What Is The Best City In The USA (New York excluded) For Theater?

[Phantom of London]

With San Diego critics announcing its nominations today.

So what is the best city in The United States for theater? Obviously I have to exclude New York from this thread for obvious reasons.

[AC126748]

Chicago is a great theatre town.

[LizzieCurry]

I was also going to say Chicago. And maybe Minneapolis?

[jpbran]

Chicago. Hands down.

[AC126748]

Boston is another city with a solid theatre scene.

[My Oh My]

Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia immediately come to mind. I agree that Chicago takes top honors.

Los Angeles is a vast, fragmented film town with only two major, first run houses, and if you don't own a car, you better hope you happen to live near one of them because our public transportation system sucks balls.

[GavestonPS]

That's true but Los Angeles also has a lot of talent that is supported by the film and TV industries.

Off the top of my head, I'd say Chicago, but only by reputation. I've never spent much time there.

But on the average, I saw almost as much interesting theater in LA as I did in NYC. About as many clunkers, too. But My Oh My is absolutely right; you have to be willing to drive to get to the theater in LA.

[givesmevoice]

The only other city I've seen theatre in was Boston, but some of my fondest memories of the theatre were there, so.

[uncageg]

I was amazed at how much theater Denver has. (And the rest of the state)

[broadwaydevil]

Seattle has some good theatre as well but after New York I think Chicago is unarguably the best.

[sally1112]

One o of my actor friends lived and worked in theater in Memphis, and tells me it is an amazing theater city.
I have only been there once and to see two regional productions (in two different theaters). Both were well done and fully attended.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Well, it's more of a region than city, but Southern California is really good. There's Los Angeles, with the Ahmanson, Mark Taper, Pantages, Geffen, Pasadena Playhouse, and (on hiatus) the South Bay CLO. There are also lots of great theatres in Orange County..

[darquegk]

While Pittsburgh will never rank tops, it does pretty well, with the highly-respected Pittsbugh CLO, the Irish Classical, and a number of smaller, frequently stranger, theatres such as Attack Theatre, Quantum Theatre and Rage of the Stage, probably one of the only grand guignol theatres still creating new work consistently.

[Theatreboy49]

I might be bias as I work in Chicago theatre but I am constantly amazed at the quality of work in this city. I saw Superior Donuts last night in a production that I cannot imagine was any better in New York (yes I know the show originally transferred from Steppenwolf). Besides the big equity houses here such as Goodman, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Mariott and Drury Lane I think the non equity work here is really something special and while of course there is alot of crap here (I argue there is in NYC or anywhere else) I'd say there is a ton of good things to see here.

[SondheimFan5]

For resident theatres, Chicago with Boston and DC close behind it.

[DEClarke]

I think you'd find HOUSTON, TEXAS (with the second largest theatre district in the US) might surprise you.

[Kad]

Pittsburgh has the benefit of being the location of Carnegie Mellon, which I'm sure contributes a lot of eager, freshly-graduated artists to the local area.

[temms]

Chicago is great because of the variety. You have the touring shows downtown in the big barns. You have the big-time resident theatres like the Goodman and Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare and the Cort. You have mid-size rental houses where bigger-but-not-huge shows can play like the Royal George, The Mercury, Victory Gardens, and the Athenaeum.

But beyond that the non-eq scene is great, and smaller companies that play in storefront spaces and small venues like the Theatre Building or City Lit do really great work for very cheap tickets (though the actors don't get paid much, but they're doing it for the love.) Plus you have the improv scene and Second City, the original "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind" and those sorts of oddities, and it all adds up to a very broad scene.

The one thing I feel that Chicago doesn't have much of is good new musical theatre. For all the great work that gets done there, I can't think of a single musical since "Grease" that originated in Chicago (not counting an out-of-town tryout) and went on to be a big hit.

The Chicago Reader has a great comprehensive listing of what's playing. You can check out what's on right now at the link below:
Chicago Reader Theater Listings

[Addison D.]

I have to add my voice to the Chicago chorus.

A one-off trip to the Goodman many years ago turned me into a subscriber, and I made five or six Thursday-Sunday theater trips a year for several years. As has been noted above, once you get your bearings and begin to cast your net beyond the big Equity houses, the variety of options is astonishing. The William Finn festival at the Theater Building was a theater milestone for me--giving me the chance to see several shows that I knew/loved only though their Cast Recordings.

If you add in Ravinia, the Lyric Opera and the Improv scene, it's really a world-class city.

[Griffin2]

I'd like to add to the Chicago vote! I see shows every visit and have been very impressed at everything....... last trip I went to Drury Lane, the Marriott and the Lookingglass.

[Jungle Red]

No one has mentioned San Francisco, original home of Wicked (and in a slightly lesser voice, Lestat).

[Phantom of London]

It seems that Chicago is the clearer winner here, but what show has it had this year to make it great? What has Chicago tried out before going to Broadway in the last 10 years?

I have been to Chicago once, where I saw Billy Elliot and The Lion King and The Story Of My Life (New Victory).

[Theatreboy49]

Phantom of London, this year alone NYC has currently 3 shows from Chicago there 1 on Broadway (Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf) and 2 Off-Broadway (5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche and the recently closed A Twist of Water). We have had several pre-broadway tryouts this year (although they dont really count) and our Regional Theatres put on shows that rival anything broadway has to offer (The Goodman's The Iceman Cometh comes to mind as of late).

[Owen22]

Obviously Chicago.

But don't count out Los Angeles. Besides having acting talent to spare, there is tons of theatre going on all over this spread out metropolis. I believe the NoHo Arts District hosts the largest confluence of theatre spaces per square whatever than any place on earth. Quality is up and down in these fringey spaces, but along with some major subscription companies, its not a bad theatre town.

Its not far from San Diego either which I think hosts four different Lort A or B houses of their own.

[someone.else's.story2]

Chicago, probably followed by Boston, then. Minneapolis.
Seattle has some interesting stuff going on, as well.

LA small theater is pretty hit and miss. Some great work being done here but also a lot of "showcase" stuff where people are just trying to get agents or on a tv show.


Denver theater is one of worst cities that I've seen (save for the work at the Denver Center).

[GavestonPS]

LA small theater is pretty hit and miss. Some great work being done here but also a lot of "showcase" stuff where people are just trying to get agents or on a tv show.

But that's true of New York, too, unless things have changed a great deal.

I don't think the number of shows a city sends to New York is a good barometer unless your taste runs to large, commercial pieces. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Finally, any city that holds a "William Finn Festival" gets my vote. I still say Chicago.