Dawn R.
Yelp
The shows so far this season have been better than the Hangar's recent average. 39 Steps was very good and Man of La Mancha was outstanding. It's a shame that administrative choices made it so difficult to enjoy the artistic efforts.
Show times are different from night to night, which is bad enough, but they weren't listed anywhere! Not in the local newspaper or the other local newspaper or the website or the lobby of the theatre... not even in the Hangar's own program!! I wanted to return to see Man of La Mancha a second time and literally gave up in frustration.
Which directly relates to the level of distraction during my attendance at a recent performance. There were a large number of latecomers climbing over me to find their seats and a repeated opening and shutting of doors to a very brightly lit lobby. I literally missed about 20 minutes of the show at its opening. Any theatre struggles with how to accommodate late seating, but when there is no effort made to inform the public of show times, it significantly increases the number of people who will assume that the show begins at the traditional 8:00PM time.
Management, please make some effort to minimize this problem by dimming the lobby lights during show time and clearly posting show times. You may wish to reconsider your late seating policy as well, or at least stabilize the schedule so times are consistent. You have left your poor house manager with little choice but to contend with a steady flow of distraction.
The community is expected to love the new (quite expensive) renovations, but I was dismayed. The design choice was stark, modern, and brightly colored, which is quite a clash with the historic quality of the building. Would it be in good taste to gut the inside of a historic home and furnish it with modern chrome furniture? The only nod to the historic significance of the building is a few black and white photos on the wall. I truly expected a better sense of history and time period from a theatre, of all places. It just makes the Hangar look like it is trying too hard to be a chic, modern Manhattan bistro.
While reasonable folks may disagree about asthetics, I was surprised that the renovation did not even address functional issues. The "cafe" is not user friendly in the least, as one must stand in the lobby in long lines waiting to be served from one small window to get a cup of coffee just in time to toss it out before returning to the performance. Did no one consider how to serve a large theatre audience in an efficient manner?
The new seats are comfortable, but now include very bright "aisle lights" at the end of each row, lighting up the theatre to the point where the entire audience is easily viewable throughout the performance. It is very distracting. There is a reason why audience lights fade to dark (or they should) during a performance.
I would give the shows themselves a 5-star rating. It is frustrating that the administrative emphasis has been on the "newness" of the shiny building renovation rather than complimenting the architecture and history of the building and, most especially, enhancing the ability of the audience to appreciate the show itself. As it stands now, that which is "new" seems only to interfere with the theatrical experience.