4 Best Performing Arts in Paradise Road and the East Side, Las Vegas

The 4,600-seat venue had a prestigious track record as The Joint before the old Hard Rock Hotel became the new Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The hotel's closure for a makeover allowed the concert hall to be refurbished with $7 million in upgrades, including redesigned bar and VIP areas. Unchanged is a stage large enough to handle concert tours designed for sports arenas. The property also has a smaller, club-size venue now known as 24 Oxford and occasionally hosts ticketed concerts in its outdoor events lawn and pool area.

This sports arena on the corner of the UNLV campus hosts such sporting events as the National Finals Rodeo and, of course, Runnin' Rebels basketball. Concerts became more rare after large venues opened on the Strip, but a few still land here. The adjacent Cox Pavillion is a smaller venue for women's basketball and the occasional touring children's show.

UNLV's Nevada Conservatory Theatre brings in outside professionals and holds community-wide auditions for four or more productions each academic year, one of them a musical. Most performances are held in the Judy Bayley Theatre on campus and lean toward more challenging titles (The Cherry Orchard, Violet) than the commercial tours visiting the Smith Center.

Once famous as the home base for Elvis Presley, this 1,600-capacity theater (at what was originally the Las Vegas Hilton) regained some of its former profile by luring Barry Manilow out of retirement. Manilow had the majority of the theater's bookings in 2023, with the remaining dates filled in by durable acts such as Kool & The Gang.