I visited the "Reach" a few weeks ago and loved it. The new buildings and plazas are simple and beautiful. More human and friendlier than the original building. But they work well together. Even the staff walking around the grounds seemed to embody the more casual and welcoming atmosphere.
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Based on the average age of attendees, ten years from now the Kennedy Center can close its doors.
My family and I spent really big bucks a few years ago to see a musical at the Kennedy Center. Unfortunately, the acoustics were so bad, exacerbated by a terrible sound system, that we could not understand nearly all of what was sung or said. Right after we went, I looked online at reviews about the same show and found scores of others had vociferously complained about the same thing starting when the show first opened, which was weeks before we went.
Clearly, by the time we went, the Kennedy Center knew about the problem but had done nothing to resolve it. But, they were happy to take our money.
I felt ripped off. I reached out to several people in the organization via email. A couple of weeks later, one finally responded by referring me to someone else who eventually gave me a dismissive we're-not-responsible-for-anything response and an offer for complimentary tickets to some obscure performance I had absolutely no interest in (and, presumably, they were offering them only because they couldn't sell them).
The Kennedy Center is out of touch. They pander to big donors and spend millions on their building and clearly love getting written about in the news media. But, they don't seem to care about their average customers. After blowing so much money on such a terrible experience, which the Kennedy Center refused to take responsibility for, I vowed to never have anything to do with the Kennedy Center again.
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@fact or friction If this was a road version by a touring Broadway company, they bring their own sound system. This is common practice as companies cannot be bothered with unfamiliar systems in the various theaters they play.
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I do not know of any classical music group in this country that is not wishing for more people to come. This will become a very serious matter in a decade when much of the current audience is either dead or not attending without younger folks to replace them. I heard that the Met Opera now has ticket sales of only 80% for their venue. I recall when getting a ticket was extremely difficult unless you were a subscriber. I recall the old joke, "I have been going to the opera for 30 years, and I am still the youngest person there."
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