ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage

Positives: Very attractive theater. That’s it.
Negatives: Bad management company. Ridiculous policies and horrible customer service. Acting is amateur. Save your money unless your kids go to Emerson. Little artistic merit this season.

Since other folks are reviewing this as a venue for Emerson’s film screenings, I will too. It sucks.
It sucks simply because they are charging $ 10 for DVD projection.* It’s a nicely renovated (rather than, say, restored) theater and I found the Bright Family Screening Room a comfortable and attractive place to watch a DVD. As comfortable and attractive as my living room? Not really.
My fault for not checking the details, maybe. But their fault for charging $ 10 for DVD projection in the first place — and a muddy, indistinct DVD projection at that. And it’s not like this a rare, one-​off experience. After the horse had left the barn (so to speak) I read the fine print on the program and every film this spring is on DVD. Humph.
*And I’m about the last person on earth to be snobby about film projection. I’m just cheap. If the DVD were rare, or hard to come by, or… nope.

A great show ruined by horrible seats. The seats in the boxes are pressed up against the front wall of the box. My legs were bent sharply, and it was impossible to move at all. Felt like torture throughout the show. It was all the four of us in the box could talk about afterwards. It should be against the law to architect and sell seats like that. Worse than any airline.

I am just very excited that this place has been renovated and looked so nice, inside and out. It used to be so broken down and such an eye sore.
I came here to watch a screening last week and was completely in love with it. They kept some of the old stuff but i feel it just wasn’t enough… however, it’s still a lovely place.

I remember my 1^st days in Boston & seeing this gorgeous aded façade of the old Paramount Theatre & wondering if there was a day i would ever be able to see performances there. Emerson College made that come true in a very big way. The venue is gorgeous & feels like U stepped into a time machine when you walk in. Plus there are some nice modern touches too. The seats are comfortable & the viewing angles are thoughtful placed. After 3 Guster performances, in 3 different seat locations, I fell in love with the place. There was not a bad seat in the house. I really hope more & more performances take advantage of this great space. Thank you Emerson for reopening a piece of Boston’s history & making come alive.

When I had the opportunity to check out this theater space (the Main Stage of the New Paramount Center) for free through the performance «You Better Sit Down» you bet I jumped on it! I thought it was great when I realized they were renovating this space several years ago.
As I entered the lobby, the box office was a line of windows in front of me, but I noticed folks checking tickets by the stairs to my right. Turn out everyone is funneled through the stairs even if our seats were the prime spots in the Orchestra section.
First thing I noticed were the painted walls. They were cool, and a more modern touch than the elaborate engravings of many of the other theatres in the area. It also is a cozier theatre. But there were enough room between seats that I didn’t have to stand just to allow other row-​mates to pass by me.
My seat neighbors told me that the balcony is terrible for hearing — I believe it since even from where I sat in the third row slightly off center, I had a little trouble hearing the actor furthest from me.
Fix the sound system, and they would earn my 4^th (fan) star easy.
*** ⁹⁄₂₀₁₃ ***
Attended Potted Potter — The Unauthorized Harry Experience, a Parody by Dan and Jeff — and I had a good time. Flashing my ticket got me to the appropriate stage, the seat was roomy enough, the stage close enough, the show entertaining enough. And the game of quidditch at the very end got the heart pumping.

I’m reviewing Arts Emerson at the Paramount Center as a film venue. Some friends and I went to their screening of Orson Welles’ «The Magnificent Ambersons» over the weekend. I got the impression their film series is relatively new. There were a few hiccups, but overall the experience was really fantastic. I’m excited Arts Emerson will be using this venue to show movies, and their film series looks fantastic!
To be clear: films aren’t projected in the massive, gorgeous main theater. At least this film wasn’t. We took the elevator to the fourth floor, where we watched the movie in a nice, refurbished screening room. The temperature was a little on the warm side, but the seats were extremely comfortable and the print of the film looked great. (I wasn’t really expecting a celluloid projection, but that’s what I got! Very exciting!)
The downsides were few and far between. There was supposed to be a second feature (part two of Godard’s «History of Cinema»), but they started having technical difficulties with the DVD projection, and we decided to leave before they could get it resolved. Sounds horrible, right? Not really. They were extremely apologetic and even offered us a refund as we were leaving — we didn’t accept it, because we had purchased the tickets thinking «Magnificent Ambersons» was the only feature. So we weren’t terribly disappointed when they had trouble projecting the Godard film (I’m not sure they ever got it resolved, but they sounded optimistic — we decided to leave mostly because we had plans later). Also, I was sort of hoping there would be concessions of some kind. I know I’m a philistine for wanting to bring food into the gorgeous Paramount Center, but this was just a screening room upstairs. Still, I understand — they probably don’t have the staff and funds right now to clean up after moviegoers.
I’m really excited about a cool film series in this new location. I hope it does well!