87 Best Performing Arts in New York City, New York

Celebrate Brooklyn! is one of the city’s most popular free outdoor performing arts festivals, and the place to catch excellent live music in the great Brooklyn outdoors. The artists and ensembles reflect the borough’s diversity, ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to up-and-coming musicians. The lineup also includes kids' shows, movies with live music, ballet, and more. Performances are rain or shine and free (suggested donation of $5)—with the exception of ticketed benefit concerts, which directly support the festival. There are usually about 2,000 chairs, but many people think the best seats are on the lawn, so come early and bring a blanket. Local restaurants set up food and drink stands.

This contemporary glass-faced gallery near Washington Square hosts lively discussions (which might be accompanied by films or other visuals) on topics like modernist architecture in Africa or Communist-era architecture in Prague.

At the CSC's cozy 199-seat theater, you can see work by Shakespeare as well as excellent revivals—such as dramas by Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill and Sondheim musicals—often with a modern spin, reigning theatrical stars, and new scores.

Founded to foster the work of independent choreographers, Danspace Project sponsors performances that are as fresh—and idiosyncratic—as the historic church space they occupy. Series curated by guest artists are also a regular part of the calendar. Some events are free.

Designed by master architect Philip Johnson and considered one of the world's top theaters for dance, the David H. Koch Theater is the home of the formidable New York City Ballet ( www.nycballet.com), which has a roster of more than 90 dancers, a 62-piece orchestra, and an unmatched repertory of modern masterpieces, including landmark works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins. NYCB performs at the theater for 21 weeks each year, including fall, winter, and spring repertory seasons, with Thanksgiving through New Year’s devoted to the annual production of Balanchine's The Nutcracker. The theater also hosts other internationally famous dance troupes throughout the year, as well as White Light Festival performances.

To get oriented at Lincoln Center, start across the street, on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets, at the David Rubenstein Atrium. Here you'll find free Wi-Fi, tables, a café, a Tkts booth, and that rarest of NYC commodities: a public restroom. There are regular free musical and dance performances, as well as discussions and spoken-word programs throughout the week, and programs for families and kids on the weekends. Day-of-show discounted tickets for many Lincoln Center venues may be purchased in person here; there is a limit of four tickets per customer. 

Founded in the 1980s, this small nonprofit theater continues to host worthy, and frequently unconventional and hilarious, performances of theater, music, dance, and more, with a focus on new works. Its popular HOT! Festival of Queer Performance, held in July, is the longest-running LGBTQ+ festival in the world. Whatever you're seeing—of the some 1,000 shows held here each year—the Lounge, Dixon Place's cheerful bar, is a great place to meet up before the show and connect with artists after.

Every fall, thousands of locals and visitors flock to Little Italy for the multiday Feast of San Gennaro in mid-September. This festival is a mix of religion, food, colorful parades, and live entertainment. Don’t miss the cannoli-eating competition at the beginning of the festival.

Dedicated to elevating the art of cinema, Film at Lincoln Center presents series devoted to "the best in world cinema,” including silents, documentaries, retrospectives, and recent releases, at the 267-seat Walter Reade Theater and at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, which features two auditoriums, a café, and an amphitheater that hosts talks and panel discussions. Its two annual international film festivals—the iconic New York Film Festival and the New Directors/New Films, which celebrates up-and-coming cinematic artists—are both world-class.

This aptly named series of public concerts is inspired by a wide range of musical traditions and performed in St. John the Divine's massive, atmospheric, Gothic-style space. The program showcases composers and performers of choral and instrumental music, often to sold-out crowds.

Set in a perfectly restored landmark built in 1890 as part of the Croton Aqueduct system, Harlem Stage is a cozy, 200-seat venue for jazz music, theater, film, and dance. Their “Dive Deeper” humanities initiative offers interactive components for audiences, including pre- and postperformance discussions, film screenings, and both live and virtual activities.

Celebrating all manner of contemporary, genre-bending productions, the original home of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues and Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique also hosts art exhibitions and puppet shows, and has a lounge in which to hang out before or after the show.

The IFC Center shows a mix of repertory and first-run independent, art-house, and foreign movies as well as shorts (including cartoons). Despite the modern wire-mesh facade, there are still clues that this was once the much-beloved Waverly Theater.

The late Ellen Stewart founded La MaMa E.T.C. in 1961 in a small Manhattan basement. Since that time, the Experimental Theatre Club has grown continuously, all the while taking risks on unknown works that cross cultures and performance disciplines. (Blue Man Group, for instance, got its start here.) In an effort to keep theater accessible, ticket prices start at $15–$25 across the theater's several venues. In addition to theater performances, there's a continuing program of dance, puppetry, and poetry readings.

The New York Public Library's discussion series includes a rich program of lectures and reading events from the biggest names in books and culture in general. Most programs are held at the famous main library (and are sometimes available virtually, too), and many are free.

Founded by legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles, this snug theater showcases an array of independent documentary films, as well as panel discussions. There are also film education programs for local youth.

A destination for both old-school and cutting-edge musical performances, this concert hall around the corner from Lincoln Center is a lovely, acoustically advanced, 450-seater that presents chamber pieces. It's also known for jazz, world, new music, and especially its Ecstatic Music Festival (dates vary year-to-year), when an eclectic group of indie classical artists more than live up to their billing.

If you're in town, don't miss the Midsummer Night Swing festival, an outdoor music and dance party in Lincoln Center Plaza that occurs from late June to mid-July. Take lessons with pros, or just strut your natural moves on the dance floor.

Adventurous jazz, classical, early and modern music, and dance programming makes up the calendar at this Columbia University theater, founded in 1988. A well-designed 688-seater, this is a hall that rewards serious listeners.

This charming, intimate, 391-seat, off-Broadway venue—located on a narrow street between bustling 6th Avenue and MacDougal Street—has offered excellent performances over the years, including those by some A-list actors.

For one day every June, thousands of locals and visitors celebrate the Museum Mile Festival when museums along 5th Avenue from 82nd Street to 105th Street open their doors for free from 6 pm to 9 pm. There's also dancing and entertainment along the street.

This museum touts two theaters, including both a show palace and an intimate screening room, where classic Hollywood and foreign titles share the screen with experimental works, new films from the international festival circuit, live musical collaborations, and in-person appearances by moviemaker luminaries. Daily short films are screened in Tut's Fever Movie Palace, a fab Red Grooms and Lysiane Luong–designed installation.

In 1997, Disney refurbished the elaborate 1903 art nouveau New Amsterdam Theatre, where Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire, and the Ziegfeld Follies once drew crowds. The Lion King ruled here for the first nine years of its run, followed by Mary Poppins. These days the theater is home to long-running Aladdin.

At this dynamic theatrical complex you can attend new and familiar plays, musicals, and other live performances on five different off-Broadway stages. New World Stages has served as the home of Tony Award–winning, Guinness Record–setting, and Pulitzer Prize–earning shows, and hosts sharp productions with high-caliber talent. Arrive early for a cocktail in the lobby (which you can bring into the theaters) and to view its art gallery. The complex is fully accessible and modern, with generous legroom in each theater.

The New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show is one of the city’s top seasonal attractions, especially for families. It runs from the mid-November through mid-January, and you’ll find electric trains, more than 150 miniature replicas of city landmarks (made out of twigs and bark), and magical landscapes—all housed in a conservatory, so winter weather can’t dampen your spirits.

Even if you're not joining the more than 50,000 runners taking a 26.2-mile tour through New York’s five boroughs on the first Sunday in November, you’ll want to experience the electric atmosphere and the very best of New York with the 2 million spectators who come out to watch and cheer.

This space serves as the home stage for the innovative Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. It's also a laboratory for new choreographers and artists in residence, and it hosts events such as panel discussions.

In addition to maintaining what may be the world's largest collection of theater, film, dance, music, and recorded sound, the library presents concerts and mounts periodic exhibitions related to major artists and composers. At the library’s free, year-round Silent Clowns series ( www.silentclowns.com), held Saturday afternoon each month in its auditorium, rarely seen prints of the silent era’s comedy masters are paired with live piano music.

The venerable New York Studio School hosts two—always free, almost always on Tuesday and Wednesday—evening lecture series (fall and spring) on contemporary issues in art. Hear from both emerging and established artists and curators, as well as some of the biggest names in art history and criticism. The school building served as the original location of the Whitney Museum.