12 Best Performing Arts Venues in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

For Broadway-style dramas, comedies, and musicals, attend a production at the Cape Playhouse, the country's oldest professional summer theater. In 1927 Raymond Moore, who had been working with a theatrical troupe in Provincetown, bought an 1838 Unitarian meetinghouse and converted it into a theater. The opening performance was The Guardsman, starring Basil Rathbone. Other stars who performed here in the early days—some in their professional stage debuts—include Bette Davis (who first worked here as an usher), Gregory Peck, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Tallulah Bankhead, and Henry Fonda, who appeared with his then-unknown 20-year-old daughter, Jane. Main stage productions run from June to September and they offer children's programming in July and August. The playhouse is situated on the property of the Cape Cod Center for the Arts in Dennis Village. The campus also includes the Cape Cod Museum of Art, the Cape Cinema, and Encore restaurant.

A classic Cape experience, the Wellfleet Drive-In Theater is located near the Eastham town line. Regulars spend the night in style: chairs, blankets, and picnic baskets. Films start at dusk nightly from mid-May–mid-September, and there's also a standard indoor cinema with four screens and a miniature-golf course. It's also the home of the beloved Wellfleet Flea Market, held weekends late spring–December plus Wednesday and Thursday in season.

Every season showcases live music, comedy, and cabaret shows with powerhouse performers, including Thorgy Thor from RuPaul's Drag Race, Lagoon Bloo singing Britney Live, and more. 

Sunday evenings by the bay (late June through Labor Day, weather permitting) are filled with the sounds of the town-band concerts, held in the gazebo on the grounds of Drummer Boy Park. Bring your beach chairs, blankets, and a picnic for a lovely outing. The park is about ½ mile west of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, on the western side of Brewster.

In 1950, actress Gertrude Lawrence and her husband, producer-manager Richard Aldrich, opened the Cape Cod Melody Tent to showcase Broadway musicals and concerts. Today, it's the region's top venue for pop concerts and comedy shows. Performers who have played here in the round include the Bonnie Raitt, Elle King, Gavin DeGraw, and the Beach Boys. Comedians including Nikki Glaser and Seth Myers are also recent headliners.

Several impressive productions, from original works to classics like "Our Town", are staged every year in this indoor Arts and Crafts–style theater set way back in the woods. Outdoor shows for kids are offered on some weekday mornings during the summer, as well as puppet shows.

Chatham's summer town-band concerts—a tradition that began in the 1940s—begin at 8 pm on Friday from late June--August and draw thousands of onlookers. As many as 500 fox-trot on the roped-off dance floor, and there are special dances for children and sing-alongs for all.

This lively center plays host to a full schedule of art openings and exhibits, workshops, readings, various performances, and great live music.

From mid-June through late September, the Payomet Performing Arts Center of Truro presents a wide range of concerts, plays, films, music, and classes inside a big tent at Cape Cod National Seashore. Past performers have included Tom Rush, the Cowboy Junkies, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There's also a kids' circus camp, and Cirque by the Sea professional circus shows for families.

Downstairs, it's a lively place for a meal (open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner), with tables facing Commercial Street that offer great people-watching. Upstairs, you can expect even jauntier—and often playfully raunchy—entertainment in the nightly cabaret offerings and popular drag shows on weekends.

This year-round 110-seat venue provides excellent theater, showcasing many new works including original productions and plays from diverse American voices. In addition, they host dance performances, readings by playwrights, and workshops with special guests (Lisa Lampanelli and Harvey Fierstein among them.)

The well-regarded Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater continues its tradition, since 1985, of producing provocative, often edgy, world premieres of American plays, satires, farces, and black comedies in its June–early-October season. From October to April, opera lovers can watch performances from the Met, live in HD.