Segerstrom Center for the Arts — Attraction in Costa Mesa

This review is solely directed toward the venue and NOT the performance. Hamilton was AMAZING! But I have some feedback on the venue: 1) Despite the sign stating that people who are late must wait until a better opportunity to be seated, 30 people without the help of ushers for the most part came in with flashing phones at the beginning of the show and ruined the entire opening number for everyone in the upper sections. That was really disrespectful and extremely annoying; 2) An usher made a comment that was borderline complaining about how they never got a “heads up” about a service dog being in the section. I emailed the venue 3 times to ask for reasonable accommodation in the row for the service dog and when I got no response I called and talked to a really nice person but they stated there would be a row behind us that would have walkway space and a spot for the dog to be and this was not the case. Also, venues should be equipped to accommodate service dogs without a generous heads up. The comment was not received well to me because I had called and done due diligence on my end and it tells me that the center doesn’t seem to be good at communicating with needs of patrons; 3) We need to talk about bathrooms. The intermission time was not proportional to the needs of the ladies room. 10 min intermission or 15 min intermission was not enough time for the women to go to the bathroom and they rang the bell and the line was still well out the door. I think adjustments need to be made if there are going to be a lot of people with bathroom needs and limited stalls, and 4) We paid $500 for a seat that apparently was extremely high up and only the 7th from the back row of that spot. For $500 that seat was not worth that price. In other states that type of seat would be worth $300 or so. I think that seat was not worth the money paid for it, especially since the beginning was ruined by people coming in. Now the good things: lighting, sound, and the stage was set beautifully. The venue itself is gorgeous. The show was great and I still had...

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts is the crown jewel of Orange County. The Center's three major performance venues provide a dynamic, world class environment supporting the highest levels of professional live Arts Entrainment availabile anywhere right here in Orange County. Since the novel design and acoustics of the 3,000 seat Segerstrom Hall first drew critical acclaim in 1986 alongside the expanded facilities of the South Coast Repertory Theater what at the time was known as the Orange County Performing Arts Center had established and the highest standards of excellence and leadership both in the Arts and in the community. It was the vision of Henry Segerstrom that fueled the continued growth and dynamic development of the arts in Orange County, both in the expansion of venues in what is now the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, but most importantly in developing arts programs in the community. The Center's major expansion occurred in 2006 with the construction and opening of the 1800 seat Henry and Renee Segerstrom Concert Hall and the final expansion of SCR. Designed by architect Cesar Pelli, the classic orchestral concert hall features absolutely the finest acoustical listening environment. It has the unique feature of being able to adjust the hall acoustics over a wide range to best suit the type of performance. It can be easily tuned for a string quartet, a solo performer or a large symphony orchestra and chorus. It is also home to a 4 manual Fisk pipe organ with over 4300 pipes, 75 stops and 57 individual voices. The Center recently opened a new venue which is now home to OCMA Orange County museum of Modern Art. The plaza open air space is used for arts events as well. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as a place not to miss while in...

Loved my experience here watching Anastasia, the musical!

My mom isn’t a huge fan of spending money so I knew that when the show was finally in town, I was going to buy her front seat mezzanine seats as soon as possible. On the first day of ticket sales, so many seats were already taken! We got lucky and snagged seats in the Loge section, seats 3 and 4.

We are originally from LA so we were used to the seating at Pantages. I had to do a bit of research to fully understand the four sections of Segerstrom and ultimately ended up enjoying Loge due to the fact that we had front row seats. On my next show, I plan to stay at the orchestra terrace just because it has a more intimate feel but is a little further off center.

The concessions here aren’t terribly expensive if you consider the cost of concessions at movie theaters and other areas (albeit they’re much smaller portions.) It can also be a bit chilly if you’re here for a couple hours so make sure you have a light sweater to keep you warm. There’s also always the good ol’ walk up and down the entire staircase during intermission!

I didn’t get a chance to park here since my boyfriend just dropped us off but I am told you can park at South Coast Plaza across the street so long as you’re aware that it is far away to begin with. Other than that, I had an enjoyable experience here and plan to return...