1683 Best Performing Arts Venues in USA

The spectacular art-deco Paramount screens a few vintage flicks (The Sting, Casablanca) every month and presents live events.

This ensemble has been lauded as the nation's preeminent group for performances of early music. Its season of concerts, fall through spring, celebrates composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, including Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach.

With a seating capacity of nearly 20,000, Philips Arena is the major venue Downtown. In addition to hosting the biggest musical acts, it's also the home of NBA Atlanta Hawks and WNBA Atlanta Dream. The Philips Arena MARTA station makes getting here a snap.

A lively, modestly priced alternative to grand opera, this company's concert performances of popular and seldom-heard works are mostly in English. Offenbach's operettas are frequently on the bill during the season, which runs from February through July. Concerts are held at various locations, including the Legion of Honor.

One of the few self-governing ensembles playing today, Pro Arte performs under the batons of Kevin Rhodes, Gisèle Ben-Dor, and additional colleagues. It presents adventurous programs of classical and modern works at Sanders Theatre, All Saints Brookline, or First Church in Cambridge.

This unique event brings together the diverse Moab community on the last Saturday of October. This festival may not be like any other you've attended; here, people from all over the Southwest build contraptions—catapults, trebuchets, and slingshots—that send pumpkins across the sky. Live music, about 25 vendor booths, and typically beautiful weather make this a popular event. Proceeds go toward the Youth Garden Project.

High-demand tickets for sporting events, concerts, and theater are usually found on this site; sometimes at a discount, but generally not.

Developed by Georgia State University in a beautifully renovated and restructured former movie theater, the Rialto hosts film, theater, and dance, as well as musical performances by local and international performers.

Plays, musicals, and concerts all happen at this midsize theater, mostly focusing on Latin culture. When the weather warms up, they host the Rooftop Cinema Club, where you can watch a flick on the roof (they give out blankets on cold nights), indulge at the snack bar, and take in views of Hollywood.

Each season on its 400-seat Main Stage in Bethesda, Round House presents an eclectic body of work ranging from world premieres to great 20th-century plays to contemporary adaptations of the classics. Round House's 150-seat black-box stage, home to more-experimental works, is in Silver Spring, adjacent to the American Film Institute Silver Theater.

This is San Francisco's oldest continually operating theater, which turned 100 back in 2009. Film noir and indie features and documentaries, as well as first-run movies and classic foreign cinema, are the specialties. It's also home to the city's Noise Pop Festival. Monday nights are discounted.

This historic art deco theater in Beverly Hills plays host to rock and soul artists and legends, as well as comedy shows.

You can spread out on deck and enjoy the gentle trade winds on this 47-foot catamaran. Cruises are limited to groups of 24, and children two and younger are free. An easygoing attentive crew will serve you hot and cold pupu, along with beer, wine, mai tais, and champagne at sunset.

Usually held in late September, this festival screens local, national, and international entries at the Gaslamp Theater (701 5th Ave., Gaslamp Quarter), as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art-La Jolla (700 Prospect St., La Jolla). The city's glitterati—as well as a few Hollywood celebs—love to rub shoulders at the fest's films, panels, and finale fête.

Asian and Asian-American cinema is the focus of this March festival, presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). The lineup includes feature and short films and videos—everything from animation to documentaries.

The Bay Area has always been at the forefront of hip-hop, so it's no surprise that the world's first hip-hop festival, founded in 1999, is held here. Professional dancers from all over North America perform and give master classes at local studios for three days in November.

This popular event presents a slate of movies that are defiantly out of the mainstream. IndieFest caters to a younger demographic and specializes in oddball fare rarely programmed at other festivals; DocFest performs the same service for documentaries that you won't find at the local multiplex.

For two weeks at the end of spring, the San Francisco Film Society—which also sponsors year-round screenings and film series—takes over several theaters, including the Castro Theatre, the Sundance Kabuki Cinema, and Pacific Film Archive, to launch this festival. The event schedules about 300 films, documentaries, and videos from 50 countries; many are U.S. premieres.

The world's oldest and largest festival honoring gay and lesbian films takes place at various venues for two weeks in late June.

Documentaries, feature films, and Bollywood movies are shown at this weeklong festival in November.

Every year starting in October, concert halls, clubs, and churches throughout the city host this acclaimed two-week festival. The popular event, which got its start in 1983, has featured such big-name acts as Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner, as well as newer jazz stars like Brad Mehldau and Chris Botti.

In late July and early August, the Castro Theatre and other Bay Area venues screen films as part of this event. Parties on the opening and closing nights of the festival celebrate the films and filmmakers.

The politically leftist, barbed satires of this Tony Award–winning troupe are hardly mime in the Marcel Marceau sense. The group performs afternoon musicals at area parks from the July 4 weekend through September, and taking one in is a perfect way to spend a sunny summer day.

SFP brings an eclectic array of top-flight global music and dance talents to various venues—mostly the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Davies Symphony Hall, and Herbst Theatre. Artists have included Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Midori. Tickets can be purchased in person through City Box Office, online, or by phone.

Free weekend performances of the Bard's works take place in September in the Presidio.

First-rate orchestra and chamber concerts are given at St. Francis Auditorium and the Lensic Performing Arts Center by the Grammy-nominated Santa Fe Pro Musica from September through April. Baroque and other classical compositions are the normal fare; the annual Christmas performance, held at Loretto Chapel, is a highlight.

This highly respected symphony performs about 10 concerts each season (September to May) in the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

This annual juried fine-arts show, held over Labor Day weekend, features more than 270 artists and attracts more than 30,000 people to the Sausalito waterfront. Blue & Gold Fleet ferries from San Francisco dock at the pier adjacent to the festival.

In addition to offering classes and workshops in all media, this center hosts the Plein Air Festival for a week in October and has a retail gallery selling works of local and regional artists. There's no sales tax, since it's a nonprofit.