Rialto Square Theatre & Office Complex

I was not very satisfied with my experience at this theatre. I saw «A Christmas Carol». The actors were pretty good and well spoken, but the special effects were awful, and for the price of it, my god. However, the theatre was very beautiful. I think it was from the early 1900s. There was a lot of artwork on the ceilings and the walls in the theatre. But overall, I was not very pleased

drove 1 ½ hrs to see a 1:30 show. Got there and the front doors were closed till 1:20. Go in and everyone heads upstairs. Apparently there was an earlier Teddy Bear Tea that was a different event. No clue. However you try getting your kid to walk out on that after she sees it happening. Realized with everyone else who went upstairs, the show we came for, was downstairs (I asked someone) and realized the doors were hidden by a beautiful Christmas tree. Doors to the theater inside however were still closed. They did not open till 1:50 for the 1:30 show. However some families seemed to be inside all ready and a few went in the right hand door? No one working however could give any explanations why. Unruly crowd, crying kids, people are pissed, very unprofessional. A guy by to sell Raffle tickets but he does not know the cost? (idiot)
Doors to the theater open and there are families all ready seated inside. It is General Seating so my daughter who got there early, waited over 35 minutes can not get a front row seat. She is disabled and likes those. Get lucky and finally find the find the last two way over to the side, Whew. Apparently they let people in from the tea? WTF!
The band is not even set up and it takes them another 20 – 25 minutes to do so. They had another event that ran late on the stage? Dave starts playing he is great and realizes how screwed up this is and he starts by himself but his guitar is not plugged in right and his microphone is dead. He continues to try to entertain as the band continues doing a sound check. It is now nearly an hour past the start time.
He later tells me the first 30 minutes even after the sound check things were still screwed up, (we know) they struggled to perform due to this. (People around us left) The sound is never right and we struggle to hear him.
Fun show but due to all the problems it lacked the zing it usually has. Leaving there is a woman in charge by the doors we came in. She stops us and asks if we have a wrist band? No we don’t, but we need to use the bathroom, leave and drive home. I ask what wrist band, and she then asks if we are going to see the Lego movie. No, just need to use the bathroom and leave. She, You have to go out the side door then. Me, is there a bathroom that way. Her no. Me well we are going to the bathroom. Her NO! (can you imagine) Me, well then we are going to the bathroom, if you need to call the authorities be my guest… She gives me a big mouth which I avoid as we go to the bathroom (Laura really needed to go) and then leave.
What a hot mess it all was, they were totally disorganized, and rude about it.
Ugh, took all the fun out of the event.

Beautiful place to see a show. Horrible beer selection though. Miller Lite, Coors lite or Heineken.

My wife and 3 boys went here to see the Wiggles yesterday. My boys are 4, 2, and 2 months. I bought 4 tickets thinking that the 2 month old boy would be no charge, like everywhere else in the world. Very disappointed that they actually would charge a 2 month old child. Will never return for this reason, I believe this is ridiculous.

This is a landmark, beautiful place. The staff are friendly. The décor in the lobby is breath taking. The place is clean. Good acoustics.

This is mostly a review of the meal we had at an event here.
Hubs’ company rented out the Rialto for a formal work function. We had cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the stage, dinner in the rotunda and then a brief program in the theater. The space is beautiful. Truly, it’s a gem, especially considering it’s in Joliet. Five stars for the space, though the theater seats are a little old and creaky and could use a re-​do.
The food was ghastly. In the past few months I’ve been to four weddings, so I’m used to «reception food.» This was the worst. The duck soup they had was basically a carton of beef broth with some not-​yet-​fully-​rehydrated mushrooms thrown on top. Salad was wilted. The «filet» was inedible. It was charred nearly all the way through – basically it was beef jerky. Also whatever grade of meat they use looks to be no better than stew meat. Nearly no one at our table finished their meals (and those that did only did so out of starvation/​need to soak up the alcohol they drank). The berry tart for dessert was filled with something that tasted like sweetened paste. To top it off, the coffee that was served was essentially mud-​colored water – no coffee flavor. The majority of the event was spent talking with others about how horrible the experience was.

The theatre is epic display of architectural grandeur. I wish the seats were more comfortable, but they may be original for all I know… still. I would forgive the decay of originality for better seats. As another reviewer said, not the place for a concert that you would want to stand or get wild at, but perfect for small concerto or speaking arts i.e. comedy, poetry, etc.

One of the prettiest theaters i ever saw. Very impressive!

This theater is very beautiful. The entrance is the best part. I came here to see Weird Al and had a really great time. Easy and close parking in a garage. Bathrooms were nice and they had plenty of refreshments too.

We travelled to the Rialto to see «Whose Line Is It Anyway» Live (Whose Live? Can’t remember what they actually called the tour), this past weekend. The theater is beautiful, but beyond that the experience was dismal.
First, they didn’t open the doors until 8, when the show was about to start, so the lobby was packed full and miserable. Then when they did open the doors, there was a mad rush to seats, and people got mean and competitive. Started the whole evening off on a bad note.
Then when the show did start, the sound was horrible. The performers mics were all off, some crackling in and out, others at different levels so one person would be super loud and another was barely audible. The performers tried using handheld mics instead, but most of those (they had a whole table full of them) didn’t work either. They started switching mic-​packs between sketches, but it didn’t help. It was obvious they were frustrated, and we missed so many punchlines and jokes because we couldn’t hear. It turned into a soundcheck with the audience more than once.
I was seriously disappointed with our experience. We drove over an hour each way and spent decent money on the tickets, and it definitely wasn’t worth it, because we couldn’t hear anything.

We just had the pleasure of experiencing our daughter’s wedding reception
at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet. What a magnificent setting! It has to
be seen to be truly appreciated! The event coordinator, Trish, could not have
been more helpful or supportive. She knew how to set us at ease and she
just made it all come together! On the evening of the reception, we had our
own personal event coordinator assigned to us (shout out to Joy) who
pulled it all together so make a beautiful and seamless reception. You will
find that the staff at the Rialto have experience working with various caterers
(we used Marie’s which was absolutely phenomenal!) so that everything
is done and runs so smoothly, all the family and guests have to do is relax
and enjoy! We will always have such special memories of Sarah’s wedding
and reception and Trish and Joy helped make that possible. Thank you,
Trish and Joy!!) We can’t recommend them highly enouth.
P. S. When you choose the Rialto, make sure your DJ is familiar with the
particular acoustics of the space. It makes a big difference in how the
sound is projected.

My wife and I had our wedding at the Rialto just last weekend. I have to be honest, I have a hard time singing enough praise. The space is beautiful. Our party was smaller so we opted to skip having the ceremony on the stage and the setup the had in the rotunda was nice.
I want to give special thanks to Trish and Anne. They were both very helpful with questions we had along the way.
One thing I will say if you plan your event at the Rialto, make sure you know where you can park. The theatre is located in the downtown, so parking lots are everywhere, but they all say they will tow. Our wedding was on a Sunday, so it wasn’t a problem, but I couldn’t find dedicated Rialto parking myself.

I’ve been here twice now — and this is probably one of the most gorgeous theaters I’ve ever been in.
The lobby area is stunning, as well as the inside of the theater. Take a moment to LOOK UP while you are in here. You won’t be disappointed.
And, I hear this place is haunted, and they offer paranormal tours. I would love to check that out at some point!

A well maintained historic theater. The sound system was good from 4^th row for a Jonny Lang Concert. My buddy told me he had trouble hearing from back rows for a comedy show.

A really nice theatre in the middle of downtown (sh#thole) Joliet! And how can you beat parking for $ 3?! You can’t!
The inside is beautifully decorated in the lobby with nice balcony staircases. The interior is very attractive without a bad seat in the house.

What a delightfully fanstically awesomely build old theater. Quite the site to see everyone’s eyes skyward as you walk thought it’s historic doors. The lobby is still very easy to move around in and seats are easy to get to. (I imagine…). It has wide tall, ceilings and looks a tad like a smaller Pantageas theater in Toronto. (disclaimer: most theaters look the same to me)
They could definitely use another bathroom for both men and women. There might have been one upstairs, but downstairs took virtually all of intermission.
The show we were seeing was a improvisational duo that involved lots of audience participation. If I were rating the audience, I would somehow find a way to allow Unilocal to give me negative stars. The crowd was not smart, and terrible at participation. The performers said on two occasions, «Please volunteer if you ‘think’ you’ll be good at this type of game.» Every person that raised their hand to go on stage, was powerfully bad. I know often mistakes make an improv show, but it’s hard to stomach when a volunteer literally missed a cue that’s served up on a t-​ball tee.
Overall though (excuse my rant) it’s an amazing site to see and a great spot.

Styx Concert Nov 3, 2011
Pros
Beautiful fully restored Landmark Theater. The Theater is a work of Art.
Small intimate size, no bad seats.
More than adequate close by parking, lots of police presence and lots of courteous ushers.
Excellent Acoustics that pre-​date electronic amplification.
Cons
The concert was 3x to 10x the music volume that the venue was designed for, so the concert was a high-​pitched-​intense-​ringing-​sound that lasted about 1 hour. Like a bad marriage, I thought the concert would get better, it didn’t.
Rialto must impose metered noise limits on the acts if they are incapable of self-​regulation, or the City’s public safety department can.
The seats are hard and a little small, people were definitely lighter and thinner when the theater was built, and foam rubber seat cushions hadn’t been invented yet.
I had the misfortune to sit between two obese drunks, and decided to stand in the rear of the theater.
Recommendation
This theater is definitely deserving of our business, I hope they step in to regulate volume to fit their theater design or only allow acoustic performances and ditch the electric guitars and massive speakers completely.
This theater should be great for plays or speaking engagements.
The Theater should purchase 2 Klipsch La Scala speakers for approx $ 7K (and a first rate amp, equalizer and mixer) and have the various acts use them. These are more than adequate for a theater this size and are better quality sound than most travelling shows use. The same speakers could be used for movies like Dr Zhivago, To Catch a Thief etc. Same goes for a Concert Quality Piano if they don’t already own one.
Christina Perri solo!

I LOVE this place! My high school graduation ceremony took place here and I will have my wedding reception here in October of 2013, I can’t wait, its so beautiful!

Had no idea this place even existed until we bought tickets a few months ago. I wondered why such a big name would be playing out in the sticks when most acts prefer to stay within the city?! Easy answer… this venue is down right GORGEOUS!

This place gets 5 stars purely for the sentimental reasons. I used to come here every year and watch the Nutcracker ballet show here with my Grandma, Mom, and sister. We had a blast here. (my brother’s college graduation ceremony was also held here!)
The interior of the theater is beautiful, and almost (not quite) rivals that of the Chicago Theater downtown. Upon walking in, you feel like you’re transformed into something straight out of the 40’s, and I love that they have kept this theater well kept.
My Grandma told me stories about how her and her husband (my Grandpa) used to come her on Saturday nights for different shows, and the fun that they had.
The Rialto will always hold a special place in my heart!