It’s damn-near impossible to determine the best seats in a given theater without knowing how a production is staged.

It’s easier to guess with a conventional proscenium…but no Broadway house is as open to variable staging as Circle in the Square; a great seat for one show could be turd for the next.  

And that’s why I’m here. If you plan to see An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square, heed my advice.

Let’s take it to the seating chart!

The stage is a loooong, narrow rectangle, which means sitting along one of the two looooong sides grants the best views, ruling out the seats in the 100s and 400s sections.

As for whether the even-200s or the odd-200s are preferable, the set design includes a pole smack in the middle of the even-section’s sightlines.

Now that we’ve established the odd-200s as the prime seats, how about proximity? The first two-rows seem to lack incline, and they look too low to the ground; because the floor of the stage is sunken beneath a small wall lining the entire perimeter — about shin-high on the actors — you want to be at least third row. BUT, the third row is barely elevated, with the big step reserved for the fourth row.

And now, a warning and a tip. During intermission, audience members can not only walk on stage, they’re allowed to remain seated around the stage for the first scene of the second act.

If that sounds appetizing to you, hustle your ass up there as soon as the lights come up, because it appears to be first-come, first-served.

But you know whom it’s not appetizing for? The homies sitting in the first three rows, whose views have to be blocked by the addition of the audience’s bodies, yet another reason to sit a little farther back.

For the cost-conscious among us, standing room is offered behind the last row of the odd-200s section, which provides a superior view than the vast majority of the more expensive seats.