Dr. Phillips Center
This past fall my parents surprised the family with a trip to see the Illusionists at the Dr. Phillips Center and my god it could use some improvements.
When you first walk in it is elegant, modern, and clean and did I mention BIG. There is a metal detection process you have to undergo to make sure no weapons are going in. So, that is a plus. When you are done with that you can go and wait or grab snacks until they open the doors. This is when problems started to arise. The show was delayed a half hour our so we had to wait a little longer than expected, which with a brother like mine can be a little troublesome.
So, we all sat down and got our playbills but we noticed as it got closer to show time seats that were way better than the ones we got were still open and my dad had said that there better be people sitting there because they were not available to purchase. As the show started those seats never filled. That was really irritating.
So, the show starts and it sounds great but as the show went on you could hear less and less. The actors could barely be heard and could also barely understand what they were saying. Dr. Phillips was supposed to be replacing the Bob Carr because they had better sound and more space. Well so far, I have been doing audio since 6th grade and I have a great ear. But I could barely hear anything plus my dad has one deaf ear and he could not understand any of the jokes or what they were saying. We were sitting high up and I could see that they had only one stack of line arrays for the upper balconies. They needed to have two columns or needed to be louder. They apparently pay good money for audio engineers to come in and do the shows but they need to be replaced!
So far, I would recommend that Dr. Phillips Center is a great place to go as a family but just try to get a seat closer to the ground. I am going to see Wicked at the Dr. Phillips Center and hopefully it will sound better or I need to have a serious talk with them about their sound engineers.
