Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival

Decided to drive over from Reno and see "Two Gentlemen of Verona".

Driving directions given by the website were difficult.  The staff was not helpful or attentive and just watched us try to locate the box office instead of offering assistance.

The theater setting in Tahoe was incredible.  You can hear the water crashing on the shore and smell the fresh air.  The seats are well place for good viewing of the stage.

The actors in this particular show have a bit more growing to do in relation to delivery of good shakespeare prose.

I don't remember Two Gentlemen of Verona being a musical but they sang through the transitions and one of the ladies voices was horrible.  This alone almost made me want to leave despite the great atmosphere.

Overall this was a great experience and I look forward to a different play with players that are a bit more experienced.

We had been annual attendees of the Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor for many years up until our last visit to Lake Tahoe four years ago.  While the beauty of the venue cannot be surpassed, the performance was not only terrible our last visit, but unbearable. For the first time ever, we left at intermission.

When we planned our trip to Tahoe this summer, we decided to give the festival another try as we had guests coming up and we wanted to share with them the beauty of Sand Harbor and the unique setting of the event. We hoped it would make for a pleasant and unique evening for us all. We were initially disappointed NOT to see the minstrel pre-show that we had always enjoyed in years past, and had we known that the vocalists (I struggle to use that term) at the beginning were actually performers in the rest of the show, we would have left before the show started.  I cannot believe that the casting director heard them "'sing" and hired them anyway - are they related to a large donor?  They were loud, consistently off-key and sang with no musicality whatsoever.  Pitifully painful to listen to!!  We would have left at intermission once again, but my son liked the dog!  I was also disappointed in the modern interpretation of the play - while I understand the festival's philosophy of making Shakespeare fit the times, I find it distasteful to listen to Shakespearean words spoken like they're being read from a cookbook.  I think the "modernizing" has gone to such an extreme as to reduce the charm of Shakespeare, particularly his comedy, to a mediocre and boring presentation that removes all context from his work.

I am so sorry to have shared the suffering of this event with my four guests and even more regrettable it was to have paid over $200 for tickets.  NEVER AGAIN!  In the future, I will enjoy Sand Harbor from the Cove with the same food and ambiance, minus the torturous attempt at entertainment.  GHASTLY! Your patrons should expect more! Shame on them if they didn't notice the difference!

I would ask for my money back, but the box office (at best) would likely offer me tickets to another show - don't think so.  Zero stars for this experience; in fact, I'd like to take stars away from someone else's review.

PS  The set blocked too much of the Lake view!  At the very least, isn't that what we were there to enjoy?

The show was really cute!  Of course the location is nothing short of spectacular.  It's such a wonderful way to spend your evening in an otherwise sleepy town.  I loved that they interspersed some singing with the traditional dialogue to keep things lively.  Although as some others stated the quality of the singing could have been improved.  

It gets CHILLY at night, be sure to wear pants and a warm sweater.

This is an AWESOME place to bring a picnic.  They have tons of picnic tables set up, so it's super easy to bring your cooler and enjoy a pre show munch.  Alternatively they did have some nice (if slightly overpriced) food options to buy there.  I got a veggie plate with hummus and it was HUGE for about $10-$12.  

The best seats are of course the ones closest to the stage.  I think you can see them in the picture i posted.  They are waaaaaay nicer then the other seats.  They are wide, they recline, and they have comfy cushions as well as a drink holder.  My advice would be to pack your own food in, and with the money you save, splurge on the better seats.  

For the short people out there.... I'm 5'2" and I could see ok.  I had to do a little bit of neck craning as the seats weren't staggered, but i could see fine with someone directly seated in front of me.