Mark Taper Forum — Attraction in Los Angeles

The Mark Taper Forum is located in Downtown LA and is part of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion which houses other theaters. The entire Pavilion area is lovely. We used to always dine first at a Pavilion eatery, but sadly, the food is no longer good. And this includes all of the restaurants. They really need to work on that as they are losing more money by the day.

The Mark Taper is our main theater to go to at the Pavilion. The rest re-play things too often and the service has gone downhill.

The Mark Taper also has staff issues. They seem confused. We went to see American Idiot which is not the New York version, but one put together by the Taper and a community theater for the deaf. The play was signing, singing and the words were even at the top of its small stage. There were posters etc. concerning the community of the disabled. Sadly, I guess they don't mean it or read their own signage.

I have a very hard time walking and standing, but I do it. I am just slow and can fall if I have to stand too long. We had to wait for 30 minutes in a line to get a soda. There were no railing to hold onto and when we finally got to a spot in the line where I could lean on the wall, I was yelled at by a staff member who told be "don't do that." I explained I could fall and he said again, "you can't do that."

Not one of the bathrooms are convenient for the disabled. The staff does nothing to help. This must change.

So, you may wonder why I gave them a 5 star rating. It is simple. They have new and different shows that are always great. They don't re-play the same thing every year. The plays are new, fresh and always entertaining. American Idiot was amazing. This is what the Taper does well and why I tolerate the abuse.

The seating is somewhat comfortable and there is not a bad seat in the house. It is small. The prices are fair.

Parking is across the street and costs less now than valet (it used to be the same). The valet is also nice and right in front of the Taper

The stage is small and they use the space well. I have never seen a bad play or musical there. I will continue to go to the Taper, but I so feel bad for people who are more...

It's not very ADA friendly, still had to walk up and down some stairs, and the seats are so cramped my neighbors kept touching me at various points during performances. You can't stretch out, it's like you're stuck in a cheap economy seat of an airline. And as reported by a friend, the Accessibility headphones lacked so much that she missed 90% of the performance. All ADA things seem to be an afterthought at the Forum.

In the bathrooms, rather than check that all the soup dispensers are cleared of air on their first used after refill, it was left to seem like they were empty. When I informed a staffer, I was told that this was the case. It shouldn't be up to your patrons to double check a soap dispenser while in a bathroom. Poor form.

Good form on requiring masks, poor enforcement once started. The man next to me had his nose out the entirety of the performance. Do you people not understand that only covering your mouth is just as effective as not wearing a...

This is BY FAR my favorite of the three theaters that make up the Music Center - I've yet to see a production at the Taper where I felt I had a bad seat (and I've seen many, many productions and have had seats all over the place (except behind the stage, which was how the recent show "Heisenberg" was configured - but those looked like great seats to me). Part of the reason there aren't any bad seats is because the Taper always engages artists at the top of their game - the playwrights, actors, designers, and especially the directors know how to present the material to its maximum effect within the Taper's specifications - I may not always LOVE the play, but I can always see it and hear it, so my reaction isn't colored by iffy sound design or inadequate lighting or poor sight lines - more often than not, the space is an enhancement to the material. Love...