Strand Theatre — Attraction in Boston

Van Gogh 'Exhibition' at the Strand

We visited this famous landmark, actually a theater but in this case housing the traveling show depicting Vincent Van Gogh which coulda/shoulda been called, "Vincent: His life and times: an extravaganza!" More on the exhibit(s) as mixed blessing in a bit. So. This was my first visit to the Strand (on my bucket list for quite some time) after living in greater Boston ~40 yrs., and I plan to return when usual programming resumes. The space has been beautifully restored, from what I could see as well as from what I've read about it- most walls and fixtures were covered or in darkness, so only a few of the vast, airy space's decorations were visible. Now, call me newly inducted into Hoi Polloi-hood, but, overall, I got a big kick out of the entire trip, such as it was ~ Hmmm, maybe I'm just not as sophisticated as I once thought - Egads! Once again, dear reader, I digress... With regard to the exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh: In parts it was fabulous! In others, well, not so much! Most objectionable were the "reproductions" of Van Gogh's works - without much mention, if any, of where these copies came from, or even that they WERE copies... but I suppose the fact they're unprotected, unguarded gives the viewer some kind of clue to their un-originalness, if I may coin an awkward term. Needless to say I found this portion of the exhibit disappointing even confusing, at best. Mostly, though, it's up (in a good way) from here on in. Before I leave the repros: Some of these are really drab (Wait-a-minute: Van Gogh? drab? you ask) - Is this meant to display how color deteriorates over time? Or is it to drive home how prolific the man was? Let's digress again for a moment, shall we? Prolific?! OMG! The man was manically, maniacally prolific! He also personified the myth(?) or reality(?) behind scholarly debates as to whether mental illness is necessary for great artistic achievement. In the beginning of this ramble I complained about the reproductions of Van Gogh's work. While their function MAY be to serve as illustrations to the (excellent) timeline covering his short and in ways, tortured life, his art is, in my opinion, better portrayed in subsequent parts of the show, culminating in the multisensory kaleidoscopic thingie in which one sits - or even lies on rugs with pillows - in a huge gallery, a montage of hundreds of ever-changing images flashing and morphing before one's eyes. Pretty cool - and pretty ingenious. What a way to bring art and context to us hoi polloi, who might not otherwise venture out to view staid exhibits of painters long dead. Brilliant, conceptually, as I think on it! Final thoughts: Just being out-and-about, viewing 'art' in a part of Boston relatively new to me - Don't get me wrong, I've been to, and worked in, Dorchester AND Roxbury. But I'd never set foot in the historic Strand, host to a Who's Who of African American stage and music stars (and more) over many, many years ~ I gotta say, it was FANTASTIC to go out & about and view art. In a throng of people, inna...

The original tickets I had were on 11/25/21 for my spouse's birthday. The day before when I called to verify, as my tickets hadn't been emailed yet (they were reserved in June/July 2021), they updated me that my ticket was canceled and I should expect a refund (which is STILL pending) as they will not open on Thanksgiving. My spouse very much wanted to see the exhibit, so we scheduled it on the only available time 12/4/21 at 9pm. I felt rushed as the 2nd of the 3 sections was set to close its doors at 10pm. We were able to be in the immersion room for roughly 15 minutes, which was very nice, but did not feel like we could stay due to the attendants telling us they wanted to close at 10pm. We then went to section 3, which was nice and we had a great time trying to individually find the animals (we had the VIP tickets and did not have to pay $5 for the VR headsets). Unfortunately, while we were in line, the coloring portion where our art could be placed on the walls had already started cleaning up, and when we exited Section 3, they were done. They kindly gave us papers to take home though. We went through the gift shop, took pictures on our way out, and started walking to our car around 10:35pm. The original time we had on 11/25/21 was for 11am-2pm three hours. This second time that we had to pay for because we were not refunded yet and the tickets were not transferred over, which is suspicious, was roughly half that time for the same price. I make the best of situations, we had a nice time overall, but I felt rushed, we were unable to fully enjoy everything, and the ticket situation was badly handled. The staff was overall nice, most patrons kept their nose and face covering on correctly, it was clean and visually appealing, but for the price paid, I was...

Went to see the play Momma's Boy (10/15/17 @ 3:00pm). Overall, the theater has been well maintained. However, seating was very uncomfortable. Individuals of larger size or taller height will not be able to sit in the seats. At 5'4", my knees were pressed against the seat in front of me. The Strand Theater staff was completely unorganized and admission into the play was ridiculously chaotic.

People were not admitted until after 3:00pm, due to production staff tardiness. Upon entering into the lobby at 3:30pm, there were no physical indicators (e.g. red rope, signage) to guide attendees. So no one knew what line to stand in to have an e-ticket scanned vs a ticket bought at the theater. In the era of They only had one scanner for e-tickets, which resulted in a longer line. You could not distinguish who were ushers, which left you momentarily looking like a lost New York City tourist. When you did find an usher, they were being swarmed by attendees trying to find their seats. Ushers were so overwhelmed and bombarded that it took 20 minutes for us to get help finding our seats. By that time the play had started and 1/3 of people were standing in the aisles still looking for their seats. Many people were frustrated by the lack of coordination and process for our community theater.

The Strand Theater Committee should reach out to other venues who have a seamless process for managing admission and...