Performing Arts in Madrid

Madrid is an incredibly vibrant city for partying, but it’s also a kick-ass city for the arts, evident in all the stellar performing arts venues around town.

For starters, the city is clearly the theater capital of Spain, and anyone looking for an incredible musical or other Broadway-caliber play will be able to find several on and near the main thoroughfare of Gran Vía.

Don’t speak fluent Spanish? Who cares? Think of it as a chance to practice and then tell your friends you just watched Les Miserables in El Español. Of course, a lot of the greatest Madrid performing arts shows don’t require language skills to fully enjoy, from modern dance performances to flamenco extravaganzas and classical music symphonies, it can all be found in this wonderfully cosmopolitan city.

The city’s most famous theatre is easily the National Madrid Theatre, and is a great place to see all the classic shows one would expect at the major theaters in New York. The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre), meanwhile, is one of the oldest, built in 1850 and remains to this day a powerhouse of opera and many other incredible live performances.

From brilliant symphonies to sultry cabaret, feisty drag shows to blouse-bursting burlesque, performing arts in Madrid have it all and more all over town.