found a body in a van as she was the only one who would go open the van, which had been parked in front of her elem school for 4 days.

Now it's safe down there.

I would assume that cost is the major reason. If enough people get angry it'll change, but I'd bet the bulk of people there think live theater is either The Music Man or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof..........and that Hairspray is something your mother used long ago.

On the Flint Center, I was there the night it opened.......staring Lily Tomlin. I have not been since, sad to think it's a mess, as it was, and perhaps still is the largest theater venue between SF and LA.

Did you like the show?

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Sorry to but in, but what did you think of the Edna? I didn't think he was that great. He comedic timing was off and his voice was flat (I don't mean tone but in energy).

A lot of theaters have no aisle .. it's called "continental" seating. I had asked someone about it because I found it very annoying as well and I thought it might actually be a fire hazard, but it turns out it is actually safer because the people are forced to uniformely exit if there were an emergency .. or so they say.

It would be OK if they made the aisles wide enough so that people could get back and forth without disturbing everyone else in the aisle. I think that the old Shubert at Century City (LA) had pretty wide aisles from what I remember.

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Austin Miller is great as Link but he hasn't been in the tour for a long time. He was in the Vegas version. The Link in the tour is Aaron Tveit.

I thought Jim J Bullock was very good as Wilbur. I saw him in the Broadway show but there he was "Mr Pinky", etc.

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It thought the guy doing Edna was great.......I didn't mind that he pulled 'Harveyesque" stuff, and I loved that he can sing.

When I saw it down here, they put their all into it, maybe cause it was the next to last show at the Pantages.....

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"Not to mention they are kind of falling apart"

They put in new seats and new carpeting but the place is still awful for theatre. It's also difficult to get to by mass transit from SF unless you have a whole day to devote to getting back and forth. Maybe someday they will finally extend BART to San Jose but I'm sure if it ever does happen it will be after I've passed on.

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I doubt bart in SJ will happen in my lifetime.. And having to go to Fremont for the closest Bart station is horrible..

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