Jottie Jay

Review of Wallis Annenberg Center for th...

If you have a physical handicap (I limp and use a ...

If you have a physical handicap (I limp and use a cane after 5 back surgeries), but are not in a wheelchair, do not come to this theater. I was sent to the 2nd level parking, no handicap spots at all. The escalator wasn't working. The elevator from the parking lot lets you off on the street, not in the building, and it's a distance to the theater itself with one elevator to take guests down two very long and steep flights of stairs. Following orders, the usher shut the theater door in my face literally one second (no exaggeration) after the guest in front of me was allowed in before opening curtain. Monitors for lobby viewing face west and at 7 pm in May the sun obliterates the viewing capability. I had top dollar tickets but I had to climb down several stairs to get to my seats because the lower level entrance to the theater was "unavailable." There are handrails on only one side of the aisle. Hard to find restrooms if you listen to the ushers directions and many stairs to climb again if the side entrances/exits are closed to get to the elevator. The doors of the elevator that was supposed to return me to the lower orchestra level hit me and did not stop closing on top of me without the efforts of two other people. Once on the ground floor the doors did not open at all and the elevator took me back up to the very top mezzanine where I encountered the rudest usher ever. I barely made it back into the theater after the intermission, only after i wrestled my ticket out of the usher's hand who was on some weird power trip that surely would have left me standing in the lobby again looking at a monitor if I had allowed her to engage me or detain me any further.

Not to confuse this poorly executed theater with the actors' performance, Spring Awakening by Deaf West was wonderful.