Sandler Center for the Performing Arts

Wonderful event night supporting local nonprofit PiN. This is a beautiful venue with a mass variety of shows and entertainment. In an effort to “class” up, educate and enrich the old Pembroke Mall area this is a beautiful gem in the center of an encouraging and positive growth addition to Virginia Beach. Jim Belushi was wonderful, venue clean and well staffed. Check this place out for “things to do”.

This is a review of the box office. The box office hours are very convenient. The staff are always friendly and suggest the best places to sit for handicap patrons. Staff member Julie was extremely helpful today. I am not tech savvy and I greatly appreciate the old fashion way of buying tickets.

We went to see Sister Cities: Pops, An Irish Tribute last weekend. We ordered tickets digitally and when we went to enter it was confusing because they didn’t scan them or have any idea with how to guide us to our seats with the digital tickets. We had to go to the side to pull up an email with the details. When reserving our seats, it wasn’t obvious that our end of row seats were actually against the wall. No food is permitted inside the seating area, and drinks must be in covered containers. Although none of these concerns were dealbreakers, all good things to know ahead of time. Staff were friendly, restrooms were clean. We look forward to our next visit… with aisle seats.

This venue is the worst. I have attended multiple dance competitions here over the years. While the facility is beautiful, the staff is incredibly rude. I understand they are trying to manage a lot of people, however, the way these women interact with the public is completely unacceptable! Last night I was attending another dance competition for my daughter. This particular dance competition allows the audience to take pictures. It is CLEARLY announced at the beginning that you may take as many photos as you want. The only rules are no video recording and no flash. Again this is announced by the MC of the competition staff. Well, my daughter's dance team was on the stage performing, and one of the Sandler Center's staff runs over and starts screaming at us that we are not allowed to take pictures. Mind you this is while our girls are on stage. She lectures us about "rules" of the dance competition, all of which were completely incorrect. I missed the entire performance of my child, while this woman was fussing at us, even though we were doing absolutely nothing wrong. After the dance we get up to meet our girls (which is what you do at a dance comp) and I thanked the woman for causing the parents to miss our children's performance. She then proceeded to tell me I was "being difficult." My inner Karen came out and I immediately went to the director of the dance competition to verify I WAS able to take pictures (I was) and then to management of the Sandler Center! Please make sure your staff is aware of the "rules" of the dance competition you are hosting. Each one is different. Secondly please train your staff on how to appropriately interact with the public. I understand there are "difficult" people out there, but I am certainly not one of them. I was just a parent trying to watch my daughter do what she loves and the moment was ruined by an INCREDIBLY rude staff member!! All she would have needed to do was say something like "ma'am I don't think you are allowed to take photos, but let me go find out from the competition to make sure." An incredibly frustrating moment. I hope we never have to dance at a competition at the Sandler Center again!

This venue is amazing! Not a bad seat in the house. We drove 5.5 hours to see our favorite artist (JJ Grey). We will not hesitate to visit again.