William Saroyan Theatre Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center

Not quite sure how many stars to put —
We have been here a number of times — We really enjoy and appreciate that the rows of seats are not super close as we’ve experienced other places. You can sit with your legs comfortably in front of you — and even in some locations, you don’t have to get up to let someone by.
Now the areas of concern — we chose our seats on-​line, and glad for that option. Well…when we arrived at our seats, there was a railing right in front of us — and blocking our view (42^nd Street)!! We could not believe it — thankfully it was not a full house and we were able to move. We noticed other areas where the view was blocked, also. People need to be warned about that!
Had we not been able to move, we most certainly would have asked for a refund — and been sooo disappointed as we are from a distance and had were staying down for the night — we wanted to see the musical!!! (If you stay at the Doubletree you can just walk across the street — and no parking fee.)
Also, as others have noted, the women’s restroom situation is horrible — LONG lines. This really should not be!
In addition, the lady that was to be scanning our ticket was VERY disorganized, and I stood there for quite a time before she scanned my ticket (which took several attempts.) This was NOT the case w/​other lines.
And…in view of current events, we honestly were surprised that there were no security checks. We thought that would have been wise —
Will we return — but we will be ever so cautious about picking out our seats!

I have been here to Saroyan theater many times over the past 25 years. I am an avid supporter of the arts, and I come here often to watch operas, plays, ballets, and other miscellaneous shows. My latest visit was to see the Nutcracker, and I was not let down.
We had some very good seats for this performance; orchestra floor level, 4^th row from the front, and center stage. The seats were about $ 70, but very worth it. If we were any closer, we may not have been able to see the performers feet. Because I am aware of the age of the theater, I bring my own seat cushion, which may be odd, but that’s my character.
The ballet itself was very beautiful. I try to catch the Nutcracker every year, as a personal tradition, but also because I am always in awe of such elegance that the dancers bring. Being one who use to also practice ballet, I can appreciate the pain and dedication these dancers go through.

I sat so close to Judas Priest, I had a moment with each member of the band! It was like meeting them in person! I even touched Glenn Tipton’s hand! For a disabled person like me that was more than a dream come true! I’m a guitar player & when you touch the hand of self proclaimed Metal Gods, it was like the touch of God! Metaphorically speaking of course! A great venue & the staff were nice & helpful. People in nosebleed seats noticed me & I talked with young & old sharing our personal experience with the band! It was a night this amnesiac shall never forget! \m/​Metal Rules & the Priest have slowed down but still rocking as hard as they can! If you live near Fresno, by all means check out the wide variety of events they host! Something for everybody! Peace!

We recently saw Book of Mormon here on a Saturday afternoon. Overall, I’d say this theater is pretty good; having seen many shows all over the USA, it seems on par. Parking was easy, about 10 bucks to park in the garage. After a short walk, we were quickly ushered in to scan our tickets (thank God too because it was a miserable Fresno hot day). Walking around to our seats, we noticed some snacks and drinks up for sale – they ranged from like 2 or 3 bucks for a few cups of popcorn to a really bad chocolate chip cookie. My only complaint about this place was the bathroom situation: There were long lines and a putrid smell was evident even when outside the bathroom. I really felt bad for the ladies as I noticed two lines converged into one long line amidst that smell.
As for the seating, acoustics, and views, they were all average. We were mid orchestra and could see it all but I wish it was a little louder. The Book of Mormon was really funny, witty, and creative; all the things you’ve read about it. I would return to see more shows here.

It’s a spacious location and it looks wonderful inside. I saw the Book of Mormon here and thought they handled the crowd pretty well.
The bathrooms are stationed in one part of the building, for both lower and upper levels, which is kind of a downside. I wish there were more bathrooms because there was quite a line today, but I loved the fact they had an usher inside telling people where to go for the stalls!
The seats are a little dated and weren’t too comfortable to sit in for more than an hour for me at least. They were spacious in front though for people to pass just a little easier, but only if you had short legs like me. They didn’t give much elbow room and I kept trying to scoot over to my boyfriend’s side in fear of being too close to the person next to me.
Concession stand — we only got water but the prices are pretty reasonable I saw such as wine for $ 10 and a beer being $ 8.

I have now seen three Broadway productions here. The acoustics are terrible, there is so much echo you can barely understand what the actors are saying let along singing.
Also, the restroom situation is the worst, the restrooms are located in one area and if you are on the right side of the theater you will be walking around the entire building to get to it. Not only that, but if the place is even half full, there will be lines 50 people deep during intermission. Just hope whatever show you’re seeing has a really long break.
It actually really makes me sad, I am a lifelong Fresno resident and feel this city deserves something better.

Seats are nice, although no middle isle, I you have to crawl over everyone going in or out. You can see from any seat and I love the 1980’s look. What I didn’t like was the sound. Very bad acoustics. I have seen several shows here and everyone had sound problems. And when technical goes out you can’t hear a thing because the sound is dead.

Heyo! This review goes to the sound guy for the Queen show. Yes, you, guy. My dream was to run up to the sound board upstairs, knock you away with a hip check, put on the monitor headphones and mix this Saraoyan theatre harder as a rookie than you ever could have as a «pro sound man». Use your ears. Queen suffered because of you. Sad but true. That is all! Hit me up if ya wanna get shown up! Queen!

Watched «Wicked». Nice venue.

Went to see Wicked. Show and crowd were generally fantastic. I had never been to this theater and had high hopes.
As to the theater/​other parts:
Lighting had some issues in following the characters. Sound was poor, very disappointing. It actually cut out entirely, twice.
But besides those momentary issues, for the entirety of the show, it was not loud enough. I couldn’t hear the lyrics of the songs, strained to hear the dialogue and the musicians in the pit were louder than the voices. I thought it was just me, but my friend agreed, describing it as «muffled». (We had first floor seats, about halfway back, centered… can’t even imagine what further back or balcony would (not?)sound like…).
The lady next to us agreed that she couldn’t hear the words very well, AND the party in front of us, who overheard us talking, also said they couldn’t hear the voices very well either. This discussion occurred at intermission. We were hoping they would fix it for the second half… I even contemplated trying to speaking to someone in hopes of improving the experience (but had no idea who to contact)…
Sigh. Not good. Volume too low and it didn’t appear to have any structural set up for «surround sound» attempts, just straight one direction from the front. Definitely took away from the experience and because of this issue, I would not pay for (mostly, had a small online discount) full price tickets in the future. For that price, I would prefer a reliably well-​executed show in SF/​NY etc.
As my friend mumbled,…“come on fresno, lame!”

The William Saroyan Theater is a wonderful medium size venue. I am not sure of the capacity but I estimate it seats between 2800 to 3500. I am here yearly for a music educators conference and the state honor groups perform here. Good sound and sight lines from all seats. Ample and inexpensive parking. Plenty of restrooms. According to my students who have performed on stage the stage acoustics are excellent and in the hose the sound is always good.
Minus one star for seats that are not 100% comfortable.

Ice cold a/​c when it’s 104 °F outside.
Great setup for miss California pageant.

Get a cookie!

Crazy Bernie has seen many acts, plays and concerts over the past 33 years at this theater. Have never been overly impressed by the building and it’s acoustics. The design of the seating without any aisles to go up and down is pretty stupid in my opinion. If your seat is located dead center you will climb over around 25 people to get to your seat. My advice is to get a seat on the side so you can bail when the play puts you into a coma. Choose either low seat numbers (like 1 – 10) or high ones approaching seat #40−50 which is at the far left aisle. Have seen everyone from George Carlin to Andy Williams to Bruce Springsteen and another 100 acts at least. By the way, don’t ever waste your time going to see Springsteen when he’s by himself playing the guitar and promoting an embarassing album like the «ghost of tom joad». I have never been as close to hanging myself from the sprinkler pipe as I was that night.

Great venue. Enjoyed our seats. Parking was not overpriced like in L.A. Beer was over priced, so I only had one Stella.

The theater is really nice and clean and there are clean bathrooms and plenty of concession stands. My bf got a little dizzy sitting in the balcony but I thought it was alright. Watched Brian Regan here and he was hilarious.

I came here to see the national touring production of The Wedding Singer.
First, a couple of comments about the show… as a piece of theater, it was only so-​so. The music was good and the dancing was excellent, but the acting was mediocre and the actual show was not so great. On top of it, the 2 leads seemed to lack chemistry, which was odd since they are married. Maybe he’s gay and just trying to pass himself off as straight.
Frankly, I’ve seen much better shows in town at our own Roger Rockas. In fact, their production of Hairspray was superior to this show in almost every way.
As for the theater, terrible. The sight lines are ok, but the acoustics are unbelievably poor. There’s no house PA system, so the show had to stack speakers in front of the stage. I could not understand what the singers were singing.
Also, I’m not sure when this place was built, but by the looks of the place, I’m guessing late ’60’s/early ’70’s, which means it’s badly in need of a facelift.
Oh well, all the touring shows perform here, so I’ll be stuck coming back…

Went to the «Nutcracker Ballet on Saturday, December 20^th at 7:30pm.
The ballet was passable. The dancers were good. The composition of the play was unintelligible. The sound was horrible.
But the reason I’m upset is that the snack bar is poorly manned and the food is spoiled. After waiting in line for the whole intermission with a bunch of other folks I ordered two cookies and one was moldy !!
Tasted pretty bad! Didnt have time to go back and get my money back.
The snack bar has I believe 4 cash registers but of course only 2 were open and they were staffed by members of the slow movers society. I spent the evening hoping that I was not going to spend the next four hours on the you know what.
The city of fresno never gives any thought to what would make the place run better. They’d have sold twice as much moldy food if they had the other registers open!

I totally forgot about this venue. Used to see many performances as a kid seeing the orchestra or the ballet. For those types of classical performances it’s a good place to go. For modern concerts and the like, not so much.

Went to see Kathy Griffen perform last night; loved her, hated the venue. Arrived at the main entrance 15 minutes before the show starts; only one of the two big doors is open and it’s’ raining. Come on, get some more people to open another door! Then we find our seats, first row upper balcony. Am excited to have LOTS of leg room as there are no seats in front of me, only the landing where people walk to find their seats. My view is obscured for the first half hour by the people who don’t get out much in Fresno and don’t know how to show up ON TIME for a show. They continue to stand in my view as they don’t know where to sit because they have been allowed in the theater after the performance has begun and the house lights are off. The buffoon usher asks to see my tickets TWICE to make sure that we’re in the correct seats. Excuse me, I can read and match the tickets to the seats in which I am sitting. «It’s not my fault, it’s the box office» the buffoon retorts as I tell him that my tickets look exactly the same as the first time when he asked to see them.
Back to Kathy Griffen; not sure how the beginning of her show was because of the chaos all around me. She could have a good bit in her show talking about the jackasses who can’t be in their seats when a show begins. The acoustics in the Saroyan are awful. Kathy’s voice came across muffled in the balcony area. Luckily I brought my binoculars so that I could read her lips to help clarify the horrible sound. Five stars for Kathy. .. I love her snarky comments about Hollywood’s self-​absorbed stars. As for the Saroyan. .. as Kathy would say «suck it!»