Center Stage Theater

The live performance was wonderful. If you want to see a good show, I recommend it. But skip the dinner. Very pricey and not worth the price. The whole dinner experience was stressful. The staff seemed constantly confused. The right hand never seemed to know what the left was doing. They tried to seat us in the wrong place. They didn’t bring the wine we ordered. They brought our entrée but had neglected to bring our salads. The entrée wasn’t hot. The coffee wasn’t hot. The manager was clueless. You can see the show without getting dinner. Save yourself some money and some stress.

This theater is just AMAZING!!! Had my daughters sweet 16 Masquerade Ball here and they were the absolute BEST! From booking, planning and alllll the details that they offer just made her night just fantastic!!! They offer so much to make your event the best it can be, it’s a theater so wouldn’t expect anything less, and they sure didn’t disappoint. The coordinator Jennifer was just amazing, made sure everything was perfect the day of the event and made sure EVERYTHING ran smoothly. I didn’t have to worry about anything getting done nor the entertainment being there on time, she made sure everything was done and in its place at the time needed. Wesley the bartender was a delight! Made sure everyone was served and taken care of, Brian the tech was brilliant! Had issues with a video dvd that was gonna be played that night and fixed everything to perfection, down to the lighting and mood of the evening he really made it prefect. Julie and the staff where AMAZING! So accommodating and just a pleasure, made sure everyone, all 120 guest where happy and taken care of due to there professionalism and courtesy. And the FOOODDD!!! Just yummy! We had a sit down served dinner of their filet mignon and it was made to perfection! We cut our meat with a butter knife! That’s never happened at any restaurant I’ve ever been to, I’m am so happy we decided to go with this venue out of the other 6 we toured, I honestly couldn’t be happier! I had read previous Unilocal reviews about other events taken place here and was alittle concerned, but OH HAVE TIMES CHANGED! Because my experience with them was the BEST! Food was NOT cold when served, and the coordinator was professional and prefect in every way. I’d give 10 stars if I could, we are still so giddy about how everything turned out we couldn’t of asked for a better night for our daughters sweet 16 celebration… Thank you for such a memorable evening to Jennifer, Todd and their staff…

Saw Memphis tonight and wow! Amazing show!!! Phenomenal performance by the cast! The service and food were great as well. So worth the 2 hour drive in traffic. We will definitely come back!

I was the maid of honor for a wedding here recently, so this review is for the venue and the service, not for the shows. From what the bride told me about the process of booking and finalizing everything, things were disorganized and there was plenty of miscommunication between the venue and the bride, mainly due to a change in coordinators. (Her original coordinator was either fired or quit… I’m not sure of the details.) The bride had several complaints about her original coordinator, such as her being tardy to scheduled meetings, as well as giving vague and mixed information about various price points. When I met the new coordinator on the day of the wedding, however, she seemed really friendly and helpful.
About the venue: While I think it’s a cute idea to have a wedding at a theatre, I don’t think this particular place should really market itself as wedding friendly. There aren’t many places to have bridal pictures taken except for their marquee if you pay for them to put your names on there. The problem with that is it’s not just your names on the marquee. They add their own upcoming shows to it, along with their phone number, which I felt totally detracted from the personalized effect of the couple’s names. Another point that they can work on for upcoming weddings is the dressing room. They let the groom have the upstairs room (not sure what that was like since I didn’t go up there), and the bride and I had the cast dressing room. I understand it’s for cast members, but since there was obviously no show that night, I thought we would have the room to ourselves. Not so. The service staff kept coming in and out of the room, whether to take their breaks, change into their uniforms, or use the bathroom. If that place is a designated area for staff, then please use it ONLY for staff. If you reserve it for a bridal party, then it should be ONLY for the bridal party. I was not comfortable leaving any personal items in the dressing room, let alone changing in it, knowing that the staff can walk in at any minute. Finally, another reason why I think this place isn’t good for weddings is the food, although this information may be helpful if you’re coming for a show. It was not good. The Cesar salad was premade and sitting on the tables when we came in after the cocktail hour in the lobby (read: the salads were wilted and soggy). Cesar salads should not be made until right before they’re served. I know, I used to work in the food industry. Plus, they’re just disgusting to eat when the lettuce isn’t crunchy and fresh. Moving on… the chicken was dry. The mashed potatoes were dry and hardened on top. The vegetables were soggy. They make the food ahead of time and then put them under the warmers. Gross. They were cooking for only ~50 people… is it really so hard to schedule your cooking times to make sure the food is served fresh?
I will give stars for the servers. They were generally friendly and helpful. I also liked that the couple was introduced by having them go on stage and then lifting up the curtain. The red carpet out front was cool too.
If you’re set on having your wedding here, by all means do so, but please make arrangements ahead of time to ensure the food is served fresh, the marquee doesn’t have their own advertisements, and you get a private dressing room that the staff stays out of.

Went to see Guys and Dolls and the whole experience was terrific! It’s a beautiful venue and the show was wonderful! The menu differs with each show, but for this one the meat entrée was filet mignon and it was absolutely superb! It says it’s an 8 ounce but had to be 12 at least, and cooked perfectly, deep pink edge to edge inside the seared edge. If you’re traveling any distance, make sure you take advantage of the Enchanted package which includes a lovely room at the Hilton Garden Inn, VIP seating, and a chilled glass of champagne to start off your experience! The only negative was the alleged «cheese cake» — just take a pass. We’ll be back!

Came to see Guys and Dolls. Worth the drive to Fontana. Beautiful deco theatre with easy, free parking. Nice dining with no bad seat in the house. Food was good, service was excellent. The show was fabulous, very professionally done!

If you’re going for the show — yes. If you’re going for the dinner — not so much. Rating the two separately, I’d give the show four stars, and the dinner one and a half. I know that doesn’t average at three stars, but I really think you choose a dinner theater more for the latter than the former.
First the positives: The quality of the performers was really good for a local theater company in the heart of Fontana. Good stage presence and surprisingly strong vocals. I liked that they had live musicians backing up the vocalists instead of it all being tracks. The sound was really good, especially given how much the talent is moving and how many entrances and exits there are. The sound was well mixed and the sound engineer got most of the entrances on time. The performers are also your servers, and the service was surprisingly good given they’re pulling double duty. The flow of the program was really good as well. The venue is very nice. It is small enough to feel intimate, but large enough to feel like you’re at a real show and not some local community theater.
Now the things that could have been better. The food was mediocre at best. Some in our party had the chicken which was ok, others had the pasta which they said was good. I had the prime rib which was pretty bad. I’ve never had beef that was both so rare and so tough. I realize prime rib is not exactly a lean cut of beef, but gristle and fat comprised almost ¹⁄₃ of my cut. I may be wrong though, as the dog enjoyed it more than I did when we got home. While I mentioned above that the service was good, the kitchen/​expediting struggled. The two youngsters with us were the last served because Center Stage’s system had the kids down for the wrong meal, though we had our confirmation with us that showed the kids’ mac and cheese (I know, how does it take 30 minutes to get mac an cheese out?). They also completely missed my order so they had to make it new. Not sure how it managed to still arrive cold when the had to «make» one. They really need to improve their systems, as it took no less than five different wait/​management staff to figure out what was missing and was still needed for our order.
Enough on the food. The show had good production qualities, with the one exception of lighting. The lighting engineer really struggled. He leaves a lot to be desired both technically and artistically (missed entrances, lagging cues, mis-​aimed spots, vocalists half lit, colors that don’t go with the wardrobe, etc.). Just because someone knows how to turn on and work the light board, does not make them a lighting engineer. The only thing I would do differently on staging is to get the band off the stage and into a pit or something. It’s great having live music, but there was no reason to have them on stage and they were more of a visual distraction. One final note is not a huge deal, but a business should have a way to get in touch with a human on days they’re open. We went on Mothers’ Day and had a question the day of the event, but could not reach anyone by phone.

Love their shows! Great staff and the food is wonderful we really enjoyed the murder mystery dinner! I highly recommend trying their egg roll appetizers or the crab cakes! Both are amazing!

Noche con Ritmo… enjoy the bands, DJ and dance lessons.

Let me start off by saying, I am writing this over a month after my wedding, so as not to write out of frustration but purely the facts. I have many who will agree I am not one of those «bridezillas» you hear about or see on TV. I have kept a level head through out my wedding planning, been very calm (for the most part… lets face it… every bride has SOME stress).So with that being said, I should have read the warning signs I got from day one. For starters, every time I would book an appointment with the venue to have a meeting, they were NEVER there on time. Me & my maid of honor were sitting on the curb for 30 minutes waiting for someone to show up. Whats the point of making an appointment if you aren’t going to be there? Flash forward a year after the initial contract signing, My maid of honor & I go to a food tasting. They have several couples there all to taste the food for their wedding. On each table, they have your specific information set out, (dates, guest count etc).We notice that on my paperwork it shows my wedding day marked down as for the following month (it was still 6 months away!) .no biggie, everyone makes typos, we let the coordinator (Jennifer) know. She says she will handle it. Great! crisis solved.WRONG. The next day I get a call from her, confirming that the actual wedding day is Sept 14^th… I tell her nooooooo as I re-​wrote down for you yesterday, its Sept 13^th. Her response was …“oh” (like the bad type of oh, like you just got caught with your hand in the cookie jar «oh»). She states she needs to make a phone call, & will call me back. With no further explanation! I send her a text & ask her what is up? did she double book my date or something? sure enough THEY DID! the worst thing that could ever ever ever happen & it happened. Normally im willing to compromise & work things out with people but im sorry this was one thing I WOULD NOT COMPROMISE! I booked the venue a year in advance & they double booked me. A couple days later, I get word (finally) that they resolved the situation & got the other bride to move her wedding (poor other girl! like seriously! I feel horrible for her!) Again yet another red flag! So everything’s going smoothly from this point, the coordinator even gave us free soft drinks for our guests as an apology (wonderful! I love being made to feel that someone cares about the mistakes they made!) Flash forward to a month before the wedding. now let me break this next part down before I go into what happened. When my finace & I initially went to the venue, & had the meetings, They asked us for an approx. guest count just to have a rough idea at what the total cost for our venue would be. However, we were also told we would need to give them a FINAL guest count no later than 14 days prior to the wedding, so that any costs could be adjusted. I was told that if less people ended up showing up at the wedding from what the final count we gave was, we would not be refunded (no biggie) & if more people came, we would accrue additional charges (again no biggie) About 3 weeks before the wedding, I filled out the sheets the coordinator Jennifer had sent to me with information such as final guest count, did we need a gift table etc etc. Our guest count went down from our original approximate by about 20 people. (doesn’t seem like a lot, but when each plate of food is $ 25, it adds up!) I submitted all the information back via email & kindly asked for a revised contract to reflect the remaining balance (if any) as I wanted to make sure they were all squared away before that 14 day mark we were told about (if you do not pay in full by 14 days prior, they reserve the right to cancel your event). I waited&waited some more. I get a response back a couple days later saying that I agreed to pay for 150 people no matter what… Ummmmm what! What kind of person would agree to a set amount of people a year before the wedding, before save the dates or invites were even sent out?! I responded courteously, explained that was not what I was told or agreed to & that would be a problem. Again I waited & waited, I emailed the coordinator daily & I’d get responses (only sometimes) like «I have to talk to my supervisor» (why would she have to talk to her supervisor if this was «supposedly» their policy-)Finally after several days of her dodging me I emailed her & matter of factly stated that I needed a response or I’d be driving to the venue to speak with her manager to see if I could get it resolved & to please call me as soon as she could. Oh call me she did. Immediately in fact– the first thing out of her mouth was «I don’t appreciate you threatening me!» Whoa! I’m a passive person & that was unprofessional and uncalled for! I played nice, simply to assure she didn’t try to sabotage my wedding (btw– she didn’t even show up for, leaving the staff unaware and scrambling) she finally sent me a revision of the contract, and it was $ 800 more than before! I could go on but I have no more room.

Have came here in three separate occasions and enjoyed the good food and show. The only thing that that I’m ranting about is the time they start. They sit you at 7pm but the show doesn’t actually start until 8:30pm. I’m all for some dinner time and small talk and an hour is usually good enough. I would recommend they start the show at 8pm sharp. I’ll come back but only when they decide to move up the time to the aforementioned time.

We had a fun family day here on Sunday to see the Charlie Brown play. Our kids loved it the play was awesome! The food here is ok we wish it was better. We had the fish, pasta, and the kids food was the best lol they had chicken fingers and fries. We all received a salad and bread before the main dishes arrived. The salad, bread, desserts, and drinks were great! The service is phenomenal. We will go back it was such a great experience for or family. Would be a fun date night too :)

Food is ok, the quality of wedding food, but we decided we should have gone to Benihanis instead. Cost would have been the same. The 18% gratuity added to the bill is what got me. I certainly didn’t get an special treatment other than a plate sat in front of me.
Shows are great, but I recommend you just buy a show ticket and eat elsewhere.

This is as good as it gets! Chef Ron is excellent and provides delectable dishes. The entertainment is amazing! We saw The Producers last night and were thrilled with every aspect of the production.
The atmosphere at this dinner theatre is romantic and very classy. The dinner itself includes the entrée, salad, bread, and an a dessert,-and for $ 3 more you can upgrade your dessert to some other delightful desserts on the menu. Servers are fun and entertaining themselves!
Come out to Fontana and be thoroughly entertained and pampered.

I LOVE thsi place! I went for the first time ever, to the Motown Show for my birthday… it was great! Great food… great customer service… great performance! I took my mom to the Hats musical over the weekend and everything was fantatic, but I was very disappointed in the play… not the actual performances, but the content. The play was supposed to be about the Red Hat Society… at least that’s what attendees were led to believe based on the ads and the description but it wasn’t. My mom was very disappointed and alot of the other women were too. But, everything else was ON POINT, as usual. This is becoming one of my favorite things to do in the IE! :)

As a belated Mother’s Day dinner, we attended the Motown Revue show here this weekend with my mom, and it was a blast! The theatre itself is beautiful, and the food was pretty good too– salmon in dill butter sauce with red roasted potatoes and veggies. The dinner includes salad, bread, and an ice cream dessert – and for $ 3 more you can upgrade your dessert to some yummy bread pudding, cheesecake, or molten chocolate lava cake. Interestingly, the show’s performers also fill the role of table server, serving dinner prior to the show. They even sang some silly songs to announce that they were going to serve the salad (to the tune of Love Child) and later dessert (to the tune of Sugar Pie Honeybunch). Our server Nicholas was very hospitable and quite an entertainer. The singing/​dancing was great, and I enjoyed that they covered Motown hits from the 60’s all the way up to the 80’s. Oh yeah, and they pulled my 72 year old mom out of her seat and made her dance – thank goodness her back didn’t go out! Looking forward to future shows here.

Second year in a row attending the Christmas Show. The show is entertaining, but I wouldn’t recommend seeing it two years in a row. Wont rate the food because I think it was catered in, but that was good too. What I didn’t like was the $ 5.00 Corona’s, $ 7.00 Merlot’s & $ 10.00 Long Island Iced Teas… Also, they cut you off after the intermission…

We attended the «Little Shop of Horrors» show with dinner and we loved it. What a great venue! The staff was outstanding-​attentive and offered all around great service. The food was also very good — we had the filet and chicken. The chicken was a little dry, but the steak was cooked perfectly and was very tender. We also had the shrimp cocktail appetizer which was also excellent — nice big shrimp.
The theater is smaller and set up with dinner tables throughout. There are great views everywhere. The play itself was also very good. The actors amazing and so up close. I was curious how a plant would «act», but Audrey II was done exceptionally well. We will definitely see another show here again.

My husband and I love the singer, Linda Eder and OMG, she was performing at this little gem of a place, so we had to go! The food was absolutely first rate, we even purchased additional items and my shrimp cocktail was so delish! The service was totally outstanding! All of our special requests were accommodated quickly and perfectly. What a great night out! We’ll be back…

I used Center Stage to get married. Both ceremony and reception were held there. The manager Katherine was UNBELIEVABLE! Professional, coordinated and accommodating. Stress level was at zero. The staff was friendly and some of the best I’ve seen. The food was amazing. We purchased a buffet package, but the quality of the food was 5 star! My parents have been to a few shows and have said the entertainment is wonderful and the dinners are the best. I cant recommend highly enough this venue for a wedding, private party or to see great live entertainment. It’s such a unique gem!