How our ratings work
Every rating on this site comes from a Theatreview member who saw the show. Here is exactly how those ratings become the number on a show page — and what we do not do.
A Theatreview show rating is the plain, unweighted average of public ratings left by members of the Theatreview app, counted once per member per production and shown out of 5. We do not aggregate critics or publications, we do not weight any member's rating above another's, and we do not show an average until a show has at least 3 ratings behind it. Members have left 688 public reviews in the app so far, and 12 shows have a page on this site.
Where our ratings come from
Every rating is submitted by a signed-in member of the Theatreview iOS app, logging a performance they attended. Only reviews a member has marked public are counted or displayed — private reviews never leave their account and never touch a score.
There is no second source. We do not pull in star ratings, letter grades, or scores from critics, newspapers, or other review sites, and nothing on this site is a blend of professional and audience opinion. It is one pool: 688 public member reviews, carrying 2,897 recorded cast credits between them.
How the average is calculated
Members rate in half-star steps, from 0.5 to 5.0. Turning those into a show's rating takes three steps, in this order:
- Keep one rating per member, per production. If someone reviews the same production more than once, only their most recent review counts. Two productions of the same show — a Broadway run and a national tour, say — are treated as separate experiences, and a member who saw both is counted for each.
- Average them, unweighted. Every surviving rating carries exactly the same weight. There is no adjustment for how long a member has been on Theatreview, how many reviews they have written, how long their note is, or how recent it is.
- Round for display only. The average is rounded to one decimal place when we print it. The underlying figure is never rounded, so the stars beside it are drawn at the true value.
That is the whole calculation. The site and the app apply the same rule, so a show's rating should read the same in both places.
When we show a rating at all
A show needs at least 3 counted ratings before we publish an average. Below that there is no average, no star breakdown, and no rating in the page's structured data — the individual reviews simply speak for themselves.
The threshold is a single setting that controls what a reader sees and what search engines are told, so the two can never disagree. It exists because "5.0 from one rating" is not information. Most shows in our catalog are below it today, and that is the honest state of a young catalog rather than something to paper over.
What the numbers underneath mean
A show page can show three different counts, and they are deliberately not the same number. A show with more reviews than ratings is normal: leaving a star rating is optional.
- The average
- Is calculated from one rating per member, per production — their most recent, if they reviewed the same production more than once.
- "Based on ratings from N members"
- Counts the distinct people behind those ratings, not the ratings themselves.
- The review count beside it
- Counts every public review on the page, including ones that left a note but no star rating — which is why it can be the larger number.
The star breakdown rounds to whole stars, so a 3.5-star rating appears in the 4-star bar. The bars show the shape of the opinion; the average above them is the precise figure.
The Recommends / Maybe / Doesn't recommend split is a separate question members answer, not something derived from their stars. It is counted only across the members who answered it, which is why its percentages can rest on a smaller base than the rating does.
What we don't do
- We don't aggregate critics, publications, or ratings from other websites.
- We don't weight ratings by member, seniority, prestige, review length, or anything else.
- We don't decay old ratings or boost recent ones.
- We don't sell placement, ranking, or ratings, and none of it is for sale.
- We don't remove a review for being unfavorable.
- We don't generate ratings or reviews. Every one is a person who bought a ticket.
How a show gets a page here
The app's catalog is much larger than this site. A show gets a page here only once we have written and reviewed its editorial details — the description, the facts, the FAQs — and marked it published. That is 12 shows today, and it grows as we work through the catalog.
So a missing show is a page we haven't written yet, not a judgment about the show. If there is one you want to see, tell us.
How show pages are written
Show descriptions, FAQs, and content advisories are drafted with AI assistance and checked by a person against primary sources — the production's own materials, programs, and press — before the page is published. Nothing goes live unreviewed.
Ratings and reviews are never AI-generated. Every one comes from a signed-in member of the app.
How we make money
Theatreview earns from the App Store and from optional rewarded ads in the app, which members can watch in exchange for an extra playbill scan. We do not currently earn commission on ticket sales, and if that ever changes we will label it on the page where it appears.
No advertiser, producer, or venue can buy, influence, or suppress a rating. There is no mechanism for it — ratings come from member accounts and nothing else writes to them.
Corrections
If something here is wrong — a wrong date, a miscredited writer, a show page describing the wrong production — email support@theatreview.app with a link to the page and, if you have one, a source. We would rather fix it than defend it.
When a correction changes a show's title, the page moves to a new address and the old one redirects to it. We don't quietly repoint an existing link to different content.
Frequently asked questions
How does Theatreview calculate a show's rating?
We take every public rating members have left for that show, keep only the most recent one from each member per production, and average them without weighting. The result is shown to one decimal place out of 5. A show needs at least 3 counted ratings before we show an average at all.
Are these critic reviews or audience reviews?
Audience reviews. Every rating comes from someone who used the Theatreview app to log a performance they attended. We do not aggregate reviews from critics, newspapers, or other websites, and no publication is represented here.
Why doesn't this show have a rating?
It has fewer than 3 counted ratings. Below that we show the individual reviews but no average, because an average built from one or two ratings tells you more about who happened to open the app than about the show.
Can someone rate the same show twice?
They can rate two different productions of it, and both count — seeing a 2016 Broadway run and a 2024 tour are genuinely different experiences. But if the same member reviews the same production more than once, only their most recent review counts toward the average.
Do newer reviews count more than older ones?
No. There is no recency weighting. A rating left in 2015 counts exactly as much as one left last night. The only place recency matters is deciding which review to keep when one member has reviewed the same production twice.
Can a producer or an advertiser change a rating?
No. Ratings cannot be bought, boosted, or removed. We run ads in the app and earn nothing from ticket sales, and neither has any path to a show’s score. We remove a review only if it breaks our terms — never for being unfavorable.
How often do ratings update?
The site is rebuilt every night, so a review left today appears here at the latest tomorrow morning. Ratings in the app itself update immediately.