The Plaza Live

I wish more bands that I like would come here. It’s actually a pretty darn good venue. We saw the Winery Dogs here and it was spacious, organized and had clean restrooms. I’m sold! The bar had fairly priced drinks and we had a blast. Plus, the event was not expensive.

Recently saw a comedian here. Great show. I’ve been to several shows over the past 4 years. Nice space, no matter where you sit you have a great view of the stage. I didn’t get a mixed drink but 2 16oz beers were $ 11, so not too bad for a music venue. The only thing that I would change is the seats are a little uncomfortable when sitting for more than an hour.

Small theaters like these are part of what makes Orlando so great. Centrally-​located with tons of parking, this location is perfect for comedy acts. I’ve seen bands here before but so many years ago it’s not fair to comment.
Groupon had a deal to see this comedian not too long ago. All I had to do is give them my name and my tickets were right there. They have a full liquor bar and ushers to help your late ass to your seats. It was a very intimate atmosphere. You feel very close to the performer even if you are seated in the back. I only knock one star off because they are still under construction and everything is still a wee bit of a mess. Give them time !
I just wonder if I have what it takes to get through a whole Jim Jefferies set without rage quitting in a fit of feminist fury. My gut says stay home.
More acts please!!!

Besides this place being extremely dirty… We had a good time at the Comedy Central last comic standing show. Seats are absolutely grotesque but bigger and have a bit of cushion then the other comedy spots.

Dirty and old. Looks like a movie theater from the 1960’s. It’s under going some type of remodel. As dirty and old as it is it’s amazing to see a concert. Very intimate with decent parking and cheaper beer. As intimate as it gets to see a medium size act.

Easily the best music venue in Central Florida!
Located just outside downtown Orlando (and thankfully away from Disney/​Attractions), and with capacity up to about 1,200 standing (or about 800 seated) this is the hidden gem of Orlando. To make it even better– the building is currently undergoing renovations and expansion including a new roof, additional space, new sound system, new seats, and upgraded acoustic treatments.
Most importantly — the sound in the venue is AWESOME. The Plaza is actually owned by the Orlando Philharmonic who use it for rehearsals, so sound quality is very important.
There is a balcony upstairs that is opened up for larger concerts, or seated shows. In the lobby there is a full liquor bar, and sometimes they will open several bars to speed up service time. They have a good selection of beers to choose from, and the staff is always incredibly friendly.
There is an outside patio for smokers, and for most concerts Kenny and Denny’s BBQ food truck will park outside and provide a quality snacking option.
Convenient to get to from both I-​4 and 408, and with free parking, there isn’t much to dislike about The Plaza. They have done an excellent job over the past few years to bring in a wide variety of incredible bands/​performers, and the schedule over the next few months is jam packed with great bands!
I highly recommend you get on the website and check out what’s upcoming. I know I always get extra excited when a band I like announces they will be at The Plaza.

This is not my favorite theatre but it might be really cool to see one of your favorite bands here because it very small and any seat in the house would promise a great view.

Favorite Orlando music venue. The acoustics are just better than most other places. Parking is easy and the bathrooms are clean, well-​lit, and plenty. I enjoy a good dive bar but this is the place to be for the best-​sounding shows! I was so happy when bands like Andrew Bird, Here Come the Mummies, and Postmodern Jukebox decided to play here instead – they have so much going on that it would’ve sounded terrible anywhere else. Yeah yeah, the beer lines are long, but that’s not why I go to shows. Get a few before/​after at area bars and enjoy the show!

This is a great venue that has a lot of surprisingly good names and good times come through its doors. I have seen some of the best shows here. I hope with the renovations they still stay low budget low cost. Because you really don’t need a fancy place to go to enjoy good town. I hope the promoters continue to bring unique talent to Orlando with this venue.

What a great place! Great location, reasonable ticket prices, different kinds of performances. Saw him Breuer here last night, have tickets to postmodern jukebox in May! Downfall is the $ 23 service fee to buy tickets on line? Ouch! Plus they had half the limited parking lot coned off. At least you can park in the shopping center nearby.

My experiences here have been hit and miss but my last visit was definitely a MISS!
I had front row seats to see Chris MacDonald as Elvis and was super excited to see him again. When we arrived the row was already full save our 2 seats. I’m not sure if it was the size of the people in the row or the number of seats they had squeezed in the row but we literally could not sit back in our seats because there wasn’t enough room! My husband is not a small guy and he had to lean forward the entire show. I had to sit sideways and left with my back ACHING!
It was laughable considering what we had paid for tickets to not even be able to use our whole seat!
Staff is usually friendly. They have decent shows and if you check Groupon you can usually find discounts!

I recently visited this venue for a concert by my FAVORITE rapper EVER! I was super excited that he was performing in a smaller venue vs the venue’s I’ve seen him perform at in the past. I will admit that I did not know what to expect from the venue; however it didn’t meet my expectations (if that makes sense :/​). They are currently under a few phases of construction and I’m assuming (and hoping) that some of this is for renovations. Even though I can definitely say that I enjoyed myself at the concert, the venue itself has an old and dated feel to it.
Now, I do realize that this place is old and has undergone a few transitions which may explain my experience AND if they are attempting to preserve the old and nostalgic feel that they have, then they are spot on. However if that isn’t the case, then they are off the mark just a bit.
The venue has a concession stand where they sell food and beverages to enjoy during your show. For this concert, the GA ticket was standing room only, while the VIP ticket was for balcony seats. I chose the VIP ticket, but I definitely appreciated the GA standing room for this show as it allowed the artist to interact fully with his fans, by coming down into the crowd several times and performing a few songs in the middle.
All in all, I enjoyed myself and appreciated this venue. I’d definitely go again if the show is right

Okay, first a short list of some of the shows I have seen here: Leon Russell (twice), Blue Oyster Cult, Asia, Jake Shimabukuro, Hot Tuna, most recently, Galactic. Point being, I have been to the venue a number of times so this review reflects my cumulative experience.
First, the acts: well, they attract a diverse range of talent that is in desperate need of a good small intimate space to perform here in Orlando. They fill this bill perfectly in terms of location, parking and the size of the space. So, five stars for the eclectic acts.
Second, the space: I have been going to this theatre since I was a tiny lad and always thought it was a great space. The acoustics are actually pretty darn good too. Easily better than Hard Rock and, in most cases, better than House of Blues as well. So at least four stars for the space, until we come to the seating, which we will get into more detail about later. Suffice to say seating is the BIG downside to this venue.
Third, amenities: Bathrooms are conveniently located and clean. Drinks and food, I think they have mostly solved the issues with beverage service so getting beer or wine is not a problem. In fact, their beer selection is actually quite good, they usually have a few decent craft beers along with the usual suspects. They just have basic popcorn and movie theatre type snacks. However, they often have one or more food trucks outside prior to a show so if you need more substantial grinds that is a possibility but not guaranteed. All in all a solid four stars for amenities.
Finally, the big detractor, and why this four star venue only gets two stars, the seating. Some time ago, they replaced the worn out «rocking chair» seats with god awful, too small, folding chairs. I understand why they did this, so they could be removed for shows where they want to be able to offer floor standing so folks could get up and dance around, which is appropriate for some of the acts. However, for old folks like myself, and a huge percentage of the crowd the acts they book attract, these seats are like a torture device. They still have semi-​comfortable seating up in the balcony level but obviously you will be sitting quite a bit further from the stage up there so still not an optimal choice. And of course you have to negotiate stairs to get up there.
So, obviously this is a difficult problem to solve. On top of the very uncomfortable seats, their ticket sales site, Ticketfly, can be confusing and difficult to use. Their seating policies add to the confusion. Case in point, friends purchased tickets for the recent Galactic show and thought they were purchasing seats when in fact the floor was GA (general admission) standing only. So, when we got there we were concerned about trying to stand up for the whole show. It appeared that the balcony was mostly unoccupied and it remained that way throughout the entire show. After talking to the floor manager one of the staff set us up with some of the folding chairs in an area off to the side of the stage. Big kudos for that, but there should have been a simple way for them to let us sit in the balcony to begin with. We would have happily paid a significant up charge to sit in seats the whole time. Their explanation was that those seats were sold but that the owners of those seats were just choosing to stand down on the floor. I find it hard to believe that many people would pay extra for seats they didn’t use. Besides, one of the girls at the box office had told us earlier that their policy was to not change seats the day of the show, then, that the balcony was sold out without looking at any kind of database or seating chart.
Bottom line, they need more comfortable seats and they need to modify their seating methodology. My suggestions: when a show is GA, make the entire seating for the venue GA. That way if you are willing to sit further from the stage upstairs but in a seat you can, first come first serve. If you want to stand on the floor the whole time you can without inconveniencing folks who need to be seated. Maybe on the floor they could install some permanent, comfortable seating covering a percentage of the floor and leave some space for folding chairs that can be removed for some shows. Or, maybe there are some much more comfortable removable seats that could be used. Either way, the seating makes me avoid this place for a lot of shows I would otherwise go to. In the mean time I will keep driving to Melbourne’s King Center or Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd for shows. Yes, driving up to two hours away is better than sitting in those folding nightmares they call seating.

I have always loved this place. Now they are so very good at handling the crowds. I approached the ticket counter and purchased a ticket to see «Leon Russell» I was ushered to my seats and we all had a great time. Leon was very entertaining and a bit sanguine. Like nall of us he is getting older. Still a great talent. He reminisced about the early days of rock and roll and played tributes to his friends and colleagues who have departed. It was a great privilege to see and hear him talk and play. It was a special evening due to the sincerity and humility of Mr Leon Russell.
I highly recommend the «Plaza» they are a great operation, I loved the efficiency and all their hard work.
rock on!
Michael

Best live performance venue in Orlando mainly because of decent acoustics in the theaters and reasonable sound levels. The seating isn’t the most comfortable, but when you go to a concert you want to hear it clearly, and this is about the only venue in town that guarantees that.

This venue… heavy sigh! I have seen a few shows here, two really fabulous concerts that I can recently recall. I like that it’s a more intimate venue than House of Blues or Hard Rock Live. I like the theater seats, it feels genuine and a bit old school. The sound for the concerts has been great too. So there are many things that they are doing right for live shows.
So why only two stars? It’s just annoying how hard it is to get a drink here. I waited an hour for a beer. So who’s dumb here? Me for waiting that long (I really was thirsty) or The Plaza Live for having such an awkward and slow setup? The lines were soooo s-​l-​o-​w. There are two stations for drinks, a beer line and another bar area that has liquor, beer, wine, and other drinks. The beer line has one person working for the giant crowd waiting. The beer lady was super slow and appeared very chatty. Brownie points for being friendly, but really? The bar area (with four people working) did move a bit faster but still not enough to get people back into the theater before the next band started, so it was a full hour of waiting and missing out on some of the show.
Its the policy of this venue, much like many other theater/​live music venues, that you cannot bring your own beverages in. So they just expect you to deal with it. No BYOB, but it’s ridiculous to wait an hour for one drink, so you are just stuck in there. Hydrate before you go in I guess? As a business they are totally missing out on revenue caused by their own slow turn around time. They could sell twice as many drinks if they could speed up the process. I was just put off by this lack of planning oversight and concern for the patrons. I would go see another show here but next time I’m going to figure out my own beverage plan in advance and just not buying anything inside.

This is my new fave venue for concerts!
It’s intimate as it is not an overly large seating area. I believe there are maybe 600 seats. And there’s not a bad seat anywhere… there are no «partially blocked» area. You are up close and personal w/​the artist.
There’s a small but nice bar area in the lobby. There’s even a small eatery serving up hot and fresh sandwiches like Quesadilla, pulled pork and pastrami melts that are also reasonably priced. There’s no need to eat out before you come as you can grab something hearty here.
I also had a slight problem there and the manager helpfully worked it out. Parking is free. Where else can you get all these amenities?
They rock!!!

I used to come here when I was a kid to the Rocking Chair Theater to see Saturday afternoon mantes. I haven’t been here since it became The Plaza Live…
I recently saw Jesse Cook here and it was an amazing show. There were chairs on the bottom level but they were folding chair. They weren’t comfortable for a 2 hr show. The sound was awesome here. There wasn’t much for food and drinks… outside sourced.
I definitely would come back to see a show here… it was a cozy intimate venue.

I can’t believe we just now finally checked out a show at this venue. We purchased tickets online and getting in the night of was a breeze. Parking gets full quickly in the front so swing towards the back and you’ll find plenty of spots available. All free.
The food and drink options for the show seem plentiful. There is a bar on one end as well as a mini bar in the middle. I believe they only take cash but could be wrong. We grabbed soft pretzels and drinks at intermission and luckily they took cards. Very pricey but completely expected.
The concert area is nicely laid out and seats are decent but wish they weren’t so close to each other. They really pack people in. So if you like arm and personal space, then get over it! Haha. The acoustics here were great. I would much rather see a concert here any day over the Amway. Plus it had a more intimate feel which I liked. I don’t think there is a bad seat here at all.
It was freezing so make sure to bring a sweater or wear long sleeves.
Only thing that could be a little more organized would be the lines in the lobby afterwards for the meet and greets. That was pure chaos just getting through to the exit door,
Overall, a great experience and we hope to check out another show soon!

LAWD! I can’t wait to return to Plaza Live!
We went to see Citizen Cope for an all acoustic set. It was awesome! The venue was great for standing room, a cool balcony, drinks & snacks at reasonable prices… acoustics were pretty good. Parking was awesome! Super easy, free, plenty of it. I will gladly drive from Tampa to Orlando to see a show in this venue again. I’m pretty excited about this being a «find».