The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Enter the unmarked door on a quiet street and proceed upstairs to an intimate theater that has the distinct air of a vampire's parlor – albeit one with…
Must-see entertainment in California
Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum
Malibu & Pacific Palisades
Actor Will Geer (TV’s Grandpa Walton) founded this beloved open-air theater as a refuge for blacklisted actors like himself during the McCarthy years. The…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Musical prayers are answered in a 1914 California arts-and-crafts landmark with heavenly acoustics. The 40ft roof is regularly raised by shows by New…
West Hollywood & Mid-City
There’s no comedy club in the city with more street cred than Sammy and Mitzi Shore’s Comedy Store on the strip. Sammy launched the club, but Mitzi was…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Breakthrough shows launch at this turn-of-the-century landmark, which has hosted ACT's productions of Tony Kushner's Angels in America and Robert Wilson's…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
This vintage 1909 cinema is a neighborhood nonprofit with an international reputation for distributing documentaries and showing controversial films…
Los Angeles
Professional football returns to LA after a 22-year hiatus. The Rams were the first NFL team in Southern California, starting in 1946, but unbelievably…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Opera was SF's gold-rush soundtrack – and SF Opera rivals the Met, with world premieres of original works ranging from Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne to…
San Francisco
Bands who sell out shows from Ireland to Appalachia and headline SF's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival jam here on weeknights, taking breaks to clink…
Los Feliz & Griffith Park
If you like to be entertained while you chew, come to this table and stage. Make a reservation for Wednesday night, when Jeff Goldblum and his Mildred…
North Beach & Chinatown
There's no room to be shy at Cobb's, where bumper-to-bumper shared tables make the audience cozy – and vulnerable. The venue is known for launching local…
Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights
South Park got its first jolt in 1999 with the opening of this saucer-shaped sports and entertainment arena. It’s home court for the Los Angeles Lakers,…
Hollywood
Assigned seats, exceptional celeb-sighting potential and a varied program that covers mainstream and art-house movies make this 14-screen multiplex the…
North Beach & Chinatown
Get your kicks at this 1931 speakeasy with stiff drinks, bawdy vintage bar murals, parquet dance floors for high-stepping like Rita Hayworth (she was in…
Japantown, Fillmore & Pacific Heights
Jumping since the '30s, the Boom Boom remains a classic Fillmore venue for blues, soul and funk. Except for the outdoor murals and vintage photos indoors,…
Los Feliz & Griffith Park
Dating back to 1923, the single-screen Vista has played some colorful roles, nominally vaudeville theater and gay-porn cinema. It's now back to screening…
Santa Monica
New Santa Monica outpost of LA's most admired cinema chain. Sitting atop Santa Monica Pl, the cinema offers assigned seating in plush seats, ultra-clean…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Everyone busts out their best sets at this opulent 1907 bordello turned all-ages venue – indie rockers like the Band Perry throw down, international…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
Blame it on the bossa nova or the ginned-up Deluxe Spa Collins – you'll be swinging before the night is through. Nightly jazz combos bring the zoot suits…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Choose your seat wisely: you may spend the evening on the edge of it. One-acts and monologues here involve the audience in the creative process, from…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
The USA's oldest ballet company is looking sharp in more than 100 shows annually, from The Nutcracker (the US premiere was here) to modern originals…
West Hollywood & Mid-City
Launch pad for countless stand-up comics from Richard Pryor to Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres and Dave Chapelle, the Improv still gets headliners (Maz…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Some bands are too outlandish for regular radio – to hear them, you need San Francisco's Brick & Mortar. The bill here has featured national acts from…
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Rock stars would be jealous of art stars at YBCA openings, which draw overflowing crowds of art-school groupies with shows ranging from cyberpunk video…
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles
Los Angeles
If you're expecting a stand-and-sing concert, you've got another thing coming. The 275-member GMCLA puts on full-on shows with singing, dancing, costumes…
Hollywood
The splendidly restored Pantages Theater is an art deco survivor from the Golden Age and a fabulous place to catch a hot-ticket Broadway musical. Recent…
West Hollywood & Mid-City
Ever since its early days on Fairfax Ave, Largo has been progenitor of high-minded pop culture (it nurtured Zach Galifianakis to stardom). Now part of the…
Santa Monica
A 499-seat, state-of-the-art theater anchors Santa Monica College’s striking, modernist performing-arts complex, which is a satellite campus on its own…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Watch SF make merciless fun of itself at PianoFight supper club, featuring comedy showcases, ukulele-for-your-life Variety Show Death Matches, and Pint…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Long, lean dancers perform complicated, angular movements that showcase impeccable technical skills. Original works have included dance set to songs in…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
The Magic is known for taking risks and staging provocative plays by both up-and-coming and seasoned playwrights. If you're interested in seeing new…
West Hollywood & Mid-City
This improv school and company launched Lisa Kudrow, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph and other top talent. Its sketch comedy and improv can be belly-achingly…
Santa Monica
Santa Monica's original movie theater (c 1940) is now operated by American Cinematheque, where it screens old and neo classics, and offers Q&A sessions…
Marin County
In the center of miniscule Nicasio, this rustic restaurant and saloon with giant taxidermy on the walls and characters at the bar any time of day,…
Excelsior
This Greek-style amphitheater, located in McLaren Park, is one of the coolest outdoor performance spaces in the city. The acoustics are grand and the…
South Bay Beaches
Every August thousands of bad-ass volleyballers take to the sand during the world’s oldest and most prestigious volleyball tournament (played since 1960),…
Santa Monica
This beloved local institution brings Santa Monicans of all stripes to rock out by the thousands on the pier and on the sand below, gigging local to world…
Along Highway 101
Lakeport is home to one of America's few surviving and wonderfully nostalgic drive-in movie theaters, with showings on Friday and Saturday nights in…
South Bay Beaches
The South Bay’s best live-music venue lies within a dated brick house with nightly live bands ranging from the up-and-coming to the past-their-prime and…
Disneyland Resort
A live stage version of the animated movie musical Frozen is presented here, with actors, the hit songs and Broadway-style costumes, sets and lighting.
