Hancher Auditorium — Attraction in Iowa City

As a native of NYC have attended many on and off Broadway productions. Only recently discovered the Hancher has performances on a television commercial for To Kill a Mockingbird. So happy to have had this opportunity.

From purchase to leaving the parking lot, everything about this auditorium is top notch based on this experience.

What I especially like is they offer print tickets at will and able to pick it up. As someone who saves stubs this was particularly meaningful.

Being able to see one of my all time favorite actors, Richard Thomas, here is a memory that hooked me to the location and desire for further event attendance.

The theater itself is very well run. Plenty of helpers for guidance when needed. The souvenir shop is easy to locate. Compared to other Iowa theaters like the Hoyt in Des Moines way better in this area and overall experience.

The seating is comfortable and plenty of leg room. View is wonderful. Appears so from any seat.

Ticket pricing is comparable to Des Moines large auditorium Broadway options I’ve attended in the past.

Definitely on my to return list.

Thank you for bringing such a brilliant production to the Iowa City area. Very much...

Great auditorium. I just saw the Book of Mormon and it was really amazing and spectacular to see the musical performance.

Now I took off a star for three reasons. For $175 million to build a new one, they could have added more bathrooms than 3 urinals and two regular toilets. Spent around 5 minutes or so waiting in line which takes up a chunk of intermission time

For concessions, I'm not bout to pay $3 for a dang coke that looks like its 12 ounces. No wonder people are poor but then again, it'll take a lot more than rich donors and federal funding to make the $175 million building worth it.

Also the lines were too long which added more time to wait which made intermission time during the Book of Mormon seem rather short. And I know that because when the second act got started, I saw on three occasions groups of people getting back into their seats while the characters were on stage singing and dancing. You can call them rude and disrespectful but that wouldn't happened if the lines weren't too long to begin with.

Rooms of improvement: -Add more bathrooms to reduce lines -Hire more people to serve drinks to...

I recently attended Hadestown at Hancher Theater, and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. The production itself fell flat, lacking the emotional depth and energy that make this show so powerful. The staging and storytelling felt uninspired, and the overall execution did not live up to expectations.

Beyond the performance, a bigger issue is how Hancher handles audience feedback. After each show, they send an email asking for reviews, but they never acknowledge responses or take any visible action to improve the experience. I’ve submitted detailed feedback before, yet common issues, such as audience disruptions and theater management concerns, continue to go unaddressed.

If Hancher truly values feedback, they should acknowledge it and make an effort to enhance the experience for future attendees. Until then, the post-show surveys feel more like a checkbox than a genuine attempt to improve....