Choose your location
Sun / May 19
Play
May 17-19, 2013 Paramount Theatre (Oakland, CA) This candid and revealing story of life with musical icon Marvin Gaye is based on the first-hand accounts of Marvin’s sister Zeola Gaye. Action-packed and inspirational, My Brother Marvin brilliantly unfolds on stage as it ... more
2025 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
Dance Performance
May 19 Santa Clara Convention Center
5001 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Play / Musical
May 10 through May 19, 2013 Napa Valley Opera House (Napa, CA)
1030 Main Street
Napa, CA 94559
Dance Performance
May 19 4:00pm Marin Center (San Rafael, CA)
10 Avenue of the Flags
San Rafael, CA 94903
Festival / Arts Festival
May 1 through Oct 27, 2013 Yerba Buena Gardens The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival celebrates arts and culture with free community programming that seeks to enhance ... more
772 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Play
May 16-Jun 9, 2013 American Conservatory Theater In pursuit of a major literary sensation, two obsessive modern-day scholars piece together the volatile and passionate events that took place centuries earlier. Set in a sprawling English country house, Arcadia moves between ... more
415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Arts Festival / Parade
May 25-26, 2013 Mission District The San Francisco Carnaval is an annual parade and celebration held in May in the Mission District of San Francisco ... more
San Francisco, CA 94110Drag Show / Concert
May 26 9:30pm DNA Lounge
375 Eleventh Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Play
May 30 through Jun 16, 2013 Theatre Rhinoceros Do countries really behave like gay men? Meet Sam and Jack and watch as they fall in love and become obsessed as ... more
1360 Mission Street, #200
San Francisco, CA 94103
Drag Show / Comedy Show
May 31 9:00pm The Rrazz Room At Hotel Nikko
222 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dance Performance
May 31 6:00pm Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
3301 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Dance Performance
Jun 1-2, 2013 Marin Center (San Rafael, CA)
10 Avenue of the Flags
San Rafael, CA 94903
One thing you can say for sure about San Francisco denizens is they aren’t a shy bunch, which may explain why there’s such a wide variety of performing arts in San Francisco.
First off, there’s an incredible theater culture in this town, so whether you want Broadway-level musicals and major international touring shows or eclectic black box performances that can be wonderful, weird, or maybe wonderfully weird, it’s all here.
Big theaters include The Curran, The Orpheum, and The Golden Gate, but you’re just as likely to catch amazing shows at smaller houses like SF Playhouse, The Magic, and the queer-centric Theatre Rhinoceros.
Burlesque gets big play in SF, as do drag shows – especially in the Castro and SoMa – while those in need of more classic forms of performing arts need only venture to The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (SFWMPAC), which is the largest SF performing arts center and one of the largest in the entire United States.
Opera, symphony, modern and classical dance, theater, recitals, plays, lectures, meetings, receptions, special screenings, and gala events all take place at the Center, and season tickets can often be had at a sizeable discount. Of course, this being San Francisco, those in need of poetry or some spoken word will no doubt find plenty close by.
Such is the wide variety of San Francisco performing arts.
May 19, 2013 11:00 am
Hakone Matsuri Festival 2013
May 20, 2013 8:00 pm
Tyler The Creator & Earl Sweatshirt
May 1 through Oct 27, 2013
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival 2013
May 20–27, 2013
56th Annual Vacaville Fiesta Days
May 23, 2013 8:00 pm
Cold War Kids
May 23–27, 2013
Sacramento County Fair 2013
May 25, 2013
Moodtu Fest 2013
May 24–26, 2013
Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants