themax, There are two main variants on the North American continent. ThEE - eh -ter This is the way I pronounce it. or ThEE - ay -ter This is the way many Americans pronounce it. If you are looking to learn American English, I suggest that you get ahold of the Merriam Webster Dictionary. It is the definitive source for American English. You can hear both of the common American pronunciations for 'theater' here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theater

Trying to describe it here in writing... "The-AY-terr" is what you're looking for. Light 'th' sound, as in 'think'. Accent seems to fall on the A (in other countries we reverse the accent: "THEE-a-TR", very British), and make it the long 'ayyyy' like The Fonz. Pronounce the last syllable fully, with the 'r'. Again, in UK/Aust/etc the vowel sound in the final syllable becomes neutral and the 'r' is weak or nonexistent. Americans on the other hand will handle their words more phonetically.

http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ Just type the word("theatre" =theater ) and push the button "Say it" .It sounds the same.