Joe Rando

Review of The Wilbur Theatre

There is a certain sub-group of live venues that c...

There is a certain sub-group of live venues that consider the people paying to attend (often known in other areas of business as "customers") to be nothing more than sources of revenue that quickly become annoying when they expected any level of treatment above "farm animal" (note this may be unfair to many farmers).

We went to see Mike Birbiglia on February 14 and his show was great. Unfortunately, mid-show, the waitress dumped a drink all over my and my wife's laps. No problem - it was an accident. All I asked for was some napkins to dry ourselves off. 15 minutes later, I finally went in search of them myself. She did eventually show up after 20 to 25 minutes. That is simply ridiculous! You don't dump a drink all over people and then stop by with napkins the next time it's convenient; you run and get them right away. "Maybe she is a bad employee," I naively thought.

The next day I called The Wilbur Theater to let them know about this uncaring employee and I asked for the manager. The person on the line identified themselves as the Box Office Manager and when I told my story said I needed to talk to the General Manager. He offered to transfer me, proceeded to disconnect me, and then turned the phones on to auto-attend mode so all I got was a recording when I called back. Apparently the annoying revenue source was attempting to bother him and his General Manager.

I have had very good experiences at a number of theaters in Boston (the Cutler Majestic comes to mind). These are places where being a source of revenue gets you treated like something better than an enemy combatant. Next time someone I want to see comes to the region, I will be sure to find another theater in the area to see them or I won't go.