California's Top Performance Spaces

As the largest natural amphitheatre in Southern California, the Hollywood Bowl is undoubtedly an ideal place to soak in the quintessential Southern California evening—warm summer sunsets, beautiful people, the occasional star sighting, gourmet food, and the sweet sounds of live music. This is Hollywood.

With its inaugural season dating back to the summer of 1922, the Hollywood Bowl has continued to draw performers and fans year after year. Its iconic band shell framed by tall trees on the west side of Hollywood has welcomed stars such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, and Lady Gaga. Even the Muppets have graced the Bowl stage! 

The Hollywood Bowl season runs from June through September and tickets go on sale in late April—unless you're a subscriber, which permits you early access. The summer concerts include a wide variety of musical genres, from midweek classical performances by the LA Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to jazz legends like Herbie Hancock and the Count Basie Orchestra swinging on the stage. Big names get plenty of stage time at “the Bowl” too, with top draws including Bruno Mars, Blondie, Paul Simon, and Common. Cultural events, some designed for families, include the annual Mariachi Festival and Native American musical events.

The Bowl also hosts a number of annual events including Jazz at the Bowl, the Playboy Jazz Festival, a 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, KCRW’s World Music series, and movie nights where you can watch big screen blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the score performed live by the LA Philharmonic.

Whatever you come to hear, one of the best parts of any visit to the Hollywood Bowl is the food. A pre-concert picnic is a highlight of any summer Bowl concert. Bring your own food and drink (including alcohol) to enjoy early at one of the Bowl’s 14 different picnic areas (not at lease events, however). 

Or enjoy one of the offerings from the Bowl’s array of food services. Hollywood Bowl Food + Wine offers more than 16 venues for satisfy every kind of diner. Enjoy a sit-down dinner at one of the two full services restaurants (reservations recommended) or pre-order a picnic box to enjoy before the show. Street food stands serve tacos, gourmet pizzas, and sweet treats throughout the grounds as well. Lucky enough to score box seats? Pre-order a three-course dinner with wine served right to your chair. 

Even if you can’t score a ticket to a show at the Bowl, check out the Hollywood Bowl Museum. Admission is free, and it’s a great stop for visitors of all ages—parents can reminisce about the Beatles’ historic visit in 1965 and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s remarkable jazz concert in 1956. Kids, meanwhile, will be entertained by the hands-on displays including computers, films, and cartoons featuring the Hollywood Bowl. 

Insider tip: On most summer mornings, you are welcome to bring well-behaved children into the Bowl to listen to a rehearsal.

As the largest natural amphitheatre in Southern California, the Hollywood Bowl is undoubtedly an ideal place to soak in the quintessential Southern California evening—warm summer sunsets, beautiful people, the occasional star sighting, gourmet food, and the sweet sounds of live music. This is Hollywood.

With its inaugural season dating back to the summer of 1922, the Hollywood Bowl has continued to draw performers and fans year after year. Its iconic band shell framed by tall trees on the west side of Hollywood has welcomed stars such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, and Lady Gaga. Even the Muppets have graced the Bowl stage! 

The Hollywood Bowl season runs from June through September and tickets go on sale in late April—unless you're a subscriber, which permits you early access. The summer concerts include a wide variety of musical genres, from midweek classical performances by the LA Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to jazz legends like Herbie Hancock and the Count Basie Orchestra swinging on the stage. Big names get plenty of stage time at “the Bowl” too, with top draws including Bruno Mars, Blondie, Paul Simon, and Common. Cultural events, some designed for families, include the annual Mariachi Festival and Native American musical events.

The Bowl also hosts a number of annual events including Jazz at the Bowl, the Playboy Jazz Festival, a 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, KCRW’s World Music series, and movie nights where you can watch big screen blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the score performed live by the LA Philharmonic.

Whatever you come to hear, one of the best parts of any visit to the Hollywood Bowl is the food. A pre-concert picnic is a highlight of any summer Bowl concert. Bring your own food and drink (including alcohol) to enjoy early at one of the Bowl’s 14 different picnic areas (not at lease events, however). 

Or enjoy one of the offerings from the Bowl’s array of food services. Hollywood Bowl Food + Wine offers more than 16 venues for satisfy every kind of diner. Enjoy a sit-down dinner at one of the two full services restaurants (reservations recommended) or pre-order a picnic box to enjoy before the show. Street food stands serve tacos, gourmet pizzas, and sweet treats throughout the grounds as well. Lucky enough to score box seats? Pre-order a three-course dinner with wine served right to your chair. 

Even if you can’t score a ticket to a show at the Bowl, check out the Hollywood Bowl Museum. Admission is free, and it’s a great stop for visitors of all ages—parents can reminisce about the Beatles’ historic visit in 1965 and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s remarkable jazz concert in 1956. Kids, meanwhile, will be entertained by the hands-on displays including computers, films, and cartoons featuring the Hollywood Bowl. 

Insider tip: On most summer mornings, you are welcome to bring well-behaved children into the Bowl to listen to a rehearsal.

Based on the ancient theatre at Epidaurus, the “The Greek” as it is called by locals, lets you enjoy concerts in an elegant, open-air setting at the base of the Berkeley Hills, on the edge of the U.C. Berkeley campus. A gift from its namesake, millionaire publisher and arts-minded William Randolph Hearst, the theatre opened in September of 1903, but even before it officially opened it was very popular, with President Theodore Roosevelt addressing young graduates earlier that year as part of the U.C. Berkeley commencement celebration, as the finishing touches were still being put on the theatre. 

Graduation ceremonies still take place here each year, along with performances by headliners such as James Taylor, Willie Nelson, Cheryl Crow, and the local boys of Green Day. Jeff Tweedy, frontman for the alt-rock band Wilco, called Berkeley's Greek Theatre, the most beautiful concert venue in the world.

Attend performances by leading musicians in a facility that combines advanced design with sustainability at the Soka Performing Arts Center, part of Soka University in southern Orange County. The roughly 1,000-seat venue is one of the "you can hear a pin drop" venues with acoustics crafted by world-renowned Yasuhisa Toyota, who also worked on Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Toyota incorporated Alaskan white cedar into the hall’s design to enhance the acoustics. The centre’s sustainable measures, including a living roof and the use of solar power, earned the facility a gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) programme. For a more intimate experience, check the calendar for performances in the centre’s black-box venue, Maathai Hall.

It is really no surprise that one of the world’s finest universities, especially one that is situated in the middle of the idea-and-innovation hub of the Silicon Valley, would be home to a venue with such an advanced design. Created for Stanford University by the architect/acoustician dream team of Richard Olcott and Yasuhisa Toyota, the dramatic oval hall has a “vineyard” design, with 842 terraced seats ringing the stage. Settle in for a concert and you will find yourself incredibly close to leading musicians, a truly thrilling experience when the likes of the Emerson String Quartet or pianist Lang Lang perform. 

Insider’s tip: Make a classy day of it by also visiting the outdoor Rodin Sculpture Garden and the adjacent Cantor Arts Center. Together they display 200 bronze works, one of the largest collection of Rodin pieces in the world.

Clad in sandstone tiles and with a lobby that looks out across surrounding agricultural lands through a wall of glass, this eye-catching multi-story structure on the U.C. Davis campus is a grand, modern arts venue for the region. Formally known as the Robert and Magrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (the wine making Mondavis were lead donors for the project, completed in 2002), the venue presents a full calendar of performances, ranging from major artists, such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Elvis Costello, to concerts by the U.C. Davis Symphony and other more home-grown events. The main 1,801-seat Jackson Hall is a visual stunner, panelled from floor-to-ceiling in virgin Douglas fir originally logged in the 1800s. The wood was reclaimed from the bottom of a lake in Canada, and some of the sections may actually be 500 years old.

Insider’s tip: Free guided tours shed light on the Mondavi Center’s advanced design features, including an orchestra shell that elevates on air casters. Tours are free but require advance reservations.

Stay at the über-cool Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and, without even leaving the premises, you can go to cultural events in one of the country’s most lavish and historic film palaces. The hotel sits atop the 1927 United Artists Theatre. And it has reinvented this Spanish Gothic landmark as a state-of-the-art performance space: the Theatre at the Ace Hotel. 

The big line-up of events includes lectures, film screenings, and shows by the likes of Patti Smith. Walk inside to design inspired by a 16th-century cathedral in Segovia, Spain. Elaborate features include the ornate proscenium and vintage murals depicting film legends (Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford were among the founders of the studio that built the theatre). Look up to see a vaulted ceiling glittering with thousands of tiny, glimmering mirrors.

Grand movie theaters have always been great gathering places for their cities, and that’s certainly true of the spectacular Warnors Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Fresno. Originally a Pantages Theater that staged vaudeville shows, this 1928 landmark (it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places) now hosts an eclectic assortment of performances and community events.

According to the preservation organization Historic Fresno, the theater blends a variety of architectural elements: Moorish Revival, Spanish, and Italian Revival touches all add to the structure’s romantic, Old World look. There’s extensive use of terra cotta, and a tiered tower above the marquee rises to a lantern and cupola.

The Warnors was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, who served as the architect on all of the theaters owned and operated by the Pantages organization. But the Warnors remained under Pantages ownership for only a year before Warner Brothers purchased and renamed the building the Warner’s Theatre; Historic Fresno says it was renamed the Warnors Theatre in the 1960s.

Now the 2,100-seat Warnors Center is one of the most visually stunning spaces in the entire Central Valley, especially as light shows paint vivid colors on the elaborate interior, with its ornate, flattened dome. Come here for the center’s classic film series, as well as concerts by the likes of Fresno’s own Audra McDonald, the six-time Tony Award-winning actress who has been honoured in four different acting categories.

Listen to the historic pipe organ, which has 1,035 pipes and 720 keys to replicate the sound of a full orchestra. Made by the Robert Morton Organ Company, the instrument once provided background music for silent films and is the only one of its kind anywhere in the world still used for performances at the original location.

Insider Tip: Take a free theater tour during ArtHop events in downtown Fresno, the first and third Thursday of each month.