Miami Theater Center

I went here for the Seven Year Itch courtesy of Unilocal Culture Month. It was a solid show with good acting and singing. Funny too. The setup was a little odd, as the theater is huge but for this show all the seating was on stage and hence very limited. You had to arrive on time as there was no late seating, which was refreshing for Miami. However, restroom breaks were only allowed during intermission. Concessions were reasonably priced and included candy, macaroons, water bottles, and wine. Our tickets were at will call, just inside the entrance and went smoothly.
I want to come back to this location to see a movie as the theater looked very comfortable and spacious. There is a decent amount of parking outside and its not in a busy area. It is affiliated with O Cinema.

We saw the Seven Year Itch here courtesy of Unilocal Culture Month. The show was great and the venue was also excellent. Parking is free and easy with a small lot next door. I imagine this would fill with big shows though. Picking up tickets was easy and they returned my call after leaving a voice message. There is a small concession stand with some candy, macaroons, and bottles of water — all at extremely reasonable prices.
The one thing that was weird about this place is that at least for this show, the audience sat on stage and the stage was turned 90 degrees. This meant that seats were very close together and you had to kind of walk on the set to get to/​from your seats. Consequently, the theater was extremely strict about no late seating and not leaving your seat during the performance. While I appreciated the no late seating, it was a bit stressful to sit there and know that if I had to use the bathroom, I wouldn’t really have been able to!
Overall, an extremely cute, low key theater and I would love to have the pleasure of going to more shows here. The cast and performance quality was excellent.

This is a really cool venue. An old fashioned theater smack in the middle of Miami Shores.

Old timey at it’s best! We visited for a showing of Wizard of Oz by O Cinema. We had a great time! They don’t run movies all the time, mostly productions. The theatre lobby reminiscent of an unfortunately forgotten era. Don’t go expecting glitz and glamor but appreciate the many years this great building has been around. Hope to visit again soon.

Great place for the family

I came to watch Alice in Wonderland with a group of friends. The Playground Theater is nestled on a homely, oldtown street in North Miami. Plenty of free parking across the street.
We were able to get a group rate of just $ 15, for five of us, since we bought at the box office the day of. The show was, I would say, 75% full on a Saturday night.
They have a small concession stand, with juice, healthy snacks (no sodas), water, etc. Everything for a $ 1! Its amazing to go to a place in Miami that does not try to rape you for every dollar. This is one of those places! That says a lot about the way a theater is run, and puts them high on my list.
The show itself was about 90 minutes long, an interesting and very ‘different’ interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. Half of the time I was trying to figure out what was going on. But in terms of acting talent and artistic creativity, the show ranked pretty well.
It was more of a kids show, so you have to take that into consideration when reviewing as an adult. If I had kids, I would definitely take them here regularly for healthy, educational (inspire the arts in your children) entertainment.

Today marked my first-​ever trip to the Playground to see The Red Thread. Cute location, cute theater, wonderful play. I may not be a child (this is a children’s theater), but the play, which is about an ancient Asian tale, held my attention, as well as the attention of my husband and 3-​year-​old for the whole 90 minutes. I love the idea of introducing children to theater. I love the idea of showing them where movies originated from. I love watching them watch stories come to life. I also love that it’s fine for your kid to yell out, «Mom, what’s going to happened next?» without anyone giving you a sideways glance, because the place is packed with kids and they are free to be kids there. Bravo to The Playground.

The Playground Theater puts on magnificent productions year round — it is a jewel to have in our neighborhood. But they do something even better that great theatre! They put on a fantastic Theater Camp, which just began it’s first session today. The shows that the campers write, dance, sing, produce in a few weeks are absolutely amazing and so much fun to watch! The kids learn so much in this Camp and it’s fun to support them. Thank you Playground Theatre.

I’ve taken my kids to two of the productions at this theatre and each time has been excellent. We went to see Pluft the Little Ghost one year and The Steadfast Tin Soldier another.
There is something special and old world about going to a live play. There is something even more special about passing on a love of live theatre to your kids. This theatre company specializes in child friendly productions and puts on about four shows a year.
Their 330 seat ‘home’ theatre is a renovated 1946 movie theatre with an authentic art deco lobby. I say ‘home’; theatre because the first show I saw by this troupe was in South Beach and it was there I signed up for their annual program which they mail to your home — mine arrived today which sparked this review. This year they are focusing on performing in the Miami Shores theater which suits me fine because you don’t have that nightmare of parking like you have in South Beach (took me 45 minutes last time to find parking near the theatre on Lincoln Road)
Ticket prices are crazy reasonable…$ 15 per person. And the shows are just long enough to hold the children’s fascination (and believe me… they are fascinated by live theatre — moreso than at the movies) but not that long that the fidgets set in. From the little experience I have had here, go early because the seats fill up fast.
This season their new production I intend to go and see is Inanna and the Huluppu Tree. It doesn’t start until April 2009 so plenty of time to gather a Unilocal possee :)
If you have guests coming to visit with kids and you are at a loss for what to do with them this is a brilliant option. Mind opening and fun!