I've lived in Memphis since 1995 and love the Orpheum for it's history and elegance and have attended many productions and movies over the years with family and out of town guests. Most recent was last night, the opening night for Buddy Holly. The production was fun, talent wonderful and there were only a few of what I hope were opening night audio glitches. Wrong mic, no mic, intermittent mic (this during Pat Halloran's welcome! No backup mic on the boss?)\r
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We had great seats in the orchestra, row K, just about center, which brings me to my only, and large, complaint about the Orpheum. Seating. It's worse than flying coach. I'm 6' tall and have to have my knees jammed into the seat in front of me and cannot move. The seat rows are simply too close together. At intermission my wife, also tall, and I thought to move into unoccupied seats in the mezzanine and found the same problem there. I'd forgotten about this from past shows.\r
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More seats equals more tickets but I would rather go to a lesser theatre, perhaps to see a wonderful local production, and not be folded into a painful static position for two hours. God forbid there should ever be a need to evacuate in a hurry.\r
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I'm sure the numbers have been run, but with the renovation and now the new performing arts center going up adjacent to the Orpheum, I would love to see some of the capital directed toward increasing legroom in the theatre.\r
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Sorry Mr. Halloran and The Orpheum, I'll be looking for entertainment and enlightenment elsewhere. Please consider fixing this, maybe start with the funds from your Ferrari raffle and auction?
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