Guthrie Theater — Attraction in Minneapolis

Let me preface this review by saying that I have seen plays on Broadway, and this is better! My favorite performance to date has been M. Butterfly (2010), it was beautifully told, poignant, and moved me to tears while it was on the Wurtele Thrust stage. It was my featured Playbill in one of my overflowing travel albums for a long time.

I also have seen a large amount of Shakespeare's plays as well (Mid Summer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, etc). Every performance is wonderfully executed by both the stagehands and performers to work cohesively as a team.

I love the restaurant there. The food is fresh, delicious, and delivered in a timely manner. The waitstaff is both knowledgeable, polite, and experienced. It is a visually appealing restaurant.

I love looking out at the city from the scenic viewpoint they have available. The Stone Arch Bridge is part of the scenery. It's a very intimate space if you're looking to bring a date, spouse, or significant other.

The shop is great! There are plenty of updated Guthrie gifts and goods. The souvenirs are reflective of the current shows being put on stage. Prices are mostly reasonable, but do lean a little pricier.

There is a couple of Summer programs for children and young adults. I believe that there is one for dancing, one for acting and one for voice lessons. There are cut-off ages, but it does seem to be a great way to get established in this career.

The bathrooms are clean and smell nice. The trash has never been overflowing, and soap dispensers are always filled. I can tell that they are deep-clean regularly.

There are wheelchair accessible entrances and seating. The views from those areas are very nice. Easy to maneuver in, close to people, and warm. Staff is very attentive if you need help finding your way around.

Truly an A+ experience! Go to the Guthrie, see the shows, eat the food, and shop! It's a magical experience worth repeating...

The show was amazing at least what I saw of it.

My experience with accessibility on the other hand was atrocious.

Besides for being directed poorly to my seats causing me to have to use stairs that was part of my need for accessible seating. I was humiliated, questioned about my use of accessible elevator.

My diabetic alert went off while in the show. I hurried to the side exit to silence my alert and check my blood sugar. I was cornered between the two doors by a man that I can only assume was an employee telling me this wasn't an exit. When I told him I needed the elevator as I was in accessible seating he backed down. Once I saw my sugar was dropping I needed to go and address that I went through the second door and had an usher start questioning me and then told me if I planned to go back in I would have to enter from the top and use the stairs. In the dark theater and my disability it would have ended badly. By this time I was truly upset. I was pretty much told I couldn't return to my seat, my daughter was in the theater without her phone because I took my whole purse out. I asked if someone could go and get my child and the usher stated she did not know where I had been seated. I ended up having to go back to the 4th floor where again I was approached by an usher who could see I was visably upset. She gave me a business card to follow up.

All of this caused me to miss the final 30 minutes of the show.

My daughter while exiting the theater walked into an entire group of ushers discussing me in the open. So not only was I humiliated I was a topic of public discussion. Being a person with invisible disabilities while also navigating the world in a fat body is hard enough but to question my need for using accessible options is disheartening and humiliating. I had my interactions openly discussed while people were leaving the theater and separated from...

When I write reviews, I really try to rate the place on the entire experience. That is what I am doing here. First, the performance was top notch. We saw Murder On The Orient Express and it was fantastic. However, I will be very hesitant to return for a future performance. Why? Because, apparently I am a giant person. I am about 6’2” tall and admittedly a little big boned. I am fine sitting in most places, but not this one. My knees were crammed up against the seat in front of me. Even my mom who is about 5’4” had her knees touching the seat in front of her and could feel every movement the man in front of her would make in front of her. It was so bad for me that I had to ask the usher to be reseated. I was lucky that they could accommodate me. I have seen several shows at the Orpheum and it wasn’t as bad as this. Again, the performance was great, but I was physically in pain until I got reseated. Whoever designed this circa 2006 theater either did not have legs or was very small like a 10 year old size. It really is a shame that they would have designed it this way, but apparently I must be Paul Bunyan or something and I shouldn’t have the opportunity to attend shows in a theater like this because I must be enormous. For the record, I even flew Spirit recently and those seats were more comfortable than these and I am not so large that I needed a seat belt extender either in case you were wondering about that experience. Just beware, if you are even slightly bigger than average (either taller or wider), you may not very comfortable sitting in the seats in this theater. Sorry,...