Making your butt feel better in your seat.

Theatergoing can be uncomfortable.  Let's face it.  With legroom that seems designed for the people of Lilliput, and a number of bathrooms that couldn't even accommodate the Duggars never mind 1500 people, we're not exactly the most user-friendly experience in town.  

But the folks at Jujamcyn are doing everything they can to change that.

In a whirlwind of a 48 hour changeover (that must have cost a fortune in stagehand OT), all the seats at the August Wilson Theater got a 'buttover' in early January with new, state-of-the-art ergonomic seating designed by a company called ProBax.  

As producers and theater operators, whether in this city or around the world, whether you have a 1500 seat house or a 50 seat house, we put most of our energy into making sure that thing that's on the stage, whether it's a play or a musical or a dance piece, is the absolute best it can be.  

What is easy to forget as we focus on that primary goal is that an audience's experience from their seat, can actually enhance (or the reverse) how they feel about what they're watching.

Seat backs and bathrooms may not be sexy, but they do have an impact on sales.

Watch the video below (or click that link) to hear Jordan Roth talk about the impetus for change, and then give Jujamcyn mad props for keeping our butts on the top of their minds.

 

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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Comments

[Angie Fiedler Sutton]

finally! I really wonder why theatre seats can't be like the ones at AMC. When I review a show, I do mention if the seating was uncomfortable, as that DOES affect my experience. The new Kaufmann Center in Kansas City: they spent massive amounts of money, making sure all the back stage stuff was state of the art - have the seats even with the little displays - but the seats themselves are some of the most uncomfortable I've been in since the Folly.

[kim]

This is awesome. I think it's really important to remember how comfortable your audience is at all points of their experience and if you can make a difference, do it!

[Matt]

I have to admit, I'm big both ways (6'3" 270#) and so is my husband (6'4"). I actually consider the seats locations and dimensions when purchasing tickets. This doesn't seem like much help since the dimensions didn't change.

[Eva]

You know what would be ideal for us lilliputians would be a lever like in a car to raise the seat because without fail I get those 6 feet couples and mountains in front of me. In the winter it is fine because I can sit on my coat. I may be tiny 5 ft but even my knees get squished and twisty.

[G Mrozak]

Several years back, Symphony Center (Chicago) planned a major facelift. When the CSO board of directors considered the revenue loss of reconfiguring the seats to make them more roomy, CSO President Henry Fogel made them sit in the balcony seats for 20 minutes before they decided.

Another reason why Fogel is a legend!

[malini]

As a Lilliputian, I am saying a little prayer that the Lyceum is next. Love the theater buy the seats are torture even for me.

[Sue]

They replaced all the seat cushions and backs but didn't change the dimensions?? Of the last 20 or so theaters I've sat in, this one (watching Jersey Boys last summer) was the worst. I am 5'7" and my spouse is 6'1. Our knees were skewed sideways, and we had tense muscles holding them from touching our neighbors' knees the whole time. It was like riding sidesaddle but with an armrest where our hips needed to be. Most uncomfortable.
Maybe the premium seats should REALLY be premium SEATS. Like those huge comfy movie theater seats. Rip out center orchestra, replace with fewer but much larger seats with leg room, and charge even more for premium. It wouldn't reduce the total number of seats by that much. And wow, wouldn't those seats be wonderful! First class seats, just like on the airplane. Would this really be so wrong??

[Kathleen Hochberg]

Thanks... 6'TALL!