L.A.’s premiere cultural complex is a midcentury campus atop Bunker Hill that features four seated performances spaces, as well as a multipurpose outdoor plaza.
The Music Center’s original icon, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, is home to the LA Opera as well as occasional dance performances (it was also home to the Academy Awards for much of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s). The Center Theatre Group programs two of the other halls on the block. At the north end, the Ahmanson Theatre presents pre- or post-Broadway fare, while the distinctive Mark Taper Forum stages new plays and experimental dramas in an intimate setting. The Music Center also extends across the street with the stunning Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the LA Phil, as well as its smaller stage for cutting-edge theater, the forward-thinking REDCAT.
As for that fifth venue, the Music Center Plaza is home to all sorts of free programming, from dance lessons in the summertime to choral concerts around Christmas. The plaza reopened in mid 2019 following a $41 renovation that made some meaningful changes: The makeover massaged the layout a bit, flattening the plaza into a single level that’s doubled the area’s capacity to 5,000 people. In addition, four permanent venues along the plaza’s perimeter now surround its dancing fountains: the Lisa Specht Welcome Center, roating chef restaurant Abernethy’s, the Mullin Wine Bar and an outpost of coffee spot Go Get Em Tiger (the latter two spots feature patios that overlook Grand Avenue and the Civic Center skyline).