Went to see Conan O'Brien at the Dodge Theater with 3 friends and we bought VIP tickets. Each VIP booth holds 12 people, so we were with 8 strangers. The booth itself was about what I expected for the price, I guess. They served popcorn only--drinks cost extra. From the booth, you can see into other VIP booths. The booth on our right was empty.
More than halfway through the show, we realized that the booth on our right was still empty. So the four of us walked over there to have an empty booth. An usher followed us in and immediately asked to see our tickets and told us we needed to stay in our assigned seats. We asked if we could watch from this booth since the show was more than half over. She said, ""Absolutely not. The booth needs to be empty for the people who purchased this suite if they arrive."" Not a big deal, we went back to our seats.
A couple minutes later, I looked over and the usher and a couple security guards were in the booth and they watched the rest of the show from there. I don't mind taking my own seat, but having the Dodge Theater staff so brazenly kick us out so they could watch the show for free from a $2K suite did not make us happy.
I won't be buying VIP tickets from Dodge Theater ever again. For regular-priced tickets, it's probably OK, but for VIP tickets? Save your money and go to real VIP booths in other venues.
Pros: Theater is attractive
Cons: VIP seating is sub-par, staff unhelpful
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