About five years ago I saw Turandot here and I've been a fan ever since. I grant I am not a highly…read moreknowledgeable attendee. I love theatre, and I know much more about theatre than I am ever likely to know on opera. In a few of the past five years, I got the three opera season tickets ( you can also do four and five opera tickets) and I can honestly say I have not seen a bad show. The productions of The Magic Flute and Turandot were among my favorites. The modern opera, Dead Man Walking was simply amazing. It's great how you can pre order drinks and desserts for intermission, and seating is comfortable and reasonably spacious. For parking be prepared to walk a few blocks and to drop anyone needing assistance at the front door. The Ordway is of course surrounded by good places to eat and drink pre and post performance. I am unsure how I feel about their "Tempo" club, which offers steeply reduced B and below seat to those 45 and under and special events. It is supposedly to attract younger patrons as Opera fans but I think it carries its age range beyond students and the truly young in an unreasonable way. Opportunities for the "old" to save are mostly around poorer season tickets, it seems unbalanced and designed to attract prettier audience members. That said, if you are 45 or under and interested in trying opera, it's another incentive I grant. If you want to start slow on opera get yourself tickets to a modern opera like this seasons "The Fix", make sure to reserve that drink/desert for intermission and enjoy. It's a nice night out.

I got ticket to see a opera here couple weeks ago with my boyfriend who has always wanted to go. I…read morepurchased them online and sent by mail. Easy. No one told me that going too the opera you dress up like your going to the Oscars hahaha I just went with jeans heels and my northface same for my boyfriend minus the heels. Everyone looked so fancy we looked like were going to the bar Anyways we go to our seats and omg the seats are for like tiny ppl no room to move. My boyfriend was like wtf I cant let my friends get crushed down there. And the seats are so close to one another its a lil awkward. Other than that the show was great it was not in english subtitles were up on a lil screen so it was aannoying to look and read and look back at the actors I think it was in german. Lasted 2 hour long I couldnt feel my butt haha I am making it sound awful but really its not we are going back but prepared this time we will dress up like we millionaires and we will bring a butt pillow Good place to take a date my tickets were 25 each and the view is not bad at all.

How have I never reviewed the Ordway?! I come here often enough and for long enough…read more This is one of my favorite venues in the Twin Cities for theater. Seats are comfortable and have good leg room and not really a bad seat in the place. I also love the addition of the concert hall for smaller events. Staff are always helpful and friendly. The bars always do a fun drink that rotates for the show at the time. Do yourself a favor and pre-order a drink for intermission if you plan to have refreshments at that time. The one drawback here is parking. The ramps aren't super close (although, they're within an easy walk) and street parking in this area is always chaos, so give yourself plenty of time before your show to find space. If you haven't had the chance to enjoy and event here, get yourself to the Ordway!

We've been coming to the Ordway for years! It's definitely my preferred theater in the Cities!…read more Parking is a bit of a toss-up...here are my go-tos: hope for a miracle and get street parking, pay a little more and get a spot in a nearby garage, get a bite beforehand at the St. Paul Grill and use their Valet :) The space itself is very modern and clean! I actually like that it is updated and not a "historic" theater. You don't have steep staircases, old bathrooms, or impossibly tight leg room! Tickets are usually reasonably priced, and my favorite "cheat code" is to buy the "limited view" seats in the front corners, as they are significantly discounted, and often only have a minimal disruption in the view. Staff is always friendly and excited to welcome you to the show! They have snacks, coffee, and alcoholic drinks available for purchase, but often frown upon you bringing it into the theater with you, so plan ahead and get there before the show to enjoy!

Wow, this non-profit is really taking opera out of the box and out of the theater! I love it!…read more I went to see The Amazing Adventures of Acis and Galatea which was set in the lobby, sub-basement, and roof of Pillsbury A-Mill. It was so much fun listening to the singers move around and surround me while at the same time moving from scene to scene through such a historic building. It was a well thought out experience, and I'm a bit obsessed now. I wished the production lasted more than one day, but non-profits generally can't make that happen without a dedicated space. Very lucky to have caught this show. I'm really looking forward to seeing their next production, hoping to catch Diva Cage Match next time around!

Gorgeous and intimate theatre! I didn't realize this stunning spot was nestled in the middle of…read moredowntown Minneapolis! I've driven by it several times but never realized how beautiful it was internally. We appreciated the usher's passion for the theatre itself. They shared insight into some of the historic figures who have graced this stage as well as their excitement for what's to come in the coming months. Prices on beverages were a little wild considering the amount we received ($16+ for less than half a glass of Sauvignon Blanc) and the additional 18% automatically tacked on. I wish expectation for photos was more clearly marked. I didn't see anything when I went in (I definitely could've missed it). The instructions provided by the security (?) of no video but ok with photo was confusing when they came back a second time to say no more photos.

Went to see swan lake last night, alternate ending where the swan and the prince live and evil…read moresorcerer is killed. We were in the balcony but cause the seats are steep we were still able to see well. Had a great time. Didn't have any food, but the usual snacks available.

good popcorn good prices (in this economy) very nice staff…read more there are literally couches for you to wait for the bathroom if i could rate it for 10 stars out of five i would!

The movie started on time. My granddaughters were wiggling around and nobody minded. The concession…read moreare much more reasonable price than chain theaters.

This is an absolutely beautiful venue. Fantastic acoustics, visuals, and beautiful architecture and…read moredecor. There might not be a bad seat in the whole house. Parking is expensive and safety outside the Orpheum in the evenings is questionable. Just be careful, and you can park in a lot just one block away. It's expensive, but it's probably the safest parking option.

I'll keep this one short and sweet, because if you're reading this, you're probably already pretty…read moreset on seeing a show here: She place is gorgeous but the seats are NOT comfy at all. Majority of the seats have a warning on their website that the legroom is nonexistent. There are some blind spots to be aware of, and the box seating definitely misses much of the side stage. We used A View From My Seat to see what each seat is like before we booked seats for Cursed Child, and am so glad we did. It was like sorting through a landmine trying to find a seat that had decent views in our price point and getting an aisle spot to the legroom didn't affect us as much. Definitely do your research before picking a seat here!

It is a pretty theater. Some people say the sight lines are good from the audience, however you're…read moresitting behind somebody tall, you can't see a good chunk of the stage. Also the seats are getting quite worn. I felt like I was sitting in a hole. There are four measly handicap parking spots near the theater. Otherwise you have to park in a ramp over a block away and unfortunately, walk down a hill to get to the theater and then back up the hill to leave. It is a long hill. If you have to push a wheelchair or you are physically limited it's a real rough walk. The number of women's bathrooms were acceptable. The stage seems to be a good size, and the lighting was good. The music for the ballet I attended was recorded and it was rather loud, but the acoustics did seem good. I wouldn't mind actually going to a concert there--as long as it wasn't performed on a cold winter night!

I went to UM music school and the hall was built while I was there. We really enjoyed it my last…read moreyears there!

If you want your child to be trained in classical ballet then this is the place you need to go. The…read moreowner knows his stuff very well. They have trained amazing dancers who have continued after finishing this school. They are very dedicated to teaching your child the correct way of dancing. I highly recommend this place

Great instruction and environment for an adult learner! Ballet was fun again. Loved their…read moreNutcracker performance as well.

I attended Don Quixote at the Fitgerald Theater expecting a serious production. This was a dance…read morerecital and I guess, school fundraiser. They should gave advertised it as such. I expected at least a semi-professional production at $80 a ticket. Not a single male dancer on the stage, just guys in tights moving awkwardly. A handful of decent female dancers. Overall, a complete rip off. Again, if it was sold as a dance recital all would have been fine, and I wouldn't have been there.

We took some friends here thinking it would be professional theater. It turned out to be more like…read morecommunity theater. Now I know that everyone in the play worked hard and did the best they could, but lets be honest here when we are selling tickets. My wife was under the impression that this would be something like the Ordway just in the west metro. It wasn't. No live music (played on a skippy CD player that would cut out hard after every song) and most of the dancers were probably from the MBA (Metropolitan Ballet Academy) so were amateurs at best. Now if my daughter was in the play, I would totally have gone and loved it. But that is not what I was expecting. The website makes it seem like a professional troupe of ballet dancers and really makes no mention about what it really is, community ballet with professionals mixed in. My party felt like they had been deceived as to what was really going on but it is probably our own fault that we saw ballet at a high school theater. Also, from what I can tell, most of the reviews on the website are written by two freelance writers and the Facebook reviews are done by the people actually in the production...that is a little biased wouldn't you think? But hey, what can I say? I'm not a professional ballet dancer and in no way will I ever be close. I applaud the company for what they are trying to do and make a living out of it. It's just a little deceiving to the patrons that come in and if you are totally honest I think more people would enjoy it instead of feel like they have been upstaged. If you want a great introduction to ballet, this might be it. If you want to see something more on the adult professional side, maybe not so much.

A grand old building with " this is a college campus" parking. They have prepaid parking for the…read moreclosest "church street" lot but don't get into that long slow lane, if you aren't prepaid. We were directed to the Nolte lot which was wasn't far away and a tunnel walk to the Northrup (which was nice as it was cold.) At the theater itself, they had plenty of people to help direct and the seats were comfortable and the view was just fine.

North Auditorium - twin Cities ballet Nutcracker…read more In 1989, I saw my first performance of The Nutcracker at the North Auditorium. Thirty-six years later, I brought my son back -- he's about the same age I was then -- hoping to share the magic of Christmas and the magic of The Nutcracker with him. When I called to purchase tickets, I specifically asked whether this was a classical version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, and I was told that it was. Because of that assurance, you can imagine my disappointment when it became clear that this was not a classical interpretation at all. The director took extensive liberties with this 133-year-old masterpiece to make it more "Minnesota." There was a wooden flute meant to imitate a loon, complete with a loon dance. There were Viking elements, a bird dance I couldn't make sense of, and a riverboat scene with fish. Were some of these moments cute? Yes. Were they Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker? No. If I had seen the riverboat dance with the little fish at a student dance recital, I would have smiled and thought it was charming. But when you are expecting the timeless classical Nutcracker -- first produced in 1892 and beloved for its enduring magic -- this reimagining is deeply underwhelming. To be fair, there were positives. I appreciated the relaxed sensory-friendly performance, especially as I have an autistic son. It was wonderful to see so many young children there with their families, and the little girls dressed in their ballerina-inspired outfits were absolutely adorable. The student performers did well, and this was clearly a meaningful experience for them. That said, I only counted about four principal dancers who felt at a professional level. The two principal dancers in Act II who performed the solos and duets were very good, and for a brief moment, I was truly captivated by their dancing. The set design, however, was lackluster -- it felt cheaply made and lacked the Christmas magic this piece deserves. Perhaps the production was working within a very limited budget. I did receive discounted tickets, and I'm grateful for that. Had I paid full price, I would have been very upset. This performance was not worth full price. I love theater. I love dance. I always wished I could have been a dancer myself and took classes when I was younger. I have friends who are professional dancers, now retired, so I understand what the arts can be -- the breathtaking, awe-inspiring, make-you-cry-and-you-don't-know-why magic of live performance. That is what I hoped my son would experience. He didn't. I didn't either. When it was over, I asked him what he thought. He shrugged and said, "Good." And that really sums it up. It was good -- but it wasn't great. It wasn't extraordinary. And it wasn't Christmas magic. If you have a friend or family member in the performance, I understand wanting to attend. But if you're expecting the classic Nutcracker and the kind of Christmas magic this piece is known for, you won't find it here