Bob Carr Theater — Attraction in Orlando

Bob Carr has been a live entertainment venue in Orlando since the late 1920's, when it was known as the Orlando Municipal Auditorium.. It has been the site of many performances, from Elvis in the '50's to recent Orlando Philharmonic to Broadway shows...

Despite numerous renovations, it occasionally shows its age..there are no entry vestibules to main auditorium to allow late arrivers a way to enter the I performance hall without opening doors directly to the brightly lit & often noisy hallways...very distracting! And the seating is tightly packed, with long uninterrupted rows that make it very difficult to exit during performances if necessary.. You'll be very 'close' to those around you & even closer to those trying to pass while you're seated, often too close.. It gets a bit claustrophobic, IMHO.. And air quality is an issue that needs addressing.

The sound quality & stage lighting works well enough & overall the facility is attractive enough but it all needs updating...which I guess doesn't matter much given that in the near future, The Carr will become part of the Creative Village proposed for downtown Orlando when it will likely undergo another big makeover. While Carr Center lacks the style & flourish of typical historical preservation site's from the 1920's & has a contemporary design, & there has been talk of tear down/rebuild, the present mindset is that it is part of Orlando history that doesn't include The Mouse (aka Disney) & is worthy of preservation.. Plans for future uses are being made.

If there is a performance scheduled for Bob Carr that interests you, by all means go.. It is still a fine venue, it's just not as young & sexy as new Dr Phillips Center.. And tickets are probably not as...

We went and saw Dave Chappelle comedy show last night. The theater itself is okay. The audio and visuals were good. The only issue I have was with Parking. There were 2 people "directing" traffic into the Lot 1 Parking lot. It was a very long line to get into parking which is usual (we expected that). There are 2 lanes that pass by the parking lot, and the right lane was the line to get into the parking lot. There are no signs that say this, and the girl directing traffic was waving people through the left lane. It LOOKED like both lanes were to get into the parking lot. The left lane was going quicker. There are no signs that say the left lane is for thru traffic only and the girl was waving people to come towards her (in the left lane). Naturally we got over into the left lane because the right lane was backed up for quite some time, and other people were doing the same thing. It turns out she was telling people to drive by and then turn around to get into the other oncoming line to get into the parking lot. We were very mad that this wasn't communicated on a sign or another individual, because we were almost into the lot. To top it all off, there was no indication that there was a fee for parking (we've only been to the Bob Carr twice, and we read the email thoroughly). It was $10 for crappy parking service! It was a very stressful moment right before going in. I don't think we will return to this venue. The tickets were already $58 a seat for an hour & a half show. The parking should be free since the parking staff can't do their job efficiently. The staff inside the theater are nice and friendly, but the first impression (parking) was where you lost us. It's silly and...

This theater has history and character. We have been here before and were assured that the roof has been repaired. However, when it rained, we had leaks over the stage area, which is not good during performance.

Since the same management company runs the Dr. Phillips Arts Performance Center as well, they are charging a lot for rent. There was very little communication between the various area of the house. At times it felt like the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing. Their workers in the orange vests followed instructions without using common sense. Our organizing team members were denied access to the front of the house to set up prior to the actual event. Every time anybody leaves the building and came back through the main entrance, you had to through security (empting your pockets, bag checks and metall dedector wand) even when you step out to pick up your ticket from the box office. Their staff told us the that is standard procedure for all entrances of the building, which is not true, because the stage entrance did not have any security checks with the exception of your badge. On the night of the main performance they did not have enough staff in the box office and the Will Call lines were very long. Many pre-printed complementary tickets were not found and it created a huge delay and long wait times.

Most of the hand soap dispensers in the dressing rooms were empty. We had to remind janitorial service to empty various trash cans in the less visited area of the building.

As a patron of an event, one might not noticed all these deficiencies, but being part of the organizing team, it is more than annoying, when they make promises that they...