1679 Best Performing Arts Venues in USA

You can buy advance tickets, many at half price, to theater, music, and dance events at Arts Tix.

The esteemed company presents several ballet performances throughout the year at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

With two stages and year-round performances, Atwater Village has aligned with three L.A. theater companies: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Circle X Theatre Co., and Echo Theater Company, and presents fresh works from new local playwrights.

The Avalon Theatre is one of the largest performing arts complexes in western Colorado, offering traveling lectures, dance, theater, and other cultural performances. The popular monthly "Dinner and a Movie" Tuesday nights bring classic and popular old blockbusters to the big screen, with receipts from a meal in town garnering free admission.

New and classical material is staged at various locations throughout the city by Bailiwick Chicago.

The orchestra performs a half-dozen classical-music concerts, plus the seasonal Nutcracker, at the convention center from October through May.

This historic theater, which just celebrated its 88th birthday, features a combination of classic movies, second-run hits, local documentaries, and art-house favorites.

Theater buffs routinely make the hour's drive from downtown New Orleans to this unique theater that sits on the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the small Cajun town of Lockport, Louisiana. Theater director Perry Martin is a hometown hero here, having spent years working on Broadway and in Los Angeles, directing and producing more than 80 theatrical productions, many of them award-winning. Returning home, he has brought an incredible artistic vision and world-class talent to this charming and unlikely location. Productions celebrate life in the South and in Cajun Louisiana.

This Tony Award–winning group is the American Conservatory Theater's major rival for leadership among the region's resident professional companies. It performs an adventurous mix of classics and new plays from fall to spring in its theater complex, near BART's Downtown Berkeley Station. Parking is difficult, so arrive early if you're coming by car.

The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra rose to prominence under Kent Nagano's baton and continues to prosper with Joana Carneiro at the helm. The emphasis is on 20th-century composers. The orchestra plays a few concerts each year, in the University of California–Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and elsewhere in Berkeley. The acoustics in Zellerbach Hall are poor; sit in the front or middle orchestra for the best sound.

Fresh interpretations of classical works are a focus of this prominent orchestra, but commissioned new music and traditional pieces are also performed. BSO plays a handful of concerts each year, in Zellerbach Hall and other locations.

Ski or snowboard your way for cash prizes during the Big Mountain Pond Skim, where contestants either glide or splash their way across a man-made pond on the last day of ski season in early April. There are also prizes for the best costume and best wipeout.

Specializing in restored archival film, the Billy Wilder Theater, home of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, presents a number of acclaimed screenings, including both silent and foreign films. The Hammer Museum produces its own events for the theater, including readings, lectures, and conversations with artists. Authors Jonathan Lethem and Roxane Gay, and director David Lynch have all made appearances. Hammer Museum programs are free; screenings by the UCLA Film & Television Archive have charged admission with a ticket.

Bop along with the Boston Pops and other free orchestral concerts and films at the Hatch Memorial Shell June through August.

The meticulously renovated 2,700-seat, Beaux Arts building has been lavished with $35 million worth of gold leaf, lush carpeting, and rococo ornamentation. It features lavish musical productions such as Newsies, Kinky Boots, and Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker.

Held at various venues on the University of California–Berkeley campus from September through May, this popular series offers the Bay Area's most varied bill of internationally acclaimed artists in all disciplines.

The center presents mainstream theatrical productions such as Grease and The Odd Couple, as well as concerts, art shows, and dance performances.

More than a century old, this rodeo is the largest in California and one of the best professional rodeos in the country. Hundreds of top-ranked wranglers compete for prizes in events that include bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, and bull riding.

This group has presented early-music performances since 1980 and deserves much credit for early music's prominence in Boston's musical scene.

Cowboys come to the Old Spanish Trail Arena (just south of Moab) for three days in late May or early June to try their luck on thrashing bulls and broncs at this annual Western tradition.

An array of arresting events happens here, from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, to storytelling series The Moth, to performances by activist artists Silencio Blanco, and more. The Los Angeles Ballet is one of the frequent guests here.

From October through May, Chamber Music Sedona hosts a classical concert series. They also host the "Met Live in HD" opera performances and a JazzFest in April.

A Bay Area treasure, this all-male a-cappella ensemble stages lively and technically flawless performances that show off a repertoire ranging from sacred medieval music to show tunes to contemporary avant-garde works.

The Cincinnati Ballet performs classical and contemporary works here from October to mid-May.

The Cincinnati Opera, the nation's second oldest, was started in 1920. The yearly summer festival occurs in June and July.

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra performs from September through May at Music Hall. In June and July, the Pops heads outdoors to perform at the Riverbend Music Center adjacent to Coney Island.

Under the direction of maestro Paavo Järvi, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performs from September through May.