ZACH Theatre

Buyer and Cellar one man show! Very entertaining! I think it helps to have an innate love for Barbra Streisand but the young man who is performing is excellent.
AWESOME! — J. Robert Moore gives a stunning performance… tremendous talent for one so young. Movies… why??? when Austin surrounds itself with live performances like this!
It’s a story in a story wrapped in a story. That’s my (a very simplistic) point of view-​.
You’ll have to see it for yourself!
Here’s a tidbit about the author and his take… Jonathan Tolins wrote «Buyer & Cellar,» a play about an underemployed actor working in a basement on the estate of Barbra Streisand.
As much as I’ve always admired Ms. Streisand I have to be honest and say I did not know she ever wrote a book and especially one that looks so interesting. (If I’m not mistaken I was knee-​deep in the middle of my own career at that point.)
I intend to get one for myself as it would not only be a great read it would be a great memory of this one man play!
Go see it, ENJOY, and know that you’re not only supporting hard-​working actors but the Austin communities decision to support the arts!

My boyfriend and I really love this theatre! It is a non profit that believes in keeping children and young adults motivated to pursue the arts. They also believe that actors, staff & musicians deserve the right king of decent pay and pay much much better than other theaters. The reason I know this is because my boyfriend performed lead electric guitar for their performance of One Man, Two Guvnors. Sucks if you missed out!
Their bathrooms always get long lines before the show and during intermission. Don’t fret though, there a ton of stalls that are all clean and nice.
They also have a full bar! Woop woop! You can bring all drinks into the theatre, but not food

I’ve seen several great shows here. Love the Zach Scott theatre. Great venue for any size production since the remodel. Parking can be a challenge as with anywhere downtown and the bar is a bit over priced. But the staff are friendly and informed, which makes all the difference.

Smaller theater review: every seat is a great seat. Some are even on the floor of the stage! Plenty of bathrooms and of course a bar with cocktails. It also seems that they will let you bring your refreshment back into the show. Party on!
Intimate, clean, drinks and not too crowded.

My boyfriend and I went last night to see Buyer and Cellar thanks to winning tickets from @yelpaustin. It was such an amusing show. J. Robert Moore did an amazing job in this one-​man play. I would recommend folks go see this play. We had a great time, imbibed in some cocktails and some chocolate covered pretzels and laughed quite a bit.
Thanks again, @yelpaustin! Y’all ROCK!!! :)

So I’ve only been to the smaller stage at Zach Theater, but from what I’ve seen this theater is right up my alley.
I need to see everything that happens on the stage. I’ll obsess over the interrupted view and miss the whole show if I can’t. I can honestly say there is not a bad seat in the house. The aisles are steep enough that even the tallest person could sit in front of you and you wouldn’t miss a thing.
The acoustics and speaker system is on point, too. Remember how I need to see everything? Well, that goes double for hearing everything. There are such subtle voice inflections that can completely change the meaning of a line. Give me that sound! You can hear it all with the way they rig up the performers.
The whole play was brilliant, but not stressing over the theater made the performance that much better. Thank you Zach theater. You get it.

We love this theater. Have been season ticket owners for about 14 years, give or take, and have mostly loved the set up. This season, though, they have included in their season ticket line up, a Christmas show we have seen twice over the past two years, one of the times where we paid to bring along guests. This price was in addition to the season ticket package we had already purchased! Since we have seen this production twice, we weren’t really interested in seeing it a third time. We were set to buy seasons tickets with the exception of this show. We contacted people in the upper tier of management and our communication was sent down the line to end at the marketing department. We explained our frustration at having no other choice to go with and the response was, «you can donate your tickets or give them away to friends». (At the price of tickets, with us being retired, I don’t think so). They would NOT excuse us from the one show (Christmas show) though we were willing to buy the rest of the tickets to keep our seats, even when they knew we had purchased 6 tickets in the past two years. Our only other option was to buy 5 tickets with no reserved seating. Seriously??? After all these years of purchasing season tickets, there was no slack given to us for being a long time customer and this was incredibly disappointing. There was not any negotiations given to us in any way for being a loyal consecutive 14 year season ticket holder. Sorry, Zach Scott, we give you a reduction in stars for a complete lack of even trying to see our point of view on this which we felt was more than fair. Did you really think it was o.k. to force your season ticket holders to watch a show they have seen the last two years in a row in order to keep their season ticket status? Did you really think it was o. k to ask them to donate these same tickets if they didn’t want to watch it a third time, or to substitute the ticket for a children’s play that should cost half the price? Our complaint is that you are not giving us any real options! We tried to stay on as season ticket holders and waited for a call back but never got one. We called several times, talked with several people who said they would have someone call us back and no one ever did. I guess they can get along just fine without us! Breaking up is so hard to do!

Excellent! I will be attending all performance that I can! Such a great experience for children.

They always deliver a first class experience. But literally a woman who is working as an usher/​host overheard me saying I wanted ice but didn’t want to wait in line… And I didn’t even know it… Until literally 5 minutes later she walks to my seat with a cup of ice. Incredible. Thank you beyond words.
Also…Being able to order drinks for intermission is a win.

I don’t know how they do it with all the volunteers but they do. And they do it right.
We saw Ann last week and it was so fun.
If I lived near I would volunteer but I might not make the cut. I will live near someday.

I have NEVER seen a show there that wasn’t really good on one end of the spectrum and amazing on the other end of the spectrum!
And as a former season-​ticket holder for years, I have seen dozens of shows there.
Last night I had the privilege of seeing «Ann» and it was absolutely another five star show!
The new Topfer theater at Zach is a beautiful, intimate theater. There is not a bad seat in the house. The staff is always very friendly too! The only thing that is less than stellar is the wine and the price of the wine. It is not very good, cheap wine. It tastes like $ 5 a bottle wine and it is $ 10 in about 4 – 5 oz plastic cup. Way too expensive for such bad wine. The cocktail list is much better quality.
I highly recommend catching a show at Zach. You will not be disappointed.

Our family from out of town bought us tickets for A Christmas Carol and we really enjoyed it. All the hard work these talented cast members put into their parts to put on an outstanding show. Hats off to each and everyone one of them. We look forward to another outstanding show again in December!

Back to see A Christmas Carol. Last year the performance was perfect. Let’s see if they deliver another astounding performance.

Excellent kids theater shows on the Kleberg and Whisenhunt stages. They do a fantastic job with sets. Excellent production value. Have seen numerous big productions at the Topfer Theater such as Evita and A Christmas Carol. Love this place!

We were able to get 2 seats in row F on the aisle the night before the play for about $ 65 – 70 each for the show Evita. The view was amazing, I had no problems with being able to see. The atmosphere is great outside of the play and the audience is a very mixed group of people. You can come in a tshirt and shorts or an evening dress, no judgement! Parking was $ 9 I believe.

I’m consistently impressed by Zach. The talent, choices in production, the work they put into sets and costumes is all part, and the passion you feel from the experience are all part of the great package that is Zach. Every time I’ve ever gone to opening night they have wowed me and made me want to go back to see the show again. The staff is really good about coming up with creative ways to engage patrons before or after the shows. It’s just an all around wonderful community theatre and I highly suggest you support it.

Loved it! Laid back and a real piece of Austin attractions. A bit hard for parking spots at times, so get there a bit early and chat with the other visitors. A great way to spend the evening.

My first time at ZACH Theatre was last Sunday afternoon to see the Tony-​award winning «All the Way» which was excellent!
I purchased discounted ($ 25) tickets, so we were seated in the very front row on the very far left. Unfortunately, as a result, our view was slightly obstructed at times. Particularly when there were «frozen» actors in the foreground and action going on in the background. (sitting even one row further back this would have been less of a problem)
That is my only quibble, and the reason for the one star deduction. That said, the play was excellent and the venue looks great and new (but that’s half of Austin). Seating was comfortable, parking wasnt a pain, and the 3.5hour show went by in the blink of an eye! I will definitely be back for future shows, if this is the caliber I can expect of programs at ZACH Theatre.

Most of my entertainment money has gone to the Paramount on Congress over the years but I’ve been to Zach Scott on and off for a decade. As my mother’s one of the world’s leading fans of _It’s a Wonderful Life_​, I took her to Martin Burke’s one-​man rendition of it on the intimate little Whisenhunt stage.
All the attendants, from parking lot to bartender were extremely friendly and helpful, as they have always been in my visits. The bar’s open for an hour before curtain if you’re meeting someone or there was less traffic than you expected. With only three rows in the round @ Whisenhunt, I felt like I was almost on stage even though I was seated as far away as possible.
It was the usual wonderful mix of people, from totally blinged out event night to super-​casual. Something very posh looked to be going on at the new big theatre – I look forward to seeing an event in there at some point.

I appeal (to), beg, besiege, conjure, entreat, impetrate, implore, importune, petition, plead (to), pray, solicit, supplicate and I beseech thee
buy tickets to see «A Christmas Carol» at Zachary Scott Theatre. My friends and I went last night with very little to no expectation for a play that’s been DONE to death. This rendition is along the lines of «Moulin Rouge» and «Across the Universe» in the way it takes the play and subjects it to current and past songs that really resonate with emotion and meaning. You must hear the «I Wanna Dance With Someone» sung by a wonderful female actress in such a heartbreaking way of saying goodbye (I’m getting teary just thinking about it).
This play is FRESH, EXCITING and immediately grabs your attention with the first Doobie Brothers song… that’s right, I said Doobie Brothers.
Period costumes only add to the relevance of the spirit of joy and hope in a story that’s so morose until the very end.
Take your family and friends and experience a tale told in a very different way that you won’t soon forget and will put you in the Christmas Sprit. It’s gonna be a good-​good day”.

The ZACH Theatre is a place I hadn’t really been for, oh, my first twenty years in Austin. The first show I attended was at the request of my then-​tween child that wanted to go with a friend to see their rendition of Disney’s «High School Musical». That show wasn’t done on one of ZACH’s stages, though. Instead it was at the Davis Auditorium at the nearby Texas School for the Deaf. But I felt being in what looked like a high school gym added some, perhaps inadvertent, authenticity.
We’ve attended three shows at ZACH’s forty-​year-​old 230-​seat Kleberg stage, sitting in a somewhat uncomfortable upper corner, feeling more like we were in building infrastructure, instead of in an audience watching a show. I thought that venue was adequate, for a «local» theatre. It worked OK for shows like John Waters’ «Hairspray» and that-​one-​show-​we-​left-​during-​intermission (not every show is for everyone). However, it was PERFECT for the Molly Ivins one-​woman show (Barbara Chisholm was enthralling the entire time), as it is easy to gain a conversational connection with someone when you aren’t three balconies away.
But with the new 420-​seat Topfer Theatre, ZACH has another weapon in it’s arsenal. It is no longer «that cute place that puts on small local productions, and those Christmas beehive shows at the Paramount». The Topfer Theatre has the bells/​whistles to compete with the traveling shows that come to Bass Concert Hall, though without the horrendous parking delays, bathroom lines, and all those stairs. And «The Daily Show» must agree, as Jon Stewart hosted the show for a week there, right before the 2014 midterm elections. Seeing The Who’s «Tommy» at this great new venue really made me consider expanding our family budget for these types of shows.
Great job, ZACH!
4.69 stars

I have always loved Zach Scott Theater since I moved to Austin 10+ years ago. The new location is stunning. It is a top notch facility. One thing I really like is that they maintain reasonable pricing by selling the first two rows of seats for $ 20 a pop even for their most popular shows just so that there are affordable ticket options. I love a good deal, and I don’t think I would shell out $ 40 – 60 a ticket to see a show, but for $ 20 it is well worth it. These are great seats, no obstructed views too. I highly recommend it. Concession stand is good, numerous options, booze and non-​booze. The talent and the performances are always top notch, but the setting is way more intimate than the UT PAC or the Long Center. If you like theater, you need to check this place out.

We watched a Sunday matinée, so other experiences may be different. Parking was easy and convenient.
The new Zach Theater is gorgeous. The lobby is large, open and inviting with a bar area off to the side. The specialty drinks are named depending on the show. The women’s restrooms are quite large with at least 10 stalls (very much appreciated — thank you, architect!)
I saw «The Who’s Tommy» here. The acoustics were excellent. The theater has an intimate layout with less than 300 seats. It appears there’s not a bad seat in the house making audience involvement super fun even if one is not seated in the front.
The play itself was terrific and the performers did a great job. As promised, the whole theater was turned into a giant pinball machine. The girl next to me ended up bombing the poor lady with the oxygen tank behind us right in the face with the giant ball. She wasn’t hurt and laughed it off. Tilt!
I think the Zach may be my new favorite place to see the arts in Austin. There are many other great places, but this is special.