While the Seattle Symphony performs in downtown's Benaroya Hall, the main venues for the performing arts in Seattle are primarily clustered in Seattle Center, the special events complex that was built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Here, in the shadow of the Space Needle, you'll find Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Bagley Wright Theater, Intiman Playhouse, Seattle Children's Theatre, Seattle Center Coliseum, Memorial Stadium, and Experience Music Project's Sky Church performance hall.

Opera & Classical Music

The Seattle Opera (tel. 800/426-1619 or 206/389-7676; www.seattleopera.org) is considered one of the finest opera companies in the country and performs at Seattle Center's new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. It is the Wagnerian opera company in the U.S. The stagings of Wagner's four-opera The Ring of the Nibelungen are breathtaking spectacles that draw crowds from around the country. However, the Ring cycle was staged in 2001 and won't be staged again until 2005. In addition to such classical operas as Carmen and Parsifal, the season usually includes a more contemporary production. Ticket prices range from $47 to $125.

The 90-musician Seattle Symphony (tel. 206/215-4747; www.seattlesymphony.org), which performs in the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall, offers an amazingly diverse musical season that runs from September to July. With several different musical series, there is a little something for every type of classical music fan. There are evenings of classical, light classical, and pops, plus afternoon concerts, children's concerts, guest artists, and more. Ticket prices range from $16 to $80.

The Northwest Chamber Orchestra (tel. 206/343-0445; www.nwco.org), a perennial favorite with Seattle classical music fans, is a showcase for Northwest performers. The season runs from September to May, and performances are held primarily in Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle, although there are also concert series at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Ticket prices range from $15 to $35.

Theatre

Mainstream Theatres--The Seattle Repertory Theatre (tel. 877/900-9285 or 206/443-2222; www.seattlerep.org), which performs at the Bagley Wright and Leo K. theaters, Seattle Center, 155 Mercer St., is Seattle's top professional theater and stages the most consistently entertaining productions in the city. The Rep's season runs from September to June, with five plays performed in the main theater and four in the more intimate Leo K. Theatre. Productions range from classics to world premieres. Ticket prices range from $15 to $46. When available, rush tickets are available half an hour before shows for $20.

With a season that runs from March to December, the Intiman Theatre Company (tel. 206/269-1900; www.intiman.org), which performs at the Intiman Playhouse, Seattle Center, 201 Mercer St., fills in the gap left by those months when the Seattle Rep's lights are dark. Ticket prices range from $35 to $42.

Performing in the historic Eagles Building theater adjacent to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, A Contemporary Theater (ACT), 700 Union St. (tel. 206/292-7676; www.acttheatre.org), offers slightly more adventurous productions than the other major theater companies in Seattle, though it's not nearly as avant-garde as some of the smaller companies. ACT also puts on Seattle's annual staging of A Christmas Carol. The season runs from July to December. Ticket prices usually range from $30 to $45.

Ticket, Please--Full-price advance-purchase tickets to the Seattle Symphony and to many performing-arts events are handled by Ticketmaster (tel. 206/292-ARTS; www.ticketmaster.com). For half-price, day-of-show tickets (and 1-day advance tickets for matinees) to a wide variety of performances all over the city, stop by Ticket/Ticket (tel. 206/324-2744), which has three sales booths in the Seattle area: one in Pike Place Market, one on Capitol Hill, and one in Bellevue. The Pike Place Market location, in the Pike Place Market information booth, First Avenue and Pike Street, is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 6pm. The Capitol Hill booth is in the Broadway Market, 401 Broadway E, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 7pm and Sunday from noon to 6pm. The Bellevue booth is in the Meydenbauer Center, NE Sixth Street and 112th Avenue, and is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 6pm. Ticket/Ticket charges a small service fee, the amount of which depends on the ticket price.

Fringe Theatre--Not only does Seattle have a healthy mainstream performing-arts community, it has the sort of fringe theater life once only associated with such cities as New York, Los Angeles, London, and Edinburgh. The city's more avant-garde performance companies frequently grab their share of the limelight with daring, outrageous, and thought-provoking productions.

Seattle's interest in fringe theater finds its greatest expression each September, when the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival (tel. 206/342-9172; www.seattlefringe.org), a showcase for small, self-producing theater companies, takes over various venues. The festival includes more than 500 performances by theater groups from around the country.

Even if your stay doesn't coincide with Seattle's annual fringe binge, check the listings in Seattle Weekly or the Seattle Times' Friday "Ticket" entertainment guide to see what's going on during your visit. The following venues are some of Seattle's more reliable places for way-off Broadway productions, performance art, and spoken-word performances:

Bathhouse Theater, 7312 W. Greenlake Dr. N (tel. 206/524-1300). Seattle Public Theater's performances at the old Green Lake bathhouse range from original musicals to updated versions of Shakespeare. The location right on the lake makes this a great place to catch some live theater.

Book-It Repertory Theater (tel. 206/325-6500; www.book-it.org). This theater company specializes in adapting literary works for the stage, and also stages works by local playwrights. Performances are held at various venues around the city.

Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave. N (tel. 206/547-7500; www.emptyspace.org). One of Seattle's biggest little theaters, Empty Space stages mostly comedies and is popular with a young crowd.

Re-Bar, 1114 Howell St. (tel. 206/323-0388). Although this is primarily a nightclub popular with the Seattle gay crowd, it is also a performance art center.

Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave. S (tel. 206/340-1049). Works are by Asian-American writers, actors, and musicians, as well as other cutting edge off-Broadway shows.

Theater Schmeater, 1500 Summit Ave. (tel. 206/324-5801; www.schmeater.org). Lots of weird and sometimes wonderful comedy, including ever-popular live late-night stagings of episodes from The Twilight Zone.

Dance

Although it has a well-regarded ballet company and a theater dedicated to contemporary dance and performance art, Seattle is not nearly as devoted to dance as it is to theater and classical music. That said, hardly a week goes by without some sort of dance performance being staged somewhere in the city. Touring companies of all types, the University of Washington Dance Department faculty and student performances, the UW World Series (see below for details), and the Northwest New Works Festival all bring plenty of creative movement to the stages of Seattle. When you're in town, check Seattle Weekly or the Seattle Times for a calendar of upcoming performances.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Center Opera House, 301 Mercer St. (tel. 206/441-2424; www.pnb.org), is Seattle's premier dance company. During the season, which runs from September to June, the company presents a wide range of classics, new works, and (the company's specialty) pieces choreographed by George Balanchine (tickets $16-$125). This company's performance of The Nutcracker, with outstanding dancing and sets and costumes by children's book author Maurice Sendak, is the highlight of every season. The Pacific Northwest Ballet performs in the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center.

Much more adventurous choreography is the domain of On the Boards, Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance, 100 W. Roy St. (tel. 206/217-9888; www.ontheboards.org), which, although it stages a wide variety of performance art, is best known as Seattle's premier modern-dance venue (tickets $18-$22). In addition to dance performances by Northwest artists, there are a variety of productions each year by internationally known performance artists.

Major Performance Venues

With ticket prices for shows and concerts so high these days, it pays to be choosy about what you see, but sometimes where you see it is just as important. Benaroya Hall, the Seattle Symphony's downtown home, has such excellent acoustics that a performance here is worth attending just for the sake of hearing how a good symphony hall should sound. Seattle also has two restored historic theaters that are as much a part of a performance as what happens onstage.

Benaroya Hall (tel. 206/215-4747), on Third Avenue between Union and University streets in downtown Seattle, is the home of the Seattle Symphony. This state-of-the-art performance hall houses two concert halls -- the main hall and a smaller recital hall. The concert hall is home to the Watjen concert organ, a magnificent pipe organ. There's also a Starbucks, a cafe, a symphony store, and a pair of Dale Chihuly chandeliers. Amenities aside, the main hall's excellent acoustics are the big attraction.

The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave. (tel. 206/625-1900 for information, or 206/292-ARTS for tickets; www.5thavenuetheatre.org), which first opened its doors in 1926 as a vaudeville house, is a loose re-creation of the imperial throne room in Beijing's Forbidden City. In 1980, the theater underwent a complete renovation that restored this Seattle jewel to its original splendor, and today the astounding interior is as good a reason as any to see a show here. Don't miss an opportunity to attend a performance. Broadway shows are the theater's mainstay (tickets $15-$60).

The Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St. (tel. 206/682-1414; www.theparamount.com), one of Seattle's few historic theaters, has been restored to its original beauty and today shines with all the brilliance it did when it first opened. New lighting and sound systems have brought the theater up to contemporary standards. The theater stages everything from rock concerts to Broadway musicals. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

Performing Arts Series

When Seattle's own resident performing arts companies aren't taking to the dozens of stages around the city, various touring companies from around the world are. If you're a fan of Broadway shows, check the calendars at the Paramount Theatre and the 5th Avenue Theatre, both of which regularly serve as Seattle stops for touring shows.

The UW World Series (tel. 206/543-4880; www.uwworldseries.org), held at Meany Hall on the University of Washington campus, is actually several different series that include chamber music, classical piano, dance, and world music and theater. Together these four series keep the Meany Hall stage busy between October and May. Special events are also scheduled (tickets $26-$55).

Seattle loves the theater, and each September the city binges on the fringes with the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival (see "Fringe Theater," above). Avant-garde performances are also the specialty of the Northwest New Works Festival (tel. 206/217-9888; www.ontheboards.org), On the Boards' annual barrage of contemporary dance and performance art held each spring.

Another series worth checking out is the Seattle Art Museum's After Hours. Every Thursday from 5:30 to 9pm, the museum hosts live music, frequently jazz, and sets up a bar in its main lobby. Shows are free with museum admission.

Summer is a time of outdoor festivals and performance series in Seattle, and should you be in town during the sunny months, you'll have a wide variety of alfresco performances from which to choose. The city's biggest summer music festivals are the Northwest Folklife Festival over Memorial Day weekend and Bumbershoot over Labor Day weekend.

AT&T Wireless Summer Nights at the Pier (tel. 206/281-7788 for information or 206/628-0888 for tickets; www.summernights.org) presents a summer's worth of big-name acts at Pier 62/63 on the waterfront. Blues, jazz, rock, and folk acts generally pull in a 30-something to 50-something crowd (tickets $17-$75).

Here on the waterfront, at the Seattle Aquarium (tel. 206/386-4330; www.seattleaquarium.org), you can also catch some alfresco jazz at the Sea Sounds summer concert series. The concerts are held between June and early October (weather permitting) at the end of the Aquarium's pier (Pier 59). Tickets are $25 to $28.

At Woodland Park Zoo (tel. 206/615-0076; www.zoo.org), the Zoo Tunes concert series brings in more big-name performers from the world of jazz, easy listening, blues, and rock (tickets $14-$20). Bear in mind that tickets for these concerts usually sell out as soon as they go on sale at the end of May.

In Woodinville, on the east side of Lake Washington, Chateau Ste. Michele, 14111 NE 145th St., stages the area's most enjoyable outdoor summer concert series. The Summer Festival on the Green (tel. 425/415-3300 for information, or 206/628-0888 for tickets) is held at the winery's amphitheater, which is surrounded by beautiful estatelike grounds. Chateau Ste. Michele is Washington's largest winery, and plenty of wine is available. Once again the lineup is calculated to appeal to the 30- to 50-something crowd (Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Loggins, Cowboy Junkies, Gipsy Kings). Ticket prices mostly range from $40 to $99. See chapter 11 for more on Woodinville and Chateau Ste. Michele.

At Marymoor Park, 20 to 30 minutes east of Seattle at the north end of Lake Sammamish, you can catch summer The Concerts at Marymoor, 6046 W. Lake Sammamish Pkwy. NE (tel. 206/628-0888; www.concertsatmarymoor.com). This concert series premiered in 2003 and featured concerts by the Irish Tenors, Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne, Tori Amos, Norah Jones, and George Benson, among others. Ticket prices generally range from around $40 to around $100.

Also new in 2003, the White River Amphitheatre, 40601 Auburn-Enumclaw Rd., Auburn (tel. 360/825-6200; www.whiteriverconcerts.com), is the Seattle area's top amphitheater and pulls in big names in rock bands. Summer 2003 saw performances by Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Boston, and the Lollapalooza rock festival. Ticket prices can range anywhere from $10 to around $130. The amphitheater is located on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation 35 miles southeast of Seattle.

So Who Needs Cirque du Soleil, Anyway?

Cirque du Soleil may be the coolest circus in the world, but man (and woman) cannot live on cotton candy alone. Circus acts aimed at the upper crust should be accompanied by gourmet cuisine. At least that's the concept behind Teatro ZinZanni, 2301 Sixth Ave. (tel. 206/802-0015; www.zinzanni.com), a European-style cabaret of the highest order. Staged in a classic spiegeltent (mirror tent) imported from Belgium, this evening of comedy, dance, theater, and fine food (catered by Seattle's celeb chef Tom Douglas) offers clowns, acrobats, illusionists, and cabaret singers. In fact, there's more entertainment packed into a night at Teatro ZinZanni than anywhere else in Seattle. Don't miss it. Tickets are $89 Sunday through Thursday and $109 Friday and Saturday. Reserve well in advance! Visiting Seattle without seeing this show would be like going to Las Vegas without seeing Cirque du Soleil.