The Best Performing Arts Venue in Los Angeles, California

Background Illustration for Performing Arts

The art scene in Los Angeles extends beyond the screen and onto the stage. A place of artistic innovation and history, one can discover new and challenging theatrical works across L.A. stages, while the city still maintains a respect for tradition with its restored theaters and classic plays. See live music at impeccably designed amphitheaters like the Hollywood Bowl; listen in on captivating lectures by authors and directors at various intimate spaces. An homage to its roots as a filmmaking mecca, you can also stumble across retrospectives and rare screenings in movie theaters all over the city, often followed by Q&As with the cast.

L.A.'s art scene is varied, and caters to all budgets and tastes. East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theatre focuses on Asian-American-themed plays, and if an opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seems out of your price range, Actors’ Gang in Culver City offers a free Shakespeare play in Media Park in the summer. The Independent Theatre Company hosts a free Shakespeare festival in Griffith Park, also during summer.

Temperate weather allows for an extended season of outdoor events. Enjoy a classic summer picnic listening to the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, or watching a play outdoors at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater.

Cinefamily at the Silent Film Theatre is one of the few places that still shows silent films, but they also have a full calendar of foreign films, retrospectives, rare indie flicks, and campy classics you can't see anywhere else. American Cinematheque, showing classic and independent films, operates out of the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, as well as the historic Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts

Opened in 2011 on the CSUN campus, the $125 million Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, colloquially referred to as The Soraya, stages concerts (mostly big names in classical and jazz), live theater, speakers like David Sedaris, screenings with live accompaniment, and dance recitals throughout the year in its 1,690-seat performance hall and 175-seat black box theater. This LEED-certified three-tiered vision of gleaming glass, bright stone, and undulating warm wood puts on a world-class jazz festival every February. Particularly fun are the more intimate shows that turn the main stage into a makeshift supper club with a complimentary pre-show wine tasting, servers, and a four-course meal created by a popular nearby cafe called Humble Bee. It has a side hustle as a filming location: recently, it's been seen in Westworld, The Good Place, and Paradise.