34 Best Performing Arts in Moscow, Russia

This world-renowned theater continues to produce innovative shows, despite a string of recent scandals—including the resignation of its two ballet stars and an acid attack on its artistic director. The Russian flair for set and costume design alone can often be enough to keep an audience enthralled. Performances on the main stage sell out quickly, so order tickets far in advance. Tickets for the second stage next to the main theater are easier to come by.

Buoyed with funding from oligarchs like Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, the center has become one of Moscow's hottest venues for international and Russian contemporary art. There's a good café here, too.

Opened in 1923 as a theater for railroad workers, this revamped, stunningly creative space is the hub of Moscow's contemporary theater scene. The schedule includes plays directed by top Russian directors as well as dance, film, and music.

Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Tchaikovsky are among the famous composers who have worked here. The acoustics of the magnificent Great Hall are superb, and portraits of the world's great composers hang above the high balcony. The adjacent Small Hall is usually reserved for chamber-music concerts.

An artsy crowd frequents this simple movie theater with top-quality projection and sound. The films are always shown in their original language, usually with Russian subtitles.

Housed in the brightly painted brick buildings of a Soviet silk spinning mill, this vast design center has everything from photography and modern art exhibitions to architecture bureaus, design showrooms, and a roof-top ice rink in winter.

Many different galleries are housed within this vast exhibition center and if you wander long enough you're likely to find something to fit your taste, from traditional landscapes to the latest avant-garde outrage. In front, a huge art market snakes its way along the river. Among the piles of kitsch and banal landscapes you can find some real gems. Be prepared to bargain.

A mixture of classic Russian art and crowd-pulling exhibitions by celebrity artists can be found at this established space.

A hotel movie house caters to the expatriate community with recent original-language Hollywood releases.

This was one of the first private galleries in post-Soviet Russia. Today it displays contemporary art from the best of the previous generation's nonconformists to current names.

One of Moscow's first galleries, this is also one of its most controversial, due to the attention-loving nature of owner Marat Guelman. There's a definite shock value to many of the modern and avant-garde exhibits. It's a good bet for performance art.

In addition to delivering consistently appealing and critically acclaimed opera performances, the Helikon troupe is equally talented in space management: even the grandest of classics are fitted with ease onto the small stage.

This 18th-century building hosts regular concerts and music festivals from top international orchestras.

After opening in 1991, the Novaya ("New") opera house quickly established itself as one of the best and most innovative in Moscow. The surrounding Hermitage Garden is perfect for a pre- or post-theater stroll and bite to eat. The choir is ranked as the best in the city.

Good, often flashy productions are on the bill at this large theater. Tickets can be bought online but are frequently very hard to get.

Moscow's first dramatic theater, opened in 1824, is famous for its staging of Russian classics, especially those of the 19th-century satirist Alexander Ostrovsky—his statue stands outside the building.

Founded in 1898, the MKhAT is famous for its well-funded productions of the Russian classics, but it also stages plenty of modern and foreign performances. The theatre's American Studio Six presents performances, typically Russian classics, in English a few times a year.

Opened in 2002, this architecturally striking center stages major classical concerts in its Svetlanov Hall, which contains Russia's largest organ. Concerts are also held in two other sizable halls and on the venue's summer terrace.

The theater stages lighthearted, and much humbler, versions of Western musicals, as well as the latest Russian musicals.

Despite its name, this acclaimed theater mainly stages adult productions. It is famed for well-directed dramatizations of Chekhov short stories, staged by director Kama Ginkas.

Classical concerts are held four to five times a week in a small concert hall in the apartment building where the composer Alexander Scriabin lived.

An intimate space shows a wide selection of contemporary and experimental theater by some of Russia's best modern directors.

The Armed Forces Song and Dance Ensemble calls this venue home. If nothing else, this theater is worth a visit for the architecture—a giant star-shaped construction with columns and marble floors.

This well-respected theater housed in a columned white stone building on leafy bulvar Chistoprudny stages a mix of Russian classics and foreign adaptations.

A wide range of well-produced operas and ballets are performed at the Stanislavsky, with tickets generally easier to come by than those for the Bolshoi or Novaya Opera.

Formerly the hall where Soviet Communist Party congresses were held, this modern concert venue now hosts regular performances by opera and ballet troupes, including those from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky. Of late it has also become the stage for international performers such as Elton John, Mariah Carey, and Cirque du Soleil. Entrance is through the whitewashed Kutafya Gate.

What was once considered to be one of Moscow's best theaters is worth visiting for the troupe's most famed dramatization, of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita.

With seating for more than 1,500, this huge hall is home to the State Symphony Orchestra, but also hosts concerts by other renowned Russian and international musicians.

This noncommercial project run mainly by volunteers specializes in documentary theater. Plays in this tiny basement theater are very experimental and provide a good insight into modern Russian life. The theater has no telephone number, so it's best to book tickets via the website.

Attracting children and adults, the shows here, based on the commedia dell'arte, are filled with music, dance, and acrobatics.