My daughter loves doing their musicals! The kids are giving responsibility during the show with no parents or adults backstage helping. All the kids seems happy and engaged! read more

Our 2 girls have been participating in Baker's performing arts musical productions for over 8 months (3 productions) and they love it. The owner and staff are genuinely passionate about what they do and it shows! read more

Baker Performing Arts - The house is starting to fill up for the show. 101 Dalmatians. - Performing Arts Near Me - Mesa, Arizona

This was the first time we came to BPA. Tried the Spring Break camp. It was $125 for a week of acting, music and fun. Tiffany, the director seemed to have all the kids interested and everything under control. (Which gave me peace of mind at drop off). They allowed drop off 30 minutes early, which helped greatly with getting to work on time. Will definitely give them a try again for another camp and or lessons. read more

I wrote my first review three months ago. To my surprise I just received a pretty nasty review myself. I have NEVER done any services for the owner of this company Baker Music Clyde Baker however. He has written a review that would be perceived as though I have. I would hope as a business owner if has an opinion about my be personally he would refrain from slandering me in such a viscous manner. If he has an honest opinion about my technical abilities I would love for him to share. However because I've never given him service he doesn't have any review to give in that matter. Yelp is for reviews of businesses you have actually been to not to attack someone because you don't care for them personally. People pray that this man gets a life it has been three months and apparently he is still holding a grudge because of my previous review. read more

I saw another review stating that the same kids are always cast in all the leads. While some kids might be in multiple shows, I know for a fact that new people have a chance. My daughter had never done a class or show at Bakers and she wanted to go for their audition only production of Annie. They were only planning on using kids for the 7 main orphan roles and lots of kids auditioned. My daughter got cast as Tessie and so I know that people new to Bakers do have a shot. She was actually happy to be cast in the show with one of her friends who got the part of Molly. Her friend had done lots of shows at Baker and was happy to see my daughter get cast too. They were both having fun doing the show and wanted to audition for another show that another company was doing. Now that show did start rehearsals before Annie was over. This is a common thing that happens among theatre kids and you just usually tell the second show about the conflicts from the first show. Kids do it all the time and some kids are involved in 3-4 shows at the same time. You just tell the second show about the first show. Then tell 3rd show about the first two and so on. If they cast you, that's great. If they don't work with the conflicts, that is ok too. Both our kids got cast in the second show and this is where my daughters experience from Annie went from great to ok. Right after the cast list for the second show was posted, my daughters friend was kicked out of Annie and her role recast. I have seen the actual messages and know it was because of the second show. I found this to be a bit extreme since they hadn't missed an Annie rehearsal yet. We have heard that this wasn't the first time and 2-3 kids who were in the same cast as that second show actually said they got kicked out too when they started doing other companies also. Now I will admit that the director has the right to recast roles for any reason and these other kids might have done something that caused them to be kicked out of Baker. I'm also not sure if it was just that one show and they were welcome to come back to the next one or not. Of course even if they had been, what kid would want to come back after being kicked out once. While I think it's extreme, that is my opinion and Baker can do whatever he wants with his shows. In the case of my daughters friend, it seemed extreme since I could see the reason given in the messages. I just think maybe in the future, it should be clearly communicated that anybody cast in shows cannot audition for other shows at other theatres during the run. This way if a kid was planning on trying for a second show, they know not too. My daughters friend no longer being in the show just affected my daughter, because she was scared the rest of the run that she would be kicked out too. While she got along with the new girl cast as Molly, she still missed her friend. The actual production of Annie went well and my daughter did have fun. Her experience was just average compared to the great experience it could have been. We also know now that if we do future shows at Baker, to only do that one show and not audition for anything else. Since my daughter did have fun, I couldn't justify a rating of 1 but it definitely wasn't a 5. She said it was just average and that was a shame because it could have been great. read more

I would suggest you look elsewhere. Unless you want your child to have zero chances of a lead or co lead role. They use the same few kids as the leading parts for every performance. Not what you would think for a place that fosters self worth and builds confidence in children. These are just my opinions after appx. 9 months of observation. We kept telling our kids to put themselves out there, work hard and do their best and they would perhaps be rewarded for their time and effort. After the roles came out for the new show and it had the same kids as the lead we finally said enough is enough. You can only comfort broken hearted kids for so long before you remove them from the source of the problem. I'm sure this place will continue to do well, because children love to play pretend and dress up. But I do highly recommend you look elsewhere before you commit to this place. I want to clarify this review is only in regards to the casting practices. The people that work here have all been very friendly. If the casting practices were more fair our children would still be enrolled. read more

Good idea, poorly implemented. After attending for 8 mos., I pulled my daughters out of the kids musical theater program because I refuse to pay to expose them to an ongoing popularity contest. If it's not that, not sure what it takes to get a lead role, as talent and/or hard work are not key aspects of the decision process. After once again seeing the disappointment on my kids faces and lacking an explanation, I'm done. It's not only distasteful in a children's program, but also disrespectful. read more

Be very careful sending your children here. What an awful experience with the owner. We did the full year for $400. Was so excited to have found a place since we just moved from Chicago. Our 8 year old had so much fun, loved her teacher and had a blast. On the night of the performance I took my 3 and 5 year old to the bathroom and my little guy put his hand in the hinge of the bathroom door as it closed.. Totally normal because he is a kid. He started to scream as his hand was stuck. Screaming. I opened the door and his hand was black and blue. Ok kids are kids. Next thing is Mr baker runs up and says can you please exit to the audience because people will start wondering what happened in the back if they here screams. I said my son is really hurt. His next response was I cant have you here crying, it might scare people, go to the icebox in front" Ice box? My sons fingers could be broken. I came back to the chair and my eyes welled up before the performance. I had been duped. I cried as I watched my daughter have the best time and realized the man behind it all didn't care. My 5 yr old son is screaming and he was more worried about his pocket book. His appearance, and the audience hearing my son cry. I then realized my child is in his care. He didn't care one bit that this "kid" was hurt. It's a money thing. After the performance we left. I spoke to him on the phone and I said "doors slam fingers, kids jump off of stuff, everything happens, I'm a mom of 3 I know." For a man that is caring for 10-20 children at a time he didn't even flinch when my kids hands where purple. He told me it is not his job to care for them and he said why would we have ice packs. My response is because it's a little boy that's been hurt and because you have fifteen 4-10 year olds that are in the care of you. How scary. Mr. Clyde baker was more worried about the audience and being sued than his own kids. Be very careful. The worst part is I told my daughter tonight about it. What a tough lesson. She cried cause she loves her teacher and met friends, she was excited about the upcoming shows but if a child (her brother) gets hurt and you put a rug over it when I'm there, disregard it, who knows what baker studios covers when we are g there. I failed as a mom putting my daughter here. read more

I had never acted or performed on stage in my life before coming here looking to rent the theatre for my one man show that I was going to perform for friends and family. I had spent two years memorizing the book of mark (from the Bible) and was going to recite it from memory dramatically on stage. I happen to find Baker performing arts through a google search. I had seen their previous location at the San tan mall so I went over to check it out and it was perfect for what I was doing. Tiffany and Mr. Baker were super helpful and helped in everything to set things up. They were quick to respond to any questions Or requests I had. Finally when the night came for my show they let me come early to do a complete rehearsal. They made sure everything was working flawless and had the chairs set up just as I had asked. They even let us use a little room for childcare and it had plenty of entertainment for the kids. Everything went perfectly! Thank you so much. I will be recommending baker performing arts to all my friends dm family for parties, weddings and special events like mines. read more

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place! My son started band at school and I needed to rent an Alto Saxophone. Called around town to a few different music stores. The staff at Baker was so helpful. I know NOTHING about music or what my son needed. They put me at ease and set my son up for success! Wish me luck as he learns to play read more

I inquired about signing my sister up for theater and the manager or owner who took my phone call was extremely rude. He said that if I am questioning whether to go a year or a month then to just go a month. I understand this but the way it was handled was very poor customer service, I do not want to enroll with this company. He made me feel disrespected. I am very disappointed in how I was treated and hope that that one day they get their customer service under control. This isn't broadway this is a kids theater company. read more

My daughter was in a production here before she graduated high school and she would come home from rehearsal raving about how much she loved the cast members, the show, and the process. She had an amazing time. read more

My daughter went here for camp and loved every second of it. The owner and director were so wonderful and I was impressed by how much she had learned in one week. She is now begging me to sign her up for a production and can't wait to go back! read more

My first time at this venue was to see a friend of mine's child perform in the High School Musical Jr. production. It was very cute! If you have young children and/or teenagers and they have a desire to get into musical theater then I recommend this performing arts center. They do a decent job and the kids really seem to be enjoying themselves. read more

My child went here for a few weeks during school breaks, and then again for a show. He was totally loving it and really growing his love for the theatre. Then came the night of his show... We had invited a few friends to come and watch and they were excited to see him. We were first in line and stood there waiting for it to start for 20 minutes. During this time no one said anything about anything. When the doors opened up she asked for our tickets. Tickets? What tickets? No one ever said anything about tickets! They said yes they did, it was all in the e-mails. But I never received any e-mail from them. I re-reviewed the brochure about the show and even that does not mention tickets. We grudgingly paid for the tickets for us, my parents, AND our friends (since we invited everyone we didn't want to expect them to pay). They were $15 each and we had to pay for 9 of them! So after we paid $180 for our child to be in the show, plus supplied our own costumes, then we had to buy very expensive tickets! But whatever, maybe our mistake, let's try to move on and enjoy watching him in the show. Of course by the time we got it all resolved they refused to hold our place in line and we had no seats...had to bring up more and sit in the very last row where we couldn't see...after having been first in line :-( When the show started the music was SO loud you couldn't hear any of the kids lines, not even when they were singing all together. It was deafening! We listened for a few minutes but couldn't take it anymore. I quietly stood up and I wasn't rude about it, I didn't want to make the night any more awkward after what could have been my mistake...this was about my son's performance, not about me, so I tried to be very polite. I whispered to Mr. Baker and Tiffany how loud the music was and asked if they could turn it down so we could hear. Mr. Baker flat out ignored me and refused to answer, and Tiffany told me "you'd be able to hear them better if you were sitting up front." I stood there for a few seconds trying to decide if she had really just been that rude. We just stared at each other. Then Mr. Baker said "we have a show to run here" and he motioned for me to go sit down. I cannot believe how rude they both were! The worst part was that my son had loved it before all this and we had intended to use them more. But instead we had to break his heart and tell them that we cannot go back after they treat customers with such horrible disrespect. I'd give zero stars if I could. We will NOT be going back! read more

I am very surprised to see negative reviews for Baker. My child has been a student for almost 3 years and Mr. Baker, Tiffany, her mom and the student interns that have volunteered because they are old enough to play a role in coaching the younger kids are all fantastic. I have always signed my child up for Saturday's cast and have NEVER had a complaint, they have been nothing but accommodating whenever there is a little thing like a cd that needed replacing or scratched to making the seating more organized. They have doubled in size since my daughter first started and have lots of other fun activities for the kids. Mr. Baker has been generous to his interns and I am sad that more positive reviews aren't posted. I was searching for reviews on piano lessons because I was looking at enrolling in my child in piano and I had to write this review to let everyone know. We love Baker and MANY of the friends my child has are castmates who have been going to baker for 3 years if not longer! Also, the pricing especially for the quality and real licensed plays is a bargain! My only suggestion to Mr. Baker is that copies of the script and CD should still be included :). read more

We were told to sign up for piano lessons online and that the first class would be free. We signed up, took our daughter to her first class which started by a very nice teacher guiding us down a hallway that was so dark he had to use the flashlight on his phone so we could see where we were going which was a room WAY in the back of the building where luckily there were a few other kids which made me feel slightly better about leaving my daughter (there is no place for parents anywhere in the building) so I stood outside the front door for 45 minutes trying to convince myself to have an open mind. My daughter seemed to enjoy the class but there was no way I was sending her back to this place that seemed like a giant fire trap and of course they charged us $80 for the 'free class' and wouldn't refund us since we had signed up online (they told us to). We were super excited about this experience and are so disappointed. read more

Enrolled our Daughter in the group instruction at the San Tan location. She stayed with the school for one year. Dr. Huff was great! After receiving feedback from my 13-year old that from time to time the instructor left the students to help customers, I confronted Mr. Baker and he was defensive and argumentative and stated to me maybe we shouldn't return and it's 'not a good fit'. I find it crazy that a business owner would not listen to feedback on perceived staffing issues. I asked Mr. Baker if I was paying an hourly wage for Dr. Huff to be a store clerk or if I was paying the school for a one hour group instruction. Mr. Baker continued to state during the call how Dr. Huff was doing his best - I kept reiterating this has nothing to do with Dr. Huff and it was a staffing issue. Mr. Baker proceeded to inform me how successful his business was - he missed the point of the conversation. We agree on one point.....this is not a good fit and we will find another instructor (sorry Dr. Huff - we will miss you!). read more