Monday, March 28, 2011
Two arms, two arms: Why are Chicago theater seats so darn cramped?
WBEZ: "I was at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts the other night, and as I sat watching the show I felt the arm of my companion wrap around me. This was delightful, until after the show when he attributed his behavior not to affection but to his complete inability to fit both shoulders between the people to his left and me on his right. This suggests he’ll be tenderly curling his arm around total strangers any day now.
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6 comments:
I think separating each seat by x amount throws more money at installation labor as well as not maximizing profits by physical space. It's hard to quantify what the profit advantage would be in "audience comfort." I agree that I am usually uncomfortable in theatre seats, but I have heard how difficult it is to find newly manufactured seats, most apparently are just refurbished from other closed theatres.
I honestly don't know the right answer. Seats are uncomfortable, and I'd like them to be a little bigger. Or at least have some more leg room. At the same time expanding seats causes a decrease in maximum possible profit.
But...to sit in a cramped seat for two hours can be uncomfortable. On the other hand it might just be nit-picking and complaining.
As far as I can remember, seats in movie theatre's aren't bad. Or, I don't have any problems with them.
It would be costly to replace seating in theatres, and it would remain costly as less seats could be sold. Do most people not see theatre because the seats are too small? I honestly don't know.
This article seems extreme and not very well thought out. They jump all over the place and rant. I am a bigger guy and have sat in the seat refered to. They are not that bad. I have more trouble with leg room than shoulder room. The movies used to be no better. So should we go to movie theatre style seating. I don't think so. There is something to be said about theatre seating that is apart of the experience. As long as they have enough padding so my ass doesn't fall asleep, I am good.
This is definitely and issue that is affecting more cities than just Chicago. Even the slimmest of audiences members are feeling squished between people or tense throughout a show as they are constantly being cautious not to bump into each other for the next two or three hours. When my family bought season tickets to the Academy of Music, my dad splurged for box seats for one reason only: they had independent chairs that were not bolted to the floor so he could adjust his space between the people next to him and in front of him. Box seats are meant to be a luxury, not a condition for someone to see a show just because they are uncomfortable in the joint seats for two hours which is obviously a deal breaker on whether or not they will see the show. Perhaps theaters have not researched into how much the their seats may be affecting the number of seats they sell. I know that when my dad's business got slow, we canceled our season subscription rather than moving out of the box seats simply because he hates how small they are. That right there was a cancellation of four season ticket holders.
There's nothing quite like sitting between two strangers and with arms and shoulders touching, with no room to wiggle for fear of intruding into your neighbor's bubble. Honestly. Some theatre seats are just SO ridiculous, it's apparent that nobody actually took the time to try out the seats before they decided to purchase 5000 of them and put them in a theatre. And it's not just the shoulder room--I'm only 5'6" with short legs and even I struggle to squeeze my legs into some places. I mean seriously, c'mon now. I know there are certain people who choose not to fly or choose not to see theatre because they don't quite fit in the seats, but that's simply a HORRIBLE reason to force people to miss out on art. On the other hand, some theatres have great seats, so maybe it's a matter of picking and choosing where you go to see theatre.
Truth. Seats are terribly close. I think part of it is shoving as many in one space as possible to be able to sell more seats. I do want to mention that it's tight for non-overweight people too, though, particularly the legroom issue. Also, one of the favourite theatre traditions is trying to squeeze by everyone to get to the middle of the row. It's a nightmare even when there is no one there. You're still doing weird lindy steps to your chair. I don't foresee change anytime soon, and maybe that's okay. A leftover from Theatre of Cruelty, if you will. :p
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