1683 Best Performing Arts Venues in USA

The Jorgensen Center presents a series of roughly 25–30 music, dance, and theater programs September–May.

The stunning KiMo Theatre, an extravagantly ornamented 650-seat Pueblo Deco movie palace, is one of the best places in town to see any type of show. Jazz, dance, blues, film—everything from traveling road shows to an inspired city-sponsored film series (Hitchcock pre-Hollywood, for example)—might turn up here. Former Albuquerque resident Vivian Vance of I Love Lucy fame once performed on the stage; today you're more likely to see Laurie Anderson, Wilco, or a film-festival screening.

This theater, located in a walkable Culver City neighborhood (close to cocktail bars and trendy restaurants), stages modern works and world premieres. The smallest venue of the group at 317 seats, the theater also hosts intimate workshops and readings.

Twentieth-century works and a number of premieres make up the programs for this always entertaining, Grammy Award–winning string ensemble, which spends much of the year traveling throughout the United States and abroad.

This huge ticket outlet handles top and trending tours of country, rock, and arena shows at major Boston venues such as TD Garden, Xfinity Center, Gillette Stadium, House of Blues, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, and Paradise Rock Club. Transactions are conducted online.

The performance of plays by black writers such as August Wilson and Langston Hughes is the raison d'être of this company, which performs at various venues throughout the city.

Going on its 11th year presenting world-class productions, Los Angeles Ballet (LAB), the city's one and only professional classical ballet company, performs at a number of venues across the city, showcasing both classical and modern ballet.

This Adams State College museum displays American Indian pottery and textiles, European porcelain, photography, and furniture collections in a handsome, wood-paneled 19th-century drawing room, as well as changing exhibits of regional arts and crafts.

Amateur and professional puppeteers and ventriloquists entertain here five days a week. The cost is just a few dollars for adults and children alike. If you feel cramped in the 200-seat theater, don't worry; the shows rarely run longer than a half hour.

Experimental works, including one-man and one-woman shows, works in progress, and new-vaudeville shows can be seen here.

The festival takes place in mid-September in Old Mill Park, with live music, a kids' stage, and artisans selling crafts, jewelry, and art.

Marin County's annual film festival, in early October, is a renowned community event. The films shown span the genres, from features and documentaries to video, animated, and experimental film.

The well-regarded 11-day festival, held annually in early October, shows everything from features and documentaries to experimental works and draws crowds of more than 60,000. Films are shown at various locations around town.

Moab's red rocks resonate with world-class music—classical, jazz, and traditional—during this annual festival held at indoor and outdoor venues including the city park, local auditoriums, private homes, and a natural stone grotto along the Colorado River. Musicians from all over the globe perform, and it's one of the West's top music showcases. The festival starts the Thursday before Labor Day and runs about two weeks.

Every May and June, locals tote overstuffed picnic baskets to the Mountain Theater to see the Mountain Play, an annual theater tradition that began in 1913. Past productions have included popular musicals like West Side Story, The Music Man, and My Fair Lady. A free shuttle runs from Manzanita Parking Lot at the junction of Highway 101 and Highway 1, just beyond the Mill Valley/Stinson Beach exit off Highway 101 and from Tamalpais High School.

For a change of scenery, you can watch current and classic films in neighborhood parks courtesy of the Chicago Park District's Movies in the Parks program; flicks run on various evenings June through September.

Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago showcases dynamic interpretations of contemporary and traditional African and African American dance. Artistic director Amaniyea Payne travels to Africa to learn traditional dances and adapts them for the stage. Performances take place at various venues across the city.

Recognized as one of the country's leading independent film showcases, MFA Film presents more than 500 screenings a year including foreign and classic films. They also host ten annual festivals including the Boston Jewish, French, Iranian, and Palestine film festivals. Theatergoers can grab snacks and drinks at the nearby Taste Café and Wine Bar, which is also a great spot for postfilm discussions.

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 collaboration with various local professional theaters, the NAS offers a staged reading series of science-themed plays, and on the third Thursday of the month, the DASER (D.C. Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Salons focus on the fusion of culture and science. Events are free to the public but be sure to go online and register in advance.

Returning to the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts and the Placido Domingo Stage, the October–April opera season generally showcases three operas, as well as a small handful of special events. Opera on Tap is an innovative series bringing performances to area pubs.

The acrobatically inclined group generally performs at the Circus Center around Christmastime, with fire-breathing jugglers and high-flying trapeze artists. There are a few smaller productions in San Francisco and the Bay Area throughout the year.

This weeklong festival in February or March is widely considered to be one of the country's top showcases for what's new in indie-pop and alt-rock and is held at Slim's, the Great American Music Hall, The Independent, and other cool clubs. Founded in 1993, the low-key festival has helped local fans discover such talented acts as Modest Mouse, Kristin Hersh, and Bettie Serveert. (Phone info about the event is best obtained by calling the individual venues.)

Highly popular with kids, this 10-person dance troupe holds an annual Yuletide version of The Velveteen Rabbit (mid-November to mid-December), at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, that ranks among the city's best holiday-season performances. The group's main repertory season generally runs intermittently between January and June.

Odyssey Theatre presents largely traditional dramas in an intimate space, typically with astute direction and powerful acting. They also produce contemporary, experimental plays (or thoughtful explorations of the classics) throughout the season.

The well-respected Friday-evening and Sunday-afternoon series includes chamber music, choral works, vocal soloists, new music, and jazz.

The four theaters and their screens are small, but this is often the last place you can see an independent or foreign film before it ends its run in the city. It's great for indie-film-loving procrastinators, but if you arrive late for the show, you may have to sit in the front row of the tiny screening room.

A music hall since 1852, The Orpheum Theatre today is a very faded yet beloved occasional forum for local and national performers (like Sara Bareilles, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt, and The Wiggles) who pack its 2,000 seats.

Affiliated with the University of California, this theater screens a comprehensive mix of classics, American, and foreign films.

On the campus of Windward Community College, the 300-seat Paliku Theatre features everything from dramatic productions to chamber music concerts to hula and dance performances. The sound system is exceptional.