15 Best Performing Arts Venues in San Diego, California

This complex, comprised of the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and the Old Globe Theatre, offers some of the finest theatrical productions in Southern California. Theater classics such as Into the Woods and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and more recent hits like Bright Star and Meteor Shower, premiered on these famed stages and went on to perform on Broadway. The Old Globe presents a renowned summer Shakespeare Festival with three to four plays in repertory. The theaters, done in a California version of Tudor style, sit between the sculpture garden of the San Diego Museum of Art and the California Tower. If you can't catch a show, daytime one-hour behind-the-scenes tours offer a close-up look at the theaters as well as the intricacies of set and costume design.

Under the artistic direction of Christopher Ashley, the playhouse presents exciting and innovative plays and musicals on three stages. Many Broadway shows—among them Memphis, Come From Away, Tommy, and Jersey Boys—have previewed here before their East Coast premieres. Its Without Walls program also ensures that the productions aren't limited to the playhouse, having put on site-specific shows in places like outdoor art spaces, cars, and even the ocean.

This complex, comprising the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and the Old Globe Theatre, offers some of the finest theatrical productions in Southern California. Theater classics such as The Full Monty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, both of which went on to Broadway, premiered on these famed stages. The Old Globe presents the family-friendly How the Grinch Stole Christmas around the holidays, as well as a renowned summer Shakespeare Festival with three to four plays in repertory.

The center presents mainstream theatrical productions such as Grease and The Odd Couple, as well as concerts, art shows, and dance performances.

This cabaret-type theater near the Hotel del Coronado stages regular dramatic and musical performances.

A 246-seat theater operated by Cygnet Theatre Company, this is one of the more interesting small San Diego theater groups. Catch local takes on edgy classics like Sweeney Todd and Little Shop of Horrors.

San Diego's premier gay and lesbian company presents a range of original works that focus on LGBTQ themes.

After being home to the long-running Triple Espresso, the Horton Grand Theatre hosts productions from the likes of San Diego Musical Theatre as well as Intrepid Theatre Company, whose shows include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Woody Guthrie's American Song.

The little theater company that could, most of Ion's unique and sometimes controversial productions now take place in the quaint BLKBOX Theatre in Hillcrest and have included productions of Gypsy and Topdog/Underdog.

The theater's regular season of four to five mostly uplifting productions runs from February through November. It also stages an original musical, Festival of Christmas, in December. The company has two performance spaces: the one used for most productions in Coronado, and the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter.

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.

Staging three productions over the year at the 10th Avenue Theatre in Downtown, this company is committed to performances by newer playwrights as well as more obscure works by old masters.

The home of the San Diego Opera, the Civic Theatre is the city's largest performing arts venue, with musicals, theatrical productions, and concerts held throughout the year.

The company has earned serious kudos for its diverse company and provocative programming, including Mexican waltzes and its annual "Trolley Dances," which take place at various trolley stops throughout San Diego. Other performances are held at venues around the city.

A landmark theater erected in 1912, the Spreckels hosts comedy, dance, theater, and concerts. Good acoustics and old-time elegance make this a favorite local venue.