What is the best night to see a play? (e.g. Press opening night, closing night, etc.)
by 
Sultan
ANSWERS: 4
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Having worked in a professional theatre for 15 years I speak with a certain amount of authority when I say : skip the first ten performances. It takes a certain amount of time for the actors to become comfortable, not with the caracters they´re playing, because they´ve had the weeks or months of rehersals to do that, but with the audience, and the audiences reaction. Live performances are two way street, we react to the actors, and they react to us. After ten performances they´ve usually worked out all the bugs and kinks, and the flow of the play should be smooth. Nothing compares with opening night, the tension can be palpable, both backstage and in the audience, but a lot of things can go wrong, lines can be flubbed, cue´s missed etc. If you want to get your money´s worth wait a few weeks, but don´t wait to long, these things can also become a bit to routine.
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IT all depends, are you there for the excitement or want to see the best performance? If you want excitement, opening night is the way to go. But I'll agree with my collegue above that if you want the best performance, give the actors and techs time to refine their work and wait out the first couple of weeks.
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closing night
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Vernillat makes excellent points, and heed her/his warning about not waiting too long. I think the second or third night is usually the worst, (this is from experience also) because if the actors have done reasonably well the first time or two, they tend to get over condfident and mess up the next night. I've never had a perfect second night. Other than that, it's up to you.
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