Pantages Theater — Attraction in Tacoma

Gorgeous theater. Doors opened prior to start of show for attendees to use restrooms and purchase beverages from small menu, and snacks. A small, maybe 6-8 oz cup of wine was 12$. There were 3 choices. Bottles of water are 4$. No outside food or beverages allowed. Staff working the show were approachable, helpful and gracious. Very nice. The theater itself is beautiful and clean, and it sounded like it had been recently renovated at some point. When they renovated it was too bad they did not make the seats roomier...not much elbow room and heaven forbid you need to get up and use a restroom because there is very little room to shuffle past as people stand to let you by. Cup holders are present but located right at the floor. Anyone walking past could put their foot in/on your drink accidentally. I actually had to clutch my water the whole show because i could not reach my water from the cup holder without putting my face into the back of the head of the person seated in front of me. And at one point my coat that i also had to clutch was rubbing on the person in front of me and it bothered her, naturally. The seats are not staggered between rows, so seats are directly in front and behind each other in consecutive rows. The raise difference between rows is not enough of a difference to make up for lack of staggered seating and consequently my mom and i both had our views of the performers (dead center of stage) blocked. She had a very tall man in front of her and while the person in front of me was shorter, she kept leaning up and forward in her seat to be able to look over the solid balcony wall (a metal railing would have allowed better/more viewing than a solid wall). We both could only see half of the show and had sore necks afterwards from trying to look around their heads. I would love to go back for another show, but only if we were able to purchase front row tickets. We paid over 200$ to not get to see...

(*written by my son, 6th grader)

The Nutcracker: Ballet and Musical

Theatre

Pantages Theatre in downtown Tacoma, WA serves a variety of nourishments and a humble, yet delicate way of decoration for their interior lobby. Their seats are not complicated but are still ergonomic and comfortable to the average American body. The box seats are convenient but not recommended for people with acrophobia. Although, they provide a much better view than the lower level wooden seats.

Musical

The musical is about two hours long with an intermission placed between the two one hour periods of entertainment and joy. This twenty-minute gap is the perfect time to use the restroom, take a sip of water, or stretch. The choreography itself is well done and varied to the point where the audience is grasped within the immersiveness of the music. For the young, there are also elevating cushions for a better view. The plot can be a bit hard to understand since there is no dialogue from the characters, but the music is live from an orchestra and the ballet is from Tacoma City Ballet Academy. The story is short, but enjoyable. And the characters are well designed.

Overall Improvements that Could be Made

The theatre is rather smaller than most and before the main performance, the lobby gets very crowded when a large audience attends. The idea of an expansion is public-pleasing, but not as financially welcoming. The aisles in between the rows of seats are sometimes tight and challenging to maneuver. Some steps are uneven and awkward. The staircase down to the restrooms are small, and steep. From my experience, there was a large line waiting and a few people slipping down the steps. The bathrooms themselves aren’t bad but the stalls are apparently not accustomed to anyone taller than six feet. People around 5’10 or taller can easily see into the next door stall through the gap.

The general...

Saw Lewis Black here on January 12, 2019. Was a Saturday night and parking was a bit of a hassle. Hubby needs handicap parking and there's very few spaces available. What should have been available, 3 spots in fact, unfortunately, was taken up by a tour bus!!! We eventually found parking in the parking garage which is very close to the theater. We were able to walk across the skywalk to the theater. Thankfully hubby is still able to walk short distances but if he had to go much further, we'd have a real problem.

This was my first time at Pantages and it's a beautiful old building with not a bad seat in the house. My only complaint was the seats are fairly close together and I was feeling a bit squished. Hubby is 5'10, 250, the guy next to me on the other side was probably 5'8 and 160....I'm just 5'5 and 110 lbs. I hope that paints a pretty good picture! At one point I said to the gent next to me that I had a lap he could use as well. He was leaning so far into me and I felt like the middle seat in economy with a couple of sumo wrestlers on either side. Okay, so after that all being said, we really enjoyed the show and the acoustics were great. Lines for concessions were a bit long so we passed on that. After the show, trying to find, much less get to, the ladies room was impossible. After asking security, he made it sound like it was an act of extreme athleticism so...I passed on that too and stopped at a gas station.

Overall, a great venue with no bad seats but drink and eat and use the restrooms prior to the show. Happy new year and new...