You want my opinion about the Kodak Theatre? Are you sure?
Blecch. That is my opinion of the Kodak Theatre.
There are two ways to get to the theatre entrance. One is by way of an open air shopping mall. This is a very overblown open air shopping mall, with mega sculptures of elephants overlooking the plaza and ersatz Oriental details here and there, all part of an elaborate scheme that is supposed to make one feel that one is shopping in the midst of an elaborate D.W. Griffith set. Stated simply, it doesn't. The other path to the theatre is through a claustrophobic hallway, lined on either side with very expensive and very empty retail shops. It will look even gloomier than it does now when the initial leases on these spaces all expire at the same time and these retailers leave Dodge. Above the storefronts are signs showing the years since the Academy Awards began and the name of the winning best picture for that year. There are signs, too, for many years into the future with space for the names of future best picture winners. At the end of the hallway is a showy staircase leading to the second level entrance of the theatre. It is via this hallway and stairway that Academy Award audience members will stroll the red carpet from the limousines that drop them at the curb on Hollywood Boulevard to the theatre.
The theatre is large. It is very large. OK, it is ENORMOUS. The interior was built opera house style. There is the orchestra level. There is a "parterre" behind the orchestra section. There is a mezzanine above that, with boxes extending along the sides of the theatre. Then there is another mezzanine, with boxes above that. Then there is ANOTHER mezzanine, again with boxes, above that.
If you are seated anywhere further back than the middle of the orchestra, you are really, really, really (that's three reallys) far from the stage.
The theatre was built to house the Academy Awards to AMPAS specs, so it is wired for all the cables and lights and electronics a TV broadcast requres. There is a platform in front of the parterre that holds the soundboard and cameras for the awards broadcast. Natural accoustics were never, ever, not for a single moment, not for a mere nanosecond considered in the construction of this theatre.
The first time I went to the theatre was a couple of years ago, soon after it opened, to see the American Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker. The orchestra had to be amplified. I never before had heard of an orchestra being amplified for a classical ballet performance at an indoor theatre. And it was amplified very, very poorly. The balance was way off. I can also tell you that musicians moved in and out of the pit during the performance, because the microphones quite clearly picked up the noise of footsteps and the creaking of the pit floor.
The cherry on the top of this cake is that egress from the theatre is wholly inadequate. There are not enough escalators and stairways to accomodate the crowds leaving after a performance. It is very unnerving to be on an escalator that continually feeds more people (including one's self) into a crowd of people with nowhere to move.
After that experience, I more or less decided to avoid the theatre if at all possible. The lure of seeing Oliver for the first time, in the Cameron Mackintosh production, led me back though, and I was as unimpressed with the venue on my return visit as I was my first time there. The sound was not much improved. It was LOUD. I had difficulty figuring out who was singing at times, because the dimensionality of the sound gave me no clue as to where on the stage the source of the sound was.
Of course, this theatre probably is the most seen theatre in the world, with its annual appearance on the Academy Awards broadcast. You, too, can see it on February 29. Check local listings for station and time.
