PlayStation Theater — Attraction in New York

The venue itself is a nice space, although very underused for the concert events that I went to there. The concert space is smaller which provides for a more intimate experience. The staff there where absolutely incompetent, however. I had to ask six different people before someone could tell me which line I had to go to, and it turns out the line had circled around the block to the other entrance to the building and instead of telling me where the end of the line was, they made me circle the entire block to find the end of the line (about 30 steps from where it started). The first time I was here, the show was supposed to start at 8 pm. The staff was so bad at getting everyone into the venue on time and there was so much confusion about who was supposed to go in when, that I didn't enter the venue until past 9 pm (and note that I was very far from the end of the line). Thankfully, the show was also delayed to accommodate, but I still ended up missing the first part of the concert, which was only supposed to be an hour long (so I saw about 35-40 minutes). There were a lot of people who missed a lot more of the show than I did, which makes no sense because we all arrived well in advance of the original starting time. Staff were also very rude after the concert ended and yelled at us to leave the building, including to people who had had VIP tickets who were supposed to stay afterward to meet the musicians. The second time I came, we were also about 40 minutes late to enter the venue. again there was a lot of confusion about where to stand in line and where to go: they decided halfway through that instead of standing in one line they were going to split us into two lines, and the two lines would be parallel to each other on the sidewalk in Times Square mingling with all of the tourists that were walking around on the same sidewalk. A lot of us lost our places in line when we were asked to split up and move, and a lot of people ended up being further back in the line then when they had started because of the confusion. We also had to weave through all of the tourists when we finally started moving into the venue, which meant that people who had just arrived ended up cutting into line in the confusion, which further exacerbated the problem. After the concert ended, the staff started yelling at people again to leave the building, even though it didn't seem unreasonable to me that people wanted to stay for a few minutes to take pictures. It was raining heavily outside on the second day, and they made people wait outside in the rain for their friends instead of in the lobby area where it was dry.

Long story short, I would like to never come to this place again and I sincerely hope that none of the musicians that I like decide to use this venue...

The experience was not the disaster I expected (based on hundreds of reviews), likely/only because the event I attended had assigned seating rather than being General Admission. That said, the Playstation Theater is mediocre at best.

The primary negatives fall into two categories:  seating/theater design and concession pricing/quality (by venue standards): Seating/Theater Design: The theater floor incline is barely existent (flatter than movie theaters, forget actual theaters); the mezzanine does NOT overhang as in standard theaters – as such, view of the stage isn’t great overall and very easily obscured if anyone remotely tall sits in front of you. Seating: I was in Row A of Mezzanine Left, which turned out to be a ‘fake’ row added by way of very uncomfortable, tightly packed folding chairs (most rows consisted of ‘classic’ theater seats with cushions, armrests). This was NOT noted at all during the ticket-buying process – if I’d known, I would have opted for different seats. Instead, I ended up with spectacular back pain, and spent the entire time feeling like a sardine in a can.

Concessions: Water:  $5 for a bottle of water, which is excessive even by venue standards, and downright robbery in this case because the air was so dry that it triggered coughing every 10 minutes and my throat kept swelling. If the show ran even 5 minutes longer, I’d have been forced to buy more water just to breathe regularly. Wine (Prosecco):  $13 for a glass, which is standard pricing at such places/events – however, they filled my cup less than half-way (equaling at most 2/3 of a ‘proper’ serving), which is absurd for the price tag. The whole bottle (Lamarca brand) generally costs $12-$15 in liquor stores around NYC, for comparison.

Lastly, it is impossible to call the theater and speak with an actual person – I tried calling the listed number (box office) more than 8 times during business hours: the line would ring about 5 times, followed by an automated message stating business hours (12pm to 6pm) and naming one upcoming event, and then disconnecting the call....

One of the last big sized venues in Manhattan. Security is professional and thorough with searching you, without getting too touchy feely to the point you wonder if they're gonna stick their finger in your honk-honk hole. Never had a problem with them. I believe the place is unionized, which would explain why band's sets are on point and there is minimal wait time between sets, or wondering if a set is going to go into hour 3 of their encores (if this in fact the case, it explains the large digital clock on the side of the stage for bands to see).

Their bars are large and easily accessible. I think the back bar next to the stage, across from where the really large merch tables are set up is sponsored by Heineken (or at least was when the place went under the name "Nokia Theater). That, or they just really like said beer to the point they have their red star logo above the bar.

The bathrooms are easily the best bathrooms I've been to in a large venue. Barely if ever had to wait in a long line akin to waiting for government cheese during the Great Depression. I've been there when a concert has been sold out and still didn't feel overwhelmed with the amount of people inside the building.

Only problem I could find with this place is the location of it, right off of Times Square. But, after you elbow through the throngs of foreigners taking pictures of McDonalds signs and being cursed out by some ex-con in an Elmo costume, you go down the escalators or stairs and are cut off from that nonsense and enjoying yourself with whatever it is you paid to entertain...