The Ruth and Nathan Hale Theater — Attraction in Pleasant Grove

My husband and I went to see Ragtime this evening and we had such a lovely time.

I must say that I was very sad to hear about the old theater in Orem closing down to be replaced by this one. The Orem theater holds so many memories for me and my family, and it will always have a place in my heart. That being said, I attended tonight's performance with a healthy dose of apprehension. No one ever likes change, and I viewed our evening out as a test run to see if we would want to make this a regular date night.

Let's talk about parking. My husband and I arrived 15 minutes before the show began and we thought we might have to settle for street parking. But when arrived, there were whole rows open and we got to take our pick. Obviously not front row parking (we weren't THAT early), but we had very easy access into the building. It's also worth noting that after the show - even with the influx of moving traffic - we were able to be on our way within 5 minutes of walking out.

The building itself is a HUGE night and day difference from the old building in Orem. I feel like we went from "old, well loved, and creaky floored community theater" to "Big time theater". The first thing I said to my husband when we walked in was, "30 years from now this space won't have aged". The design of the foyer is open, timeless, and classy. It's a night and day difference, and I'm glad that our local thespians have a space that outwardly reflects the quality of their productions.

I'll briefly touch on wait times. We were able to quickly go through concessions, and ushers were helpful guiding everyone to their seats. My only negative remark here is the line to the women's bathroom was constantly out-the-door-jam-packed whenever I sought it out, but I only ever went to the one by concessions. I never found where the other bathrooms were, so that might be on me.

Let's talk about seating. I've often felt in stadiums and other theaters that the seats are so tightly packed and the tiers stacked so steeply that one wrong move will send you tumbling over the rows to your death (there's a theater in northern utah that's on my black list for this very reason). I'm very happy to report that this is not the case at The Ruth. My husband and I were able to pass by other patrons without too much hassle to get to our seats. There's a little shuffling around here, but it's not unreasonably tight. We found our seats roomy with space enough to cross our legs and store uneaten snacks or place purses and coats. The downside was our location in the theater. We were on row J at the last two seats next to the wall and we could not see a SINGLE thing that happened at back center stage. I think they just built those side platforms just a little too far out. We could see everything else in the performance just fine but anything that happened in that area was completely lost on us. I feel like that's kind of to be expected when you have a seat at the very edge though so I'm not taking a star off for this.

The performance was PHENOMENAL. Stuff coming from the ceilings, stuff coming out of the floor, awesome set pieces being rolled around including a fully functional car?!?!?! It was a really cool production, and exactly the quality I've known and loved from the Hale. I'm so glad they finally have the space to show off the wonderful talent of their casts and compliment them with bigger and better set pieces. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that I'm glad it's not a round theater any more. That setup can lend itself to some pretty cool blocking and choreography, but I really like this new setup because you don't feel like the actors have their backs to you as often.

Overall, I highly recommend bringing your family here or just coming on a date like my husband and I did. While I'm sad it isn't in Orem anymore, this new location has easy freeway access and isn't too far away. If we could afford it right now my husband and I would get season passes in a heart beat. We can't wait...

Everyone has been so excited about this theater! I was lucky to snag tickets to the very first public showing ever - Ragtime. It was a Preview show (basically a final dress rehearsal), but still very high quality. It started a little rough, especially with missed mics and we couldn't hear the actors several times, but the talent more than made up for it. Many of the actors are the same ones I've seen in Sandy and Orem before, and they were fabulous!

As for the new building, they incorporated some of the elements of the Orem location (small intimate stage) and West Valley City theater (grand split staircase in the lobby). The seats are very comfortable and spacious (thank you!) and everyone will have a good view. The staff was friendly and helpful and concessions are reasonably priced.

The theater is new and nice, but I struggled with several things. It seems pretty plain and sterile compared to any of the other Hale Theaters. The colors and design are modern and streamlined, but maybe a little too much. It seems to be missing the "warmth" of Hale Theater that patrons have known and loved. There are also no "photo op" spots.

Another struggle I have is a good portion of the patrons to Orem are older adults - many have a hard time using stairs. But there are stairs everywhere. There is an elevator, but I witnessed one lady with a walker struggling getting up the stairs from her seat- I overheard her tell the employee she specifically asked for a seat that didn't require using stairs to get to, and yet here she was... Also the stairs up the grand staircase are very short and narrow for a public venue and I found even myself having to be very careful coming down them. There are also even stairs outside the front main doors. Patrons have to go way around to use a wheelchair or walker. No flat drop off with overhang from the weather like at Sandy, which is imperative in the Utah winter snow. I'm disappointed because this location just doesn't seem as senior friendly as it ought to have been built.

My last complaint is the bathroom setup. Patrons line up in a narrow hallway where men and women are waiting next to each other all the way to the end, and it's really really awkward to be staring at a line of men while waiting to use the restroom! And then when you come out there is nowhere to wait for the rest of your party right there. Terrible design.

Other than those complaints on the building, I am thrilled to have this high quality theater here in Pleasant Grove and know it will be a jewel in...

It breaks my heart to leave review like this, I wanted to like this place so badly. My wife and I have had season tickets to Hale Center Theater in Sandy for several years now, and as we live in Lehi we were so excited for a theater (slightly) closer to us. However, compared to HCT this place has been a disappointment.

To start with, while the seats look nice visually, they are very uncomfortable. Sitting in those chairs for 3 hours for Ragtime left me with back pain (and I am a healthy, fit 38 year old). It's like they didn't angle them properly or something but they are just unpleasant to sit in for longer than a few minutes. There also isn't any leg room, like they tried to squeeze in an extra row of seats or something. Feels like an airplane which I hate, especially when I'm paying this much for a ticket. The rows of seats also aren't tiered properly so you can't see over the person's head in front of you. HCT did a phenomenal job of having large drops for each row of seats so there truly isn't a bad seat in the house, but here they have it built like a high school auditorium.

I also am not personally a fan of the whole "the floor is the stage" approach. I get that this is preference but it really kills the immersion for me when I'm looking at the actors + people's legs in the front row. Again coming from HCT it just feels low budget and cramped.

Finally I have to say something about the "family friendliness" of the theater. HCT has never tried to push the boundaries of what I'd consider family friendly which I've been so grateful for. But here at the Ruth, the first play we went to (Ragtime) had tons of swear words which could have easily been substituted. Then we saw Cinderella and Cinderellas ball gown showed quite a bit of cleavage (again could have easily tweaked this dress once she tried it on). While I know this is also preference, it just makes me feel a lack of trust in any plays they will be doing in the future, and whether or not I'd feel comfortable bringing my kids.

Unfortunately I bought season tickets to the Ruth, and I'm considering just gifting the rest of the tickets to other people since I haven't enjoyed my experience so far. My wife doesn't want to go back at all and we both will just be sticking to HCT for future years as we have yet to have a bad...