Camino Real Playhouse

I have an OC Women’s theater group with over 550 members, and work with all the small playhouses in OC on a constant basis. They are genuinely thrilled to have our business and we have a huge attendance.
Never having worked with this theater, I called and got a voice message, I’m working and didn’t want to leave a message. A few minutes later, someone there hit *69 and called me back, a total invasion of my privacy. I said I never worked with your theater, and I have a theater group and I wanted to get a group rate for this Saturday night. I was quoted $ 17 a ticket. I told her we get much bigger discounts and pay less from much bigger theaters in OC, we normally buy our tickets on Goldstar, I hadn’t checked yet to see if you were posted there. She said NOTHING!!! I then said for all the theaters we regularly attend $ 17 is a little high and not really a group rate, I think we’ll have to pass.
I hang up the phone, just then get my Goldstar events list for the week, and there they are posted for $ 10! I guess this theater has no interest in trying to sell tickets, and after this experience, I will not be posting any of their plays with such trickery by the theater!

This place s out dated management needs to clean up there attitude and make it look like a business from. The year 2015 not 1539

Some of the people at the playhouse are awesome. Tom is very friendly and welcoming.
Some are not. I was with a friend in line and it was obvious we were together. She purchased her ticket with no problem. When I tried to buy mine next to her, Beverly said there were no seats around her and gave me a look like I was unwelcome. She said we should have told her we wanted to sit together and there was nothing she could do to get us seats together. She said there was a seat 3 rows back from my friend and she just simply could not switch seats for either of us. She would only speak to my friend by the way– it’s as if I wasn’t even in front of her. Finally she said my friend could exchange her seat with a seat in the back row with me.
When we got in the theater, and the play started, the house was only half full. There were plenty of seats together. My friend’s original seat was open as well as three seats next to it. We were honest patrons and stayed in the seats we were assigned, in the back row.

I have been delinquent in writing a review. I have been a patron for years and this is a great community theatre. Always a delight to come to a small theatre and among the local actors that are so talented. Fun and enjoyable theatre for everyone and very affordable. Stage II is the smaller space where you literally seat with the actors. The large stage for bigger productions. If you love theatre as I do then go and enjoy and support this fantastic community theatre

Came for the production of «Side Show» and arrived a few minutes late (I went to Cabrillo Playhouse in San Clemente on accident). My tickets and a program were waiting for me on the counter of the closed boxed office, so they made it very easy for us.
The building is huge, but the actual theater is relatively small, probably 8 rows or so. The seats are much more comfortable than many other community theaters, so that was a major bonus since the play we saw was 2.5 hours long.
The play itself was cute… it was a musical so there was a LOT of singing and some of it was obtrusively loud for such a small place, but the singing as well as the acting were both good. The costumes and set were also good, nothing mind blowingly impressive, but overall we enjoyed it.
I would definitely come to another play here!

Had a great time at the 24 Hour Challenge. Great writers, Talented Directors, and Amazing Actors. What a terrific show and all for a good cause. Congrats to all involved!

So I was trying to get a Goldstar ticket, but I missed out. So we paid our 18 bucks each and went to see Sherlock Holmes John Watson’s Body. I took my 14 year old son. I want to categorize into two reviews. The theatre, and it’s staff is a 5 STAR. The theatre was clean, the bathroom was clean and very nice for a small time theatre. The staff was excellent. THe lady was lovely at the door, the bartender was delightful, and the director was attentive and remembered me by my voice from a phone conversation. The actors came out and mingled before the show, and I must say the costumes were delightful for a very small time operation. I will go there again, I think.
NOW for the show itself. COnfusing. A lot of mumbly garbled dialogue by the main two characters, Dove and Holmes. The whole first act, I was like, «What IS going on here?» I personally did not like the vocal style of Homes and it was a stumbling block for me every time he spoke, but he did have very excellent facial expressions. He did a LOT of Uhhh and MMMmm and throat clearing. Too much in my opinion. Ther were way too many British references. The second act got better, but still confusing. The actors timing was such that I was always confused as to when to laugh. The different actors had verying levels of British accent, or none at all. Some over the top, some not. I particularly enjoyed Rose, played by a 15 year old actress, This girl has some serious potential. I enjoyed the three older ladies very much as well. Now for the weird part. I happened to be there the same night as the playwright. An audience member asked him if he was a very big Sherlock Homes fan, and while I didn’t hear his exact words, I heard his tone, and heard her answer. It was clear that he was arrogant, and a big fat putz. The audience member backpedaled and waas clearly feeling awkward, and at that moment, I thought, OK I am done. I should have walked out and demanded my money back. But I hadn’t fully processed what had happened. Playwright made a couple of other questionably arrogant comments. I won’t be seeing another of his plays ever. I will try the camino real again, just to compare, and I will go to a bigger production in the bigger theatre.

This small community theater is well-​located in the heart of historic San Juan Capistrano and run by an enthusiastic group of volunteers.
I love live theater, especially small community theater, so I wanted to give this venue a higher rating. But after 20-​something years, it remains a diamond in the rough, and based on the four amateurish productions I’ve seen (at $ 20+ a ticket and $ 6-​$ 8 a concession drink), it’s hard to muster an extra star.
To elevate the overall theatrical quality, the owners should consider consolidating their resources by being more selective in their choice of material, talent, and number of events. There’s so much potential here and sad to see it wasted.
Fleeing devastating winters, a lot of New Yorkers and Chicagoans have moved into the area, so the demographics have changed and I think the public would be delighted to support more sophisticated local productions.

Saw the ho ho ha ha show tonite. It was uncomfortably horrendous. It was just awful. Not funny, and rather sad. The room is too small to walk out and not be noticed. Just give your toy for charity and read a joke book. It would be more entertaining.

Attended «Hate Mail» on Stage 2 and it was fantastic! Extremely accommodating and the talent was a delight. The space is tight and I didn’t have any issues with the closeness of the actors. I felt more connected to the action. If this is your thing I highly recommend catching a show.

My husband and myself attended «Shakespeare Incorporated» and had a wonderful time. We sat at a «Cabaret table» which was directly in front of the stage. I noticed another reviewer noted this as a bad thing. I thought being able to reach out and almost touch the actors was a bonus and made us feel like we were a part of the show.
Yes, the concessions were not amazing, but this is a small community theatre and for $ 15 a ticket I did not expect any more from such a small venue.
The owner of the theatre chatted with all of the attendees (unfortunately the attendance was lacking). He was very personable and concerned that we were enjoying ourselves. We were also lucky enough to meet the playwright, which was a treat.
Overall, for a small venue, we enjoyed ourselves and hope to attend future performances like their «Murder at the Mission» dinner theatre at Sarducci’s down the street.

Man I really want to give this place a higher review, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
I love going to live theater once in a while as something different to the typical dinner and a movie thing. So since this place is so close to me, and I want to support the little local guys, I wanted this place to be a home run.
The people running it are super nice, and the show prices were decent, but that was about all I liked.
There are almost no concessions to speak of. I realize you do not come to the theater to eat, but every theater I’ve been to has offered a nice selection of snacks and beverages while you are waiting for the show to start. But all they had here were things like bags of chips, plastic wrapped muffins and cookies, etc. I know this is a really small theater, but this is a pretty weak selection even compared to small theaters in Laguna, La Jolla, or Anaheim. The bar drinks were also extremely expensive. My small gin and tonic was $ 8 not including tip.
The theater is also un-​nervingly small. There were only 5 rows of seats, and no buffer zone between the front row and the stage. The front row could literally reach out and touch the actors during some parts of the scenes.
I shouldn’t really include the show in this review of the establishment, because some shows will obviously be better than others, but I was not impressed with the show or the acting quality compared to other neighborhood theaters I’ve been to.
That being said, I do like to support theaters in my neighborhood, so I will probably give them another try, and hopefully a better show will improve my opinion.

Wonderful little community theater and a gift to San Juan with unique and affordable entertainment for the whole family. If you’ve never been, treat yourself. The only negative, is they’re a little stingy with the Air Conditioning.

I just attended the 2009 Play «A Christmas Story» (Ralphie, you’ll shoot your eye out) here. The play was was OK for a community play, however for $ 20 per ticket I was expecting a lot more. There were quite a few gaffes and most of the actors were forcing the lines. It seemed to be a hit for the senior citizens in the crowd. It was a bust for the children and teens, as many of the references (e.g. «little orphan annie») can’t be related to by anyone under 40 years of age and the narrators dialog was over the heads of high schoolers. Don’t take children to ths play! The ones present including my own were bored and ready to go before intermission.
If you want to «contribute» to the Camino Real and experience local acting talent then please attend, they will appreciate the patronage. However, keep your expectations low.