The best performing arts centers and theaters in San Francisco

This complex includes three famed San Francisco venues that form the cornerstone of the city’s performing arts scene: Davies Symphony Hall, the Opera House and Herbst Theater. The War Memorial Opera House, completed in 1932, is one of the last examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States. Both the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet perform in this space in alternating seasons. Next door, Davies Symphony Hall is home to the world renowned San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. 

The Orpheum Theater is San Francisco’s preeminent home for Broadway productions, and what a home it is. Outside, architect B. Marcus Priteca designed the building’s facade to resemble a 12th-century French cathedral. Inside, the exterior’s ornate details are juxtaposed with accents, like an elaborate art-deco ceiling, betraying the building’s 1920s origin. The whole shebang was designated a city landmark in 1977. Look no further for the country’s most talked about shows, including performances of Hamilton and Book of Mormon.

A crown jewel of San Francisco's robust theater scene since 1922, the Curran has just completed a major restoration and renovation. The 1,600 seat venue reopened in January 2017 with the groundbreaking musical Fun Home.

Since 1967 the nationally renowned American Conservatory Theater has been a leader in the San Francisco performing arts scene. At their historic home, the Geary Theater, whose stage has been graced by the likes of Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich, the A.C.T. presents both classic and boundary-pushing plays under a dramatic elliptical big-top. Their new theater, The Strand, a renovated theater-turned-cinema-turned-porn-house opened in 2015, hosts smaller cabaret and theater productions in an intimate, crimson-walled 283-seat space. 

San Francisco has been embroiled in a love affair with jazz for decades and finally, in 2013, the musical form scored its own state-of-the-art performance center. The 35,000 square-foot, three-story transparent structure contains an adjustable auditorium, an intimate multi-purpose ensemble room and digital learning lab, in addition to multiple rehearsal spaces. With over 100 performances a year, SF Jazz is sure to delight your senses with something out of the ordinary.

The Yerba Buena Center’s 700+ seat theater is one half of this contemporary cultural space. The YBCA Theater fills its calendar with dance, music and dramatic programs. SMUIN, San Francisco’s contemporary ballet company, also frequently performs at the YBCA and the theater annually hosts SMUIN’s Christmas Ballet in December.

This small playhouse cultivates intimacy in both its productions and performances. Plays at the San Francisco Playhouse are selected for their emotional components in an effort to deepen self awareness and the human experience. The 199-seat theater arranged into only 9 rows on the second floor of the Kensington Park Hotel emphasizes shared existence. 

ODC was the first modern dance company in the United States to own its own facility. Built in 1979 and expanded in 2010, the ODC Theater is an airy-but-intimate 170-seat brick-walled space that features dozens of annual performances and workshops that interpret contemporary aesthetic and social values through extraordinary physical performance. ODC also works to actively engage the community in dance through its classes, youth programs and public outreach.

The Brava Theater is dedicated to cultivating the artistic expression of women, people of color, LGBTQIA, youth and other underrepresented individuals. Brava’s 360-seat main stage and 60-seat studio space emerged in 1996 from a shuttered 1926 vaudeville/movie house in the Mission. The theater today produces an eclectic mix of theater that celebrates and explores the experiences of those voices that are often sidelined in mainstream theater. 

The Magic Theatre is known for producing bold, innovative plays. Over the last five years, 22 of the 25 plays that have graced its stage, including 2012’s Bruja by playwright Luis Alfaro, have gone on to success in Los Angeles, New York and abroad. Housed in a simple Fort Mason space, the Magic Theater’s focus is on writing and performance and, with this, they’ve been wholly successful, attracting Pulitzer-prize winning dramaturges like Sam Shepard and respected actors like Danny Glover and Sean Penn.