Must-see entertainment in Boston

  • Club Passim

    Cambridge

    The legendary Club Passim is a holdout from the days when folk music was a staple in Cambridge (and around the country). The club continues to book top…

  • Red Room @ Cafe 939

    Back Bay

    Run by Berklee students, the Red Room @ Cafe 939 has emerged as one of Boston's least predictable and most enjoyable music venues. It has an excellent…

  • Wally’s Café

    South End & Chinatown

    When Wally's opened in 1947, Barbadian immigrant Joseph Walcott became the first African American to own a nightclub in New England. Old-school, gritty…

  • Baseball game, Boston Red Sox Nation, Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Boston Red Sox

    Kenmore Square & Fenway

    From April to September you can watch the Red Sox play at Fenway Park, the nation’s oldest and most storied ballpark. Unfortunately it is also the most…

  • Boston Symphony Orchestra performing on stage.

    Boston Symphony Orchestra

    Kenmore Square & Fenway

    Flawless acoustics match the ambitious programs of the world-renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra. From September to April, the BSO performs in the…

  • Coolidge Corner Theatre

    Streetcar Suburbs

    An art deco neighborhood palace, this old theater blazes with exterior neon. Inside, view select Hollywood hits, cult flicks, popular independent fare and…

  • Comedy Studio

    Cambridge

    This low-budget, cutting-edge comedy gem moved out of its Harvard Square noodle-house digs in 2018 and settled into happening Union Sq, Somerville…

  • Boston Ballet

    Boston

    Boston’s skillful ballet troupe performs modern and classic works at the Opera House. The program varies every year, but at Christmas they always put on a…

  • American Repertory Theater

    Cambridge

    There isn’t a bad seat in the house at the Loeb Drama Theater, where the prestigious ART stages new plays and experimental interpretations of classics…

  • Company One

    South End & Chinatown

    This radical theater company strives to be at the 'intersection of art and social change' by offering provocative performances and fostering socially…

  • Sanders Theatre at Memorial Hall

    Cambridge

    Set inside the magnificent Memorial Hall, this beautiful, 1166-seat, wood-paneled theater is known for its acoustics. It is frequently used for classical…

  • Lily Pad

    Cambridge

    Lily Pad is a tiny space that fills up with music and performance art, whether it’s tango dancing or narrated jazz storytelling. You might also hear indie…

  • Opera House

    Boston

    This lavish theater has been restored to its 1928 glory, complete with mural-painted ceiling, gilded molding and plush velvet curtains. The glitzy venue…

  • Hatch Memorial Shell

    Back Bay

    Free summer concerts take place at this outdoor bandstand on the banks of the Charles River. Most famously, there's Boston's biggest annual music event,…

  • Gillette Stadium

    Boston

    The six-time Super Bowl champs play football in the state-of-the-art Gillette Stadium, which is just 50 minutes south of Boston, but it’s hard to get a…

  • Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater

    Boston

    Against a gorgeous, blue-water backdrop, the glass theater at the ICA is one of its coolest features and a venue for dance, music and other performance…

  • Shakespeare on the Common

    Beacon Hill & Boston Common

    Each summer, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company stages a major production on the Boston Common, drawing crowds for (free) Shakespeare under the stars…

  • Paradise Rock Club

    Streetcar Suburbs

    Top bands rock at this landmark club – like U2, whose first gig in the USA was on this stage. Nowadays, you're more likely to hear the likes of Lucinda…

  • Boch Center

    South End & Chinatown

    Boston’s biggest music and dance venue, the Boch Center is comprised of two theaters that face off across Tremont St. The main stage is the enormous,…

  • Huntington Theatre Company

    Kenmore Square & Fenway

    Boston's leading theater company, the award-winning Huntington specializes in developing new plays, staging many shows before they're transferred to…

  • Somerville Theatre

    Cambridge

    This classic neighborhood movie house dates from 1914 and features plenty of well-preserved gilding and pastel murals of muses. On offer are first- and…

  • Boston Center for the Arts

    South End & Chinatown

    There’s rarely a dull moment at the BCA, which serves as a nexus for excellent small theater productions. Over 20 companies present more than 45 separate…

  • Lizard Lounge

    Cambridge

    The underground Lizard Lounge doubles as a rock and jazz venue. The big drawcard is the Sunday-night poetry slam. Also popular are the Monday open-mike…

  • Charles Playhouse

    South End & Chinatown

    Built in 1839, the Charles Playhouse was originally a speakeasy, later a jazz club and finally a theater. With its backstreet location and underground…

  • Harvard Film Archive

    Cambridge

    Five nights a week, the cinematheque presents retrospectives of distinguished actors, screenings of rare films, thematic groupings and special events…

  • Cambridge Forum

    Cambridge

    This excellent (free) series brings speakers on a weekly basis to talk in the meeting house at First Parish in Cambridge. Speakers have included such…

  • Toad

    Cambridge

    This tiny, laid-back place is beloved for its excellent lineup of music (seven nights a week) and its no-cover-charge policy. (Ever. At all.) Among the…

  • Simons IMAX Theatre

    Boston

    At the New England Aquarium, this IMAX cinema plays mostly educational 3D films on a six-story screen (the largest in New England). Many shows have an…

  • Club Oberon

    Cambridge

    The second stage of the American Repertory Theater, this black box is ideally suited for flashy song and dance performances and interactive, acrobatic…

  • Modern Theatre

    Boston

    The Modern Theatre dates to 1876 and showed Boston's first 'talkie' in 1928. Nearly a century later, the building opened its doors again as a venue for…

  • Wilbur Theatre

    South End & Chinatown

    The colonial-style Wilbur Theatre dates from 1914, and over the years has hosted many prominent theatrical productions. These days it is Boston’s premier…

  • Midway Café

    Streetcar Suburbs

    In addition to hosting a kick-ass `Queeraoke' party (Thursday), a Grateful Dead–themed 'hippie hour' (Friday), and a regular open mic (Sunday), this queer…

  • Improv Asylum

    Boston

    A basement theater is somehow the perfect setting for the dark humor spewing from the mouths of this offbeat crew. No topic is too touchy, no politics too…

  • Boston Pops

    Kenmore Square & Fenway

    Playing out of the delightful Symphony Hall, the Boston Pops arranges crowd-pleasers for the orchestra to tackle, including Christmas carols, movie scores…

  • Longy School of Music

    Cambridge

    George Longy was an oboist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra before he decided to found the Longy School of Music in 1915. Now more than a century old,…

  • Cutler Majestic Theatre

    South End & Chinatown

    This beautiful beaux-arts-style opera house dates to 1903. A century after its construction, the theater was sumptuously renovated and reopened by Emerson…

  • Brighton Music Hall

    Streetcar Suburbs

    A great smaller venue, owned and operated by Crossroads (the force behind the Paradise Rock Club and House of Blues). Attracts good local bands, some cool…

  • Brattle Theatre

    Cambridge

    The Brattle is a film lover’s cinema paradiso. Film noir, independent films and series that celebrate directors or periods are shown regularly in this…

  • Laugh Boston

    Boston

    The funny guys over at Improv Asylum decided that Boston needed a few more laughs, so they opened this premier, stand-up comedy club in the Westin Hotel…

  • Improv Boston

    Cambridge

    This group has been making things up and making people laugh for more than a quarter of a century. Nowadays, the troupe's funny shows feature not just…

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