I am writing to tell you about an incident at Goodyear Theatre on Friday, December 12, 2025.We are now boycotting Goodyear Theatre and our voices will be heard. We have loved Goodyear Theatre as the sound and the decor are superb and were in awe of the building. My husband John and I and another couple were supposed to have a wonderful evening out seeing Gerald Albright in concert. We had been looking forward to this concert for almost two months and it was an early Christmas present for me - a Christmas present which I will forever remember…..We had a wonderful dinner at an Akron restaurant and then went to the Goodyear Theater in Akron. Knowing we would be in the minority, the crowd mix was 98% Black and 2% White. I was absolutely fine with that as we were there to hear some great jazz saxophone.That is not what happened. During the warmup act, we had a black woman sitting directly behind my husband who first started talking on her cell phone in her ear-piercing voice, then switched to having a loud conversation with her friend, and then in addition to screaming to the drummer, who we believe she knew. My husband asked politely if she could be more quiet as we were there to enjoy the music. Not her. She refused...During the next hour all 4 of us put up with her shrill voice in our ears. Our friend is hard of hearing and he could hear everything four seats down. He told me he was just about to leave and uber home.My husband left his seat and went and spoke with the House Manager and the Akron Police officers stationed in the lobby. He was informed that there was nothing they could do except move us. She had a right to talk is what we kept being told. He was asking them to come and speak with her instead. They refused!!! Imagine that!!! We were quietly sitting in our seats, and only clapping when appropriate. and anxiously awaiting the main performer, Gerald Albright. We had excellent seats and every seat in front of us was taken so if they moved us it would have been a downgrade. Our tickets were very expensive, considering the venue. And we were not the obstruction. My husband decided to go back and endure.About another 30 minutes of her now calling him “MF’r Whitey, a lot of MF'ing him (over 50 times) and other very colorful names, and informing him that slavery had been abolished and she could do what she wanted, my husband had had enough of her absolutely shrill, loud, annoying ranting and he once again turned and asked her to please shut the f*ck up since that was the language that she seemed to be accustomed to. She was being so rude and had absolutely no common courtesy for others to enjoy the show. Well that ultimately brought several police, some bouncers and the same House Manager to our seats. All but the house manager were black and attitude was very present. At this point my husband was told he had 30 seconds to get up and leave or they would carry me out and arrest him!I asked the policeman, didn't we have a right to quiet enjoyment of the concert and all they could say was she had the right to talk!All 4 of us left the theatre and never saw Gerald Albright. I have a real problem with the Goodyear Theatre's ‘no confrontation policy’ and how they handled this situation. We are season tickets holders to Playhouse Square for over 15 years and this would have never happened there. A brief conversation from the Police to this woman to tone it down might have prevented what became a very racist event that didn't need to happen. I will NEVER be attending anything at the Goodyear Theatre ever again. Nor will I go to an event were I am in the minority as we were last night. Common courtesy and respect for fellow concert goers is non-existent at the Goodyear Theater. It is funny that their website contains “Guidelines and Etiquette” and states “We are happy to have you visit our venue. We hope that you take a wonderful memory with you from your experience. Please be aware of the other patrons around you and during the performance. Please turn off all noise-making devices. We also ask for you to keep talking to a minimum. “ I guess the guidelines and etiquette code of conduct do not mention screaming, heckling nor yelling so it may not apply to this incident. HMMM?It seems society has now deteriorated to the point that we cannot respect our fellow man and instead need to be as rude as possible and do whatever the hell we want. Off duty officers should have to follow the policies of an organization, not just because of the color of our skin. This was not the experience at the Goodyear Theater. This event actually was reverse discrimination….We need policies to change as this all could have been prevented with a simple conversation to the woman by staff.

Those people who worked there were EXTREMELY rude.Especially that guy who has been there for years that works the pit.This place DONT let you even take phone pictures!That is crazy.If I were anyone considering going there I would never ever go near that place.TERRIBLE PLACE!.

Last night, management was indifferent when I spent the time to go up to them, to tell them during intermission that there were several people seated in my section that were in clear violation of the rules of no pictures, flashes, cell phones, or videos. When I told the house manager that the person seated next to me was recording some of the concert (which by the way, the entertainer for the night explicitly stated before the concert that it was a violation to do so), management told me that's on the entertainer, and the manager had no interest enforcing that rule which the entertainer explicitly stated at the beginning of the show. They (management) seemed uninterested in taking any steps to remedy the situation, or even pretending to ask security to keep an eye out for the rest of the show, or to even re-announce it to the late-comers who did not hear the announcement. Just gave me excuses. Made for a distracting night for everyone in my section, (the lights from the phones are distracting, and people were talking loudly carrying conversations during what was meant to be a quiet concert), when it could have been an extremely enjoyable experience of a lifetime, but now tarnished for many. I would recommend the theatre completely ban cell phones altogether for all shows.

I attended the ELP Welcome Back my Friends concert at Goodyear. The venue had wonderful accustoms for a smaller theater. My only complaint would be the seats were very tight, width and leg room. The cup holder was into my knee.

The Theater This was my first time at the Goodyear Theater. I was a bit unsure about the parking options, so I parked in the paid lot down the street from the venue for $10. Later I found that there was free parking on East Market Street. The seating was pretty reasonable at $35/per ticket plus one handling fee of $13.43. The view from the balcony was actually good and the seats wider and much more comfortable than many other concert venues I’ve been to. The theater was nice looking with multiple bars. There were small restrooms on the balcony level. The Concert I assumed the opening acts were relatively short and had not head of both The Building and Will Hodge. Red Wanting Blue I had heard of, but I really didn’t know there music. The Building was the opening act. They were very disappointing both in their sound quality and their performance. I think it was about 45 minutes but it felt allot longer. Next was Will Hodge. Kind of a country folk performance. I thought that he was very good and I’m not a fan of country music. Quite a talented musician and a strong voice. I think he played for about an hour. Finally Red Wanting Blue came out and Will Hodge joined them for the first song. Red Wanting Blue put on an amazing performance instrumentally, lyrically, the vocals and the sound quality was also good. Scott Terry lead singer was astounding. His powerful vocals and the emotion and feeling he put into the music I rate next to some of the best singers I’ve seen. His musicians were good and the drummer hammered the drums to the point I thought they would need to be replaced before the show was complete. They performed for almost two hours. I will definitely be purchasing their CD’s. Completing the night were giant balloons bounced around the theater along with confetti for a pre New Year’s Eve effect. I would recommend the theater and Red Wanting Blue is a must see band.