Sottile Theatre

Loved the performaces here. They updated and are still restoring the place. It gets a bit chilly, FYI

A historic theatre without all the fuss. The Sottile is the perfect place to see a show. In the heart of downtown, the theatre is small, but sits plenty and gives everyone a great view of the stage.
My husband and I see several shows a year at the Sottile. It’s not the nicest theatre in the city, but it’s the most intimate. It makes you feel like this is the place the locals go to see shows (as opposed to the Dock Street or Gaillard).
They’re still doing some remodeling with the fresco on the right wall, but the new renovations to the seating areas, façade and ceiling are beautiful.
If you can, try to sit in the balcony. It’s the best spot (next to concessions and the best views of the stage).

Sottile is an old theatre that’s been updated in a major way. It still has that old feel through the style and architecture though which truly makes this theatre unique. At around 800 seats, this is medium to large sized theatre for the peninsula. There’s no bad seat in the house and you can tell that the aesthetic attention to detail was an important factor in the overhaul.
Like many older theatres in the area, there are no cup holders on the seats. I know this seems like a marginal detail, but when beer bottles are being sold to everyone coming through the door, 800 bottles can be pretty noisy. I went to two comedy shows here for the Charleston Comedy Festival and both of the headliners stopped the show to comment on how ridiculous the bottle clanking/​rolling on the floor noises were. Being that these were both comedy shows, the comics made a joke out of it, but I could see this being extremely disruptive to any other type of performance. Seems like it should have been addressed in the re-​model.
Aside from the disruptions, I thoroughly enjoyed the theatre and the layout. I absolutely look forward to attending more performances here in the future. Maybe it’s time to switch to canned beer though.

Attended 2 one act operas here as part of the Spoleto Festival. Beautiful historic theater with a shimmering blue sky-​like dome with twinkling stars. There is a lovely public garden about a half block away. 785 seats makes this an intimate space for opera.

The Sottile Theater was one of the primary hosting spots for the Charleston International Film Festival so I had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time there in the last week. The theater has amazing sound and a very old style traditional theater look and feel. The walls are in process of being painted and the lobby is clean and spacious with a bar just outside. The bathrooms are in the basement with a place to sit and relax down there as well.
This is an excellent theater with a box office in the front and side as there are also two entrances.