Edinburgh Playhouse Reviews Summary

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff incredibly helpful when we approached them about help for someone with disability."
• "Staff are amazing."
• "We were looked after well by the efficient and friendly staff."
• "Your staff were so helpful and handled the situation efficiently, thank you again."
• "All staff were friendly and one offered to take a photo for us at the end."
• "The staff in the bistro and lounge were friendly and helpful."
• "Staff were very friendly and helpful."

Cons:

• "In helpful staff."
• "We also passed by multiple members of staff who could not care less when we mentioned this to them."
• "Staff members didn't do anything about the noise."
• "The staff are rude, useless, arrogant, of low intelligence or badly trained."
• "The staff were useless all bar one woman who clearly was going above and beyond."
• "Customer service was also lacking, seemed under staffed and those who were working were stressed and curt in manner like they were under siege."
• "Very poor customer service."

Seating and Comfort

Pros:

• "Comfy seating and great views of the stage from all over the venue!"
• "The seating was comfortable, offering excellent views of the stage from every angle."
• "Seats are roomy and comfortable."
• "These are end of row seats with Very easy access, Plenty leg space and good uninterrupted view of stage."
• "Seats were comfortable."
• "The seats (main stalls) are very uncomfortable."
• "A positive for tall people, you do have a little more leg room than many theatres."

Cons:

• "The venue itself is awful, no legspace, and no personal space, chairs are close together and very close to both in front and behind."
• "Seating is absolutely awful in the balcony. No leg room at all and designed for people with 25 inch waists."
• "Seats are ancient and very lumpy."
• "The most uncomfortable experience of my life."
• "The seats are very uncomfortable and there is zero leg room."
• "If you're over 5ft tall, you're screwed. Less leg room than a Ryanair flight."
• "The balcony seats are so narrow with zero leg room."

Facilities and Cleanliness

Pros:

• "Absolutely stunning inside! Tickets were reasonable prices."
• "Toilets and general appearance is clean and tidy."
• "Theatre and toilets were clean."
• "The theatre is very large and the stalls had very good views."
• "Toilets are clean and plenty available."
• "The main auditorium was clean, well staffed and well patrolled."
• "The venue itself is breathtaking, with its exquisite architecture and rich history."

Cons:

• "There's a serious lack of toilets for the audience capacity."
• "Toilet ques for females are usually massive."
• "Spent the whole interval waiting in a massive queue to the female toilets."
• "The venue itself is rather tired and unloved with paint pealing inside the theatre."
• "The venue looks a bit tired - lots of stains on the carpets, chairs in poor condition."
• "The venue however is absolutely shocking. The heat is sickening no air whatsoever."
• "The toilets were a bit messy."

Show Experience

Pros:

• "The production of The Lion King was beyond perfect."
• "Loved the show, the excellent performers who gave their all, the atmosphere and the grand old building."
• "The Lion King has to be seen to be believed. It was brilliant both visually and musically."
• "Great performance of the lion king!"
• "The show was wonderful, cast amazing, costumes stunning, the lighting out of this world, music fabulous."
• "Beauty and the Beast was a truly enchanting, magical, enriching, entertaining and breathtaking performance."
• "Fantastic show, absolutely can't find any fault with the performance."

Cons:

• "Didn't here a word that Charlie said and Willy Wonker when singing was inaudible."
• "The production of the opera Carmen was rather poor and would also recommend people to not go to any Ellen Kent productions."
• "You couldn't see the supertitles. At an opera, this completely disengages the audience."
• "During the entire performance people were getting up and talking."
• "Whilst the performance was top quality, it was marred by the number of people allowed in after the show began, up to 20 minutes into the show!"
• "People talking during performance."
• "It should be part of the announcement that the audience should stay quiet and not sing on top of the artists."

Accessibility and Policy

Pros:

• "Really great help with disabled patrons. The staff really went out their way to accommodate my blind friend."
• "The Playhouse is great for wheelchair users, book in advance and let them know you're coming."
• "The theatre had a great system to check for covid passes, tickets and bag search."
• "Pre entry there was checking of each covid vaccination passport which made you feel somewhat safer."
• "Bags are searched on entry."
• "Cushions are provided upon request if you have a small child."
• "Felt very safe as staff checked covid status etc without any hold ups or issues."

Cons:

• "To my surprise, they turned down my request, saying protocol blablabla."
• "Shocking was told if I went to toilet during show I would not be allowed back in."
• "Absolutely disgusted that haven’t attended a performance that once we stepped out the main entrance and having found out that our bus wasn’t due for another half hour my friend, who has a medical issue, was refused entry back into the theatre to use the facilities within minutes of leaving."
• "Absolutely ridiculous covid policy in place."
• "They were forcing pre-school children to throw away squash that they had in reusable bottles into a large bowl."
• "We were seated in the circle which is on the ground floor level but only 1 accessible toilet on this floor, otherwise its down 2 flights of stairs, which isn't ideal with mobility issues."
• "My granny is disabled and struggles to walk at all let alone climbing 2 flights of stairs so she can find a toilet."