The Performing Arts

Getting Tickets

Some companies and venues sell tickets over the phone or the Internet; many will refer you to a ticket agency. The major agencies that serve Boston, Ticketmaster (tel. 617/931-2000; www.ticketmaster.com) and Tele-Charge (tel. 800/447-7400 or TTY 888/889-8587; www.telecharge.com), calculate service charges per ticket, not per order. To avoid the fee -- and possible losses if your plans change and you can't get your money back -- visit the box office in person. Tip: If you wait until the day before or day of a performance, you'll sometimes have access to tickets that were held back for some reason and have just gone on sale.

Let's Make a Deal--Yankee thrift gains artistic expression at the BosTix booths at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, on the south side of Faneuil Hall (T: Green or Blue Line to Government Center, or Orange Line to Haymarket), and in Copley Square at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth streets (T: Green Line to Copley or Orange Line to Back Bay). Same-day tickets to musical and theatrical performances are half price, subject to availability. You must pay cash in person, and there are no refunds or exchanges. Check the board or the website for the day's offerings.

BosTix (tel. 617/482-2849 for information; www.artsboston.org) also offers full-price advance tickets; discounts on more than 100 theater, music, and dance events; and tickets to museums, historic sites, and attractions in and around town. The booths are also Ticketmaster outlets. Both are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 6pm (half-price tickets go on sale at 11am), and Sunday from 11am to 4pm. The Copley Square location is also open Monday from 10am to 6pm.

Performance Venues

The Hatch Shell on the Esplanade (tel. 617/727-5215; T: Red Line to Charles/MGH or Green Line to Arlington) is an amphitheater best known for the Boston Pops' Fourth of July concerts. On many summer nights, free music and dance performances and films take over the stage, to the delight of crowds on the lawn. Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston (tel. 617/567-3900; www.suffolkdowns.com), about 2 miles north of the airport, books the occasional festival-style music show as well as appearances by Cirque du Soleil. (T: Blue Line to Suffolk Downs, then take shuttle bus or walk 10 min.).

Additional Offerings--The Boston Lyric Opera (tel. 800/447-7400 Tele-Charge or 617/542-6772; box office, 270 Tremont St.; www.blo.org) nurtures and showcases emerging talent in its classical and contemporary productions. The main stage season runs from November to May at Citi Performing Arts Center's Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St. Tickets cost $34 to $117.

Boston Baroque (tel. 617/484-9200; www.bostonbaroque.org), a Grammy-nominated period orchestra with a chamber chorus, performs at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall and Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Tickets cost $25 to $72.

Concert & Performance Series

The starriest names in classical music, dance, theater, jazz, opera, and world music play Boston as part of the Celebrity Series (tel. 617/482-2595 or 617/482-6661 for Celebrity Charge; www.celebrityseries.org). It's a subscription series that also offers tickets to individual events, which go on sale in September. Performances take place at Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, the Wang and Shubert theaters, and other venues.

World Music (tel. 617/876-4275; www.worldmusic.org) showcases top-flight musicians, dance troupes, and other performers from around the world. Shows (70 a year) are at the Somerville Theater, the Berklee Performance Center, Sanders Theatre, the Cutler Majestic Theatre, and other venues.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway (tel. 617/278-5102 [info line] or 278-5156 [box office]; www.gardnermuseum.org; T: Green Line E to Museum), features chamber music by the museum orchestra as well as performances by classical soloists and ensembles, local students, and the occasional jazz artist in the Tapestry Room. Performances are Saturday and Sunday at 1:30pm from late September to early May, and free podcasts are available through the website. Tickets (including museum admission) are $23 adults, $18 seniors, $10 students with ID, $5 children 5 to 17. Children under 5 not admitted.

Free (& Almost Free) Concerts -- Radio stations sponsor free outdoor music all summer. Specifics change frequently, but you can count on hearing oldies, pop, jazz, and classical music at various convenient venues, including City Hall Plaza, Copley Square, and the Hatch Shell, at lunch, after work, and in the evening. Check the papers when you arrive, listen to a station that sounds good to you, or just follow the crowds.

Students and faculty members at two prestigious musical institutions perform frequently during the academic year; admission is usually free. For information, contact the New England Conservatory of Music, 290 Huntington Ave. (tel. 617/585-1260; www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts), or the Longy School of Music, 1 Follen St., Cambridge (tel. 617/876-0956, ext. 500; www.longy.edu). Also check listings for the particulars of student performances at other area colleges; most are free or cheap, and the quality is often quite high.

Music Under the Sky & Stars -- The Boston Landmarks Orchestra (tel. 617/520-2200; www.landmarksorchestra.org) performs free concerts in parks around town, including the Hatch Shell, on evenings from July through September. The orchestra, which also performs indoors, describes its repertoire as "accessible classical"; it's a great excuse to visit a pretty park and hear some excellent music.

A Major Music Festival in the Bucolic Berkshires -- When the Boston Symphony Orchestra goes away for the summer, it goes to Tanglewood (tel. 413/637-5165 or 617/266-1492 out of season; www.tanglewood.org), in Lenox, Massachusetts, a 2 1/2-hour drive from Boston. Weekend concerts sell out in advance, but tickets to weeknight performances and Saturday morning rehearsals are usually available at the box office. If you can't get a seat inside, bring a blanket and picnic on the lawn.

Dance

The Celebrity Series and World Music) schedule numerous touring dance troupes; check ahead when you're planning your trip.

Theater

Local and national companies, professional and amateur actors, and classic and experimental drama combine to make the local theater scene a lively one. Call or surf ahead, or check the papers or BosTix after you arrive.

Boston is one of the last cities for pre-Broadway tryouts, allowing an early look at a classic (or a catastrophe) in the making. It's also a popular destination for touring companies of established hits. The promoter is often Broadway Across America (tel. 866/523-7469; www.broadwayacrossamerica.com). You'll find most of the shows headed to or coming from Broadway in the Theater District, at the Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St. (tel. 617/426-9366); the Opera House, 539 Washington St. (tel. 617/880-2400); the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St. (tel. 617/482-9393); the Citi Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St. (tel. 617/482-9393); and the Wilbur Theater, 246 Tremont St. (tel. 617/423-4008). The Citi Performing Arts Center operates the Wang and the Shubert.

The excellent local theater scene boasts two nationally acclaimed repertory companies that stage classic and contemporary productions. The Huntington Theatre Company performs at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave. (tel. 617/266-0800; www.huntingtontheatre.org). The American Repertory Theatre, or ART (pronounce each letter: A-R-T), which makes its home at Harvard University's Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge (tel. 617/547-8300; www.amrep.org), also books shows at the smaller Zero Arrow Theatre, 0 Arrow Street at Mass. Ave.

The Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon St. (tel. 617/585-5678; www.lyricstage.com), mounts contemporary and modern works in an intimate second-floor setting. The Stuart Street Playhouse, 200 Stuart St., in the Radisson Hotel Boston (tel. 617/426-4499; www.stuartstreetplayhouse.com), books one-person shows and revues. Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater, 255 Elm St., Davis Sq., Somerville (tel. 866/811-4111 or 617/591-1616; www.jtoffbroadway.com), is a 200-seat space where you'll often find the owner/comedian/actor/social critic performing.

The innumerable college options include Suffolk University's C. Walsh Theatre, 55 Temple St., Beacon Hill (tel. 617/573-8680); various performance spaces at MIT (tel. 617/253-4003; web.mit.edu/arts) and Boston University (tel. 617/266-0800); and Northeastern's Blackman Theater, 360 Huntington Ave. (tel. 617/373-2247).

A Summer Theater Treat--The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (tel. 617/532-1252; www.freeshakespeare.org) usually performs free on Boston Common Tuesday through Sunday nights in July and early August. Bring a picnic and blanket, rent a chair ($5 or so) if you don't want to sit on the ground, and enjoy the sunset and a high-quality performance. The company, which is affiliated with the Citi Performing Arts Center, is about half Equity actors, and the sets are spectacular. In 2007, maintenance work on the Common cut the run to just 1 week; check ahead in 2008 for up-to-date info.

Dessert Alert -- I don't want to boss you around; I'm here to suggest. So I suggest that before or after the theater, you run right over to Finale. It serves a mouth-watering variety of glorious desserts in elegant, romantic surroundings with lots of velvet and soft lighting. Yes, it's a tad expensive -- and absolutely worth it. No, this is not a balanced meal. But the sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) who flock here don't want to hear it. Branches are in the Theater District at 1 Columbus Ave., in the pointy end of the Park Plaza Building (tel. 617/423-3184; www.finaledesserts.com), 30 Dunster St., Harvard Square (tel. 617/441-9797), and 1306 Beacon St., Coolidge Corner, Brookline (tel. 617/232-3233). Finale also serves real food, such as salads and pizzas, but the desserts are the real draw.