Berkeley Repertory Theatre Review

Love the Berkley Rep. Yhank you for making the east bay a better place.

The new peet's theater is fantastic. The acoustics are perfect and the size of the theater is intimate and there are no bad seats in the house

Theatre that will change you. Inspiring. Creative edginess. Awesome. Two theatres, Peet's & The Roda & in between, a beautiful courtyard. Concessions counters as well as Michael's Second Act bar. Visit soon!

Great place to see a smart, small show on fascinating topics. Mostly riveting performances.

Every time I see a show here the quality is amazing

One of my favorite theater companies of all time. Professional. Creative. Fairly easy access. You will be glad you went.

They're having a great season - Paradise Square and Metamorphoses are both well-worn seeing!!

I loved the show. The theatre and staff was great!! I thought the cast was better than the London cast which my son and I saw and will definitely come back. Everyone should.!!!

Such creative, awesome people. Entertaining and engaging always!

The theaters are small enough that even the nosebleed seats offer a good view. Consistently good shows every season... A good mix of genres that appeal to divergent tastes in theater.

Excellent theater company. Interesting and eclectic plays. Almost every seat in the house is a good seat including standing room.

Great venue to watch a play. That followed the schedule accordingly. Had good drinks during intermission and great overall experience.

Had a great time watching the "kiss my aztec" show, theatre has a very good cosy vibe, and we brought our own food and ate during the loud parts of the show

Great theatre and good seating options - could use more restrooms.

Season tickets here are half off if you're under 30! Their seasons are phenomenal and creative from a whole range of perspectives. They also have great collaborations with writers in New York and have done several performances that made it to Broadway!

Beautiful theater- convenient to BART. Very impressed with the quality of the production and calibre of the performances! Highly recommend!

Nice small theater, sat down front, it was awesome.

Angels In America was so gooooooooood. It is a wonderful space.

The best theater in the Bay Area (along with the Aurora next door). SF has nothing comparable.

Took a great class here, the summer filmmaking intensive. Highly recommended.

Great productions and excellent seating, site lines and sound.

Able to produce interesting original works. Always compelling.

Always like coming here. Mike Birbiglia was great!! Good drinks too.

I had so enjoyed the Hershey Felder Gershwin/Bernstein/Chopin performances that I concluded Berkeley Rep had gotten it all right in the music department, an assumption that proved to be all wrong when I saw Meow, Meow. Never have I been more disappointed with a BR presentation, and my attendance goes back decades.
Any theatergoer tries to be open minded. My dismay with the first few minutes of MM forced me to think of my experience in 1979, while teaching at an English university in a provincial city and, knowing nothing of its theater, I bought tickets sight unseen for a show at the downtown playhouse. I suppose what my wife and I saw was in the British music hall tradition, prolonged in the provinces after World War II: comedy so fatigued by the ages that every line was tired and predictable, accompanied by a similarly timeworn score. Indeed, it had some appeal to me as a historian. But in the Bay Area in 2014?
My partner turned my way, and I couldn t help myself. This is terrible, I murmured, and she nodded in assent. But she wouldn t leave a burning barn, and we lingered on forever, it seemed.
No, there was a ray of hope. When the premise was put forward that the staginess of the production would be replaced by a different show, acrtress-inspired, change might have occurred. It did not. Her voice was good (if not great), but her costume (though it was later removed to no effect) was conventional (and her hairpiece laughable) and her pathetic attempts at humor not to mention her occasional banal philosophizing remained the same. The ending I thought would never end.
The audience seemed fairly appreciative of it all; most of the folks around me clapped moderately. I must admit to not owning a television set (which is one reason I go to the theater), so I have no sense of the fare folks usually imbibe. For all I know, MM is standard or even good by comparison.
But for me it was a betrayal of trust. I have high expectations of Berkeley Rep, though I don t expect perfection. I had no reason to anticipate something so colossally mediocre as MM.

There are two theaters that comprise the Berkeley Repertory Theater. I prefer the Peet's theater over the Roda theater. They are both next to each other. There really isn't a bad seat in the Peet's theater. It is much more intimate.

Best known community theater in the East Bay. Consistent quality of live theater

Hershey Felder does a wonderful job portraying the life of Leonard Bernstein. If this is a clue as to the quality of plays produced at Berkeley Rep, then this is a go to place for quality theatre. The staff, from the will call, to the ticket takers to the ushers are all kind, polite and oh so helpful. The thrust stage made all seats good seats. The integrated video added a lot to this performance. I can't wait to be back in the area to see another presentation here!

Fantastic local theater in the heart of downtown Berkeley. One of those treasures that makes Berkeley such a special place. Bart accessible.

Such a great theater showing edgy as well as refined theater. Such a gem!

As a 20+ year season ticket holder I can strongly recommend Berkeley Rep. Amazing productions that inspire and generate thoughtful contemplation.

Have been a subscriber for 10+ years. Overall a very good theater. HIt and Miss, of course, but more often hit.

What a treat it is to have an excellent theater on this side of the tunnel. No need to always head into the City for a play or a foreign film.

Conveniently located just steps from Downtown Berkeley BART, a block from AC Transit, and with a parking garage across the street, you have plenty of transportation options to get you there.

I've attended performances here over the course of a number of years. As a student, at some point I even had discounted season tickets with excellent seats.

They always bring in big names from Salman Rushdie to Rita Moreno to Mandy Patinkin. It's humbling to know that Berkeley can attract such talent. We're just that hip.

Some of the most memorable productions that I've seen were: Ghosts (2003/2004), The Miser (2005/2006), and most recently, Red (2011/2012).

There are two theatres where you can enjoy the shows depending upon the performance: Thrust and Roda. Each one allows for excellent views no matter where you sit.

The actors are talented and staging is always done well. Each time is a different experience, and I've always come away with a new perspective on things.

They have an excellent concessions bar with reasonable prices, and I enjoy my time during intermission.

It's especially fun to attend an opening or closing reception, when their outdoor patio is open and excited theater-goers mix and mingle with one another over drinks and sweets.

In addition to live theatre, Berkeley Rep hosts various film festivals.

We're season subscribers. We really enjoy their productions.

We have season tickets and love every show we go to.

This is such a nice venue for theater. Both theaters are a great space to see things and I've enjoyed different works in each. The subscription process was easy, I chose the 3 shows I wanted to see and that worked out well. I love the photo opportunity and the outdoor courtyard. Very easy walk to lots of preshow dinner. And while we didn't have a great experience in the lot they are using now for parking, I've gone several times recently and found excellent street parking without too much trouble.

Berkeley Rep consistently shows innovative stories. The Good Book was excellent - an interesting & extremely entertaining look at the history of the bible through the eyes of a female atheist religious studies professor and a devout young catholic man struggling with his identity. Trust me, the play is much more entertaining than my brief summary.

Always a great show at Berkeley Rep! Beautiful, modern theater in the middle of downtown Berkeley.

A wonderful experience, with two nice theaters, No senior prices but do discount tix for people under 30.

Wonderful theatre with well regarded plays. We saw Becky Nurse of Salem there having been recently to Salem, Ma. It was funny and well written and well acted with a small, talented cast. Lots of parking structures nearby and you can validate your parking ticket.

Don't miss the 19-20 season. Despereaux, African Mean Girls, the Avett Brother's Swept Away, Happy Days with Dianne Wiest tickets are still available

Pre-Broadway and smaller productions, many with a progressive slant, for instance the present show, "Roe." Most seating very good. Affordable eats. Easy access bathrooms.

This is a fantastic theater! All of the productions are very professional, and the staff is incredible! Bravo!

We are long-time subscribers to this live theater house. Each season brings thoughtful, provocative, and charming productions - a great mix of reworked classics and original debuts.

The Rep now has two stages, doubling each season's enjoyment. Plus a newish lounge to hang out before and after the show and enjoy a cocktail and a treat.

We look forward to our night's out at the Rep!