This show was HORRIBLE! Not the worse that I have seen, but definitely near it. It was a long and grueling almost 3 hours with a 5 minute intermission. If you saw the Musical on Broadway a few years back, this is nothing like it. Some similarities but the Musical was so much better. The actors stumbled on their words several times. Some parts you could not hear the actor and got lost and bored. Definitely needs a lot of work before it can get decent reviews. Very few of the actors could actually be called "actors" in a professional manner.
Others need major work and studying to be on any type of stage. Honestly, I've seen school plays do better.
As for the theater, there is plenty of seating, which I was surprised by considering the other smaller theaters I've been to. The seating is so uncomfortable. After 20 minutes, you heard everyone moving around in their seats trying to get comfortable.
Overall, it was a night out and cheap.

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Due to the air conditioner's not working, the fans drowned out the voices. I didn't know what was going on. We left during intermission, although if our seats were closer to the front, we probably would have left earlier. In addition it was much too long. We left @ 9:50 during intermission.

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I'm really kind of torn on this whole production, between my love for the material, the exceptional performances of two of the actors, and then... the rest.

Basically, the actors playing Moritz and Wendla are astonishing. It's almost worth sitting through just for the magic of seeing two phenomenal actors in such an intimate environment. The same cannot be said for Melchior, who is the LEAD ROLE. He mumbled his lines, his characterization didn't really make sense to me, and certain pivotal scenes (the beating and the rape) were completely botched because of it. It's truly unfortunate because most of Moritz and Wendla's scenes are opposite him, and you have to watch them struggle to maintain pace, volume, and other basic elements of stage acting. It's almost maddening that Moritz and Wendla don't interact once in the play version, as a scene between the two of them would have easily been the highlight of the show.

Melchior aside, there was still a lot of serious issues with the production. The staging lacked creativity, not to mention the stage design being practically non-existent. As others have said there were no visual hints to the period at all. The costumes and props were modern, and a lot of the actors didn't seem to know how to handle the dated dialogue. The music in-between scenes was modern and completely counter-productive to the performance. This show is most certainly a period piece, and with the sense of period taken away, certain plot points and issues become irrelevant. Also, I was confused by their choice of translation, there are multiple available and this is certainly not the most popular. The dialogue can be a bit grueling sometimes, with incredibly long, oddly worded monologues. Luckily most of the long stretches of dialogue were for Moritz to handle.

Bottom line: the show is far from perfect, as is most of the cast. I pray that Moritz and Wendla find their way into higher quality productions fast.
I would probably not recommend this production to anyone, sadly.

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We had seen the musical version and were excited to see the original drama from the late 19th Century- the play provides interesting perspective into universal teen angst.
The production was minimal and the acting in the lead roles excellent however the faithful translation meant a number of long and oft tedious monologues that added nothing. The production would greatly benefit from good editing, bringing run time down from the 2 hr 45 min. it is.

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