New Haven
An old-school beatnik dive with a roadhouse feel, this is the heart of New Haven's local music scene (it dubs itself the 'musician's living room'). It's…
Must-see entertainment in New England
New Hampshire
After 90 years, this classic Main St theater is still going strong. A diverse lineup of off-Broadway musicals, African and Eastern dance troupes, jazz…
New Hampshire
A long way from the big-city lights of New York and Boston, Dartmouth hosts its own entertainment at this outstanding performing-arts venue. The season…
Massachusetts
This company stages excellent small-theater productions of classics and modern works. It's a small venue known for top-notch acting. Excellent summer…
Connecticut
The well-respected Hartford Symphony stages performances in the Bushnell all year-round.
Vermont
Guinness on tap, Vermont's largest selection of Irish whiskies, and live Irish music on Friday and Saturday evenings.
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,…
Cape Cod
By night, park your car at the 1950s-era Wellfleet Drive-In, where everything except the feature flick is true to the era. Grab a bite to eat at the old…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Down East
Talented young musicians from around the globe come to this chamber music school to hone their skills each summer. Kneisel also hosts a respected music…
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…
Cambridge
Five nights a week, the cinematheque presents retrospectives of distinguished actors, screenings of rare films, thematic groupings and special events…
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…
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…
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…
Payomet Performing Arts Center
Cape Cod
The center's theme – 'national talent on a local stage' – rings true, with performances by everyone from folk icons Arlo Guthrie and Ani DiFranco to…
Connecticut
Top-notch jazzers have been taking the stage at Ken Kitching’s 75-seat venue since its 2011 inception in the renovated Old Lyme Inn. Kitchings, the spirit…
Cape Cod
The Cape Playhouse is the oldest operating professional summer theater (since 1927) in the US. Bette Davis once worked here as an usher, and some of the…
Connecticut
This 1876 Victorian music hall is known as 'the birthplace of the American musical,' and it still produces a full schedule of shows: Man of La Mancha and…
Cambridge
The second stage of the American Repertory Theater, this black box is ideally suited for flashy song and dance performances and interactive, acrobatic…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center
Connecticut
Named for the town’s most famous thespian, ‘The Kate’ sprang to life in 2005 from the former Old Saybrook Town Hall and includes a museum in tribute to…
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…
Down East
Deer Isle's only performing-arts venue, the Opera House stages concerts, plays, films and family-friendly events (magic shows, circus arts) during its…
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…
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…
Boston's Western Suburbs
The Lowell Spinners, a Class A organization, is a Red Sox feeder team. Locally, it plays at this park, which is north of the center on the Merrimack River…
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…
Portland
This gorgeous old gem is the kind of old-school performance hall every great city deserves. The State is accented with art-deco and Moorish influences,…
Stowe & Smugglers Notch
Take a cavernous old Vermont barn, add a yoga studio, a restaurant and a bar serving cocktails and the state's best beers and ciders, plus a stage where…
Pioneer Valley
Opened in 2018, the MGM casino complex features an outdoor plaza and events space centered on the refurbished state armory, a building dating from 1895…
