Akron Civic Theatre — Attraction in Akron

I was really disappointed in my experience at Akron Civic Theater on 10/23/22 when I went with a group to see Legally Blonde the Musical. It all started when we purchased a performance that was supposed to start at 3pm and a few weeks later they changed the start time to 5. This seriously inconvenienced my party as many people lived over an hour away and it was a Sunday and their children had school the next day. I was glad they were able to work it out and still come but it would have been nice to keep the original start time considering that’s what we all agreed to when purchasing the tickets. While there, we encountered 3 very rude employees! We were trying to locate the restrooms when we first got there and someone pointed us in the direction of the stairs. We started walking up the stairs and an employee stopped us and told us we couldn’t go upstairs. We politely told her that we were trying to find the bathroom. She rolled her eyes at us and her tone of voice was very entitled “you can’t go upstairs right now” and pointed to where the bathrooms were but her eye roll made it seem like she thought we were supposed to know that as if we come there all the time. We then found a bathroom but were scolded by another employee that after using the restroom, we needed to promptly go back to the lobby because the stage manager had not opened the vestibule doors yet. After using the restroom and heading back to the lobby, we were stopped by a gentleman in the vestibule who was running a drink stand. He asked us if we wanted anything, and we did! So we started ordering drinks with him and a very rude woman came over to us and yelled at us that this area wasn’t opened yet. However, we were already in the process of ordering so he let us continue and this woman then got angry with him. Giving him nasty looks and impatiently hurrying him and us along. As we were leaving back to the lobby, she was most certainly scolding him for selling us drinks. He was the only nice employee we encountered this night and I felt bad for him with the wrath he was receiving from this lady that appeared to be a manager of some sort. I found it very unprofessional that she did this publicly. During intermission we went to the restroom. Suddenly something went wrong with their restroom and every single toilet wouldn’t flush. Women were just using the restroom on top of others soil like it was a port-a-john. There weren’t any bathroom attendants or employees around to notify of this problem. To add, there were several bathroom stalls where the locking mechanism wouldn’t work. The seats in the theater were also awful. I am short and didn’t have a problem, but one of the women in my party was 5’8” tall and her knees touched the front of the seat in front of her and she was so hunched over and uncomfortable in her seat. 5’8” isn’t even that tall- I can’t imagine how someone over 6 foot would feel. We also had to locate our seats by ourselves. There were no employees in sight on the balcony to help us find our seats. Basically, if you are expecting a playhouse experience… you won’t find it here! If I could rate the actual show, I would give it a 10. But this rating is purely for the theater and giving us an...

I took my wife, son and his fiance to see Christmas Vacation and a live interview with Chevy Chase. We were so excited to go and take part in a movie that has made us laugh every Christmas since it came out. Coming into downtown akron the roads and sidewalks are all tore up around the theatre and parking areas. The traffic was ridiculous and we had to part quite far from the venue and walk through a maize of construction to get there. We finally made it to the entrance and the lines to get in stretched out of the theatre and down the street in the freezing cold. Once finally in the theatre we heard the movie already starting and there were still hundreds of guests still trying to get in. We hurried to our seats which are not clearly marked and quickly sat down to watch the show. But now all we could see were the hundreds of people still coming in and trying to find their seats. The back doors were hung open and the crowd noise was loud and it lit up the back rows. The doors remained open until about 40 minutes into the show which was very distracting. The move now 30 minutes in could finally be viewed and heard, at that's what I thought. The screen was disappointingly small and the movie was very dark, you could only see half the faces as the rest were dark and shady. The sound for a theatre was also very disappointing as well. The all of the sudden a gentleman walks out and stops the movie to lower a bigger screen then restarts the movie from about 5 minutes back. Ok bigger screen but picture quality still bad and sound didn't change. Fast forward movie ends and Chevy Chase comes out for the interview. First off we can't hear him very well and secondly the interviewer needs to learn how to conduct an interview and improvise when its live. Chevy Chase was interesting to hear from but to many questions about SNL and other movies when the focus was supposed to be the Christmas Vacation movie. I spent 300.00 dollars on four tickets to enjoy a night out viewing the best Christmas movie ever made and to hear from the legendary star of the movie but the Akron Civic Theatre really did not deliver and it was quite a disappointment. The management knowing that construction around the theatre caused a major traffic and parking issue and that one third of the audience was still trying to get in the building would have had enough professionalism to make an announcement about a short delay in starting the movie and improvised by showing clips of other Christmas related movies or Christmas Vacation Trivia etc.. That would not solve the picture quality or the sound but it would at least get everyone seated so we could all try to enjoy the movie. Maybe if you didn't serve alcohol you wouldn't have people making 50 trips up and down the isles during the show distracting other viewers. Too much hard earned money was spent when I could have watch the DVD on a far superior screen and sound system in my...

I got tickets to the Sweeney Todd performance thinking it was going to be at the Akron Civic theater, since I was at the Akron Civic Theater website. It turned out it was for their "Knight Stage" which I had no idea that was a separate theater. There's no images of which venue you're getting tickets for on their website, and I had no idea that they had recently added a separate stage with a different name! Anyway, that was really frustrating because my girlfriend has been really depressed and we were both really looking forward to being in that beautiful classic Civic Theater!

The cast, crew, and director of Sweeney Todd were absolutely amazing! Absolutely flawless performances by them all and I can't say enough about how incredible they were.

That said, we left at intermission. We couldn't stand how we were all seated in the cheapest chairs that were basically one rung up from those folding chairs you'd find in a church basement. On top of that they had NO space between them. I mean none! Not a single arm rest or anything! I had to keep my shoulders sideways while sitting next to a guy that was probably 300 pounds. Who in their right mind thinks we all enjoy being crammed in like that?! Especially in this "post" COVID era? It makes it very difficult to enjoy a performance! I would have loved to stay but the seating was terrible. They could've at least spaced them apart a few inches! Until they get better chairs or at least learn to arrange it so everyone has a meager bit of space between them, I won't be going back to the...