Things to do / Travel Guide
Whether your taste in entertainment is “highbrow” or “lowbrow,” there's plenty going on in coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Music lovers in particular will love the rich variety of musical events that take place in the region during the summer months. These range from classical music concerts performed by world-class symphonies to sing-alongs along the beach. The larger cities, such as Boston and Providence, offer a year-round schedule of cultural activities that include music, theater, and dance.
Entertainment around Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is home to the renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), and to the equally beloved Boston Pops, the acclaimed subsection of the BSO that popularized classical music under the baton of one of America's best-known conductors, Arthur Fiedler. Both perform at Symphony Hall. The Opera House hosts Broadway shows and concerts in a bountiful setting. Another Boston landmark, the Wang Center, hosts the Boston Ballet, modern dance, opera, and drama in its two theaters.
If your taste runs more to rock, rhythm & blues, and world music, another Boston institution is Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant and Music Club, at 17 Holland Street. It's been named “one of the hottest clubs in the Northeast” by the Boston Globe, and features blues, jazz, folk, and alternative acts.
A whole strip of top-notch nightclubs is on Landsdowne Street next to Fenway Park. A popular dance club on this strip is Axis, located at 13 Lansdowne Street. Upstairs, the club's killer sound system starts blaring at around 9:30 p.m. Downstairs is the place to chill out and get into deep discussions about college majors. A little ways off in Cambridge is the Central Square district.
Close to Boston, Cambridge is the location of two major U.S. universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. If you want to experience the atmosphere of this college town, you can go to Harvard Square and check out the coffee shops and restaurants. This is a famous meeting place for the chic and intellectual. In “the Pit,” located near the subway entrance, skateboarders “gleam the cube.”
Entertainment in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard
It's important to remember that entertainment in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard is a seasonal affair. You can't catch much in the wintertime in these parts.
Cape Cod also offers world-class entertainment: For jazz lovers, there's the Cape Cod Jazz Festival, with performances on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings in July and August. The Jazz festival is located on Pleasant Bay in Chatham. The Cape Cod Melody Tent, located at 21 West Main Street in Hyannis, is a seasonal outdoor tent with stadium seating, where big-name entertainers, such as Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Kenny Rogers, and the Indigo Girls, and plenty of comedy acts, come to entertain.
There's also the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, which performs at various venues, while local performers take the stage at the many free outdoor concerts offered throughout the Cape during July and August. For a unique Cape Cod experience, try “P.M. by the Sea” at Sandy Neck Beach. This summertime monthly event, which takes place on the beach before a bonfire, features folk music, poetry, and other low-key entertainment.
Even though the nightlife is harder to find on Martha's Vineyard, it does exist. Outerland attracts bands and acts playing reggae, rhythm and blues, and other hot music styles. The venue is one of the Vineyard's most popular spots. It's located in West Tisbury, mid-island, off the West Tisbury/Edgartown Road.
For theater lovers, there's the Vineyard Playhouse in Vineyard Haven, a village in Tisbury. It's a professional theater company that presents productions throughout the year, including outdoor events during the summer. The Yard, located near the center of town in Chilmark, on the southwest part of the island, is a performing artist's colony where contemporary dance artists develop new works.
Entertainment in Rhode Island
If you're in Providence during the summer months, don't miss “Waterfire,” a dazzling display of music and light by the river, which takes place most every-other weekends and on summer holidays. Bonfires, up to 100 of them, blaze in the nighttime hours on the capital city's three major downtown waterways. World and/or classical music is played, live or not, during the lightings.
The Providence Performing Arts Center, located on Weybosset Street downtown, is one of the finest in New England. This is where you'll find classical music concerts, opera and ballet performances, and touring Broadway shows .
Providence is also home to one of the finest regional theater companies in the United States, the Trinity Repertory Company, whose season runs from September to June. The company's home is at Lederer Theater Center, downtown on Washington Street.
Newport has nightlife all year long, although the scene heats up during the summer season. Two dance clubs popular with the college crowd are Studio 3, at 2 Pelham Street, and The Landing, 30 Bowen's Wharf.
Entertainment in Southeast Connecticut
In Mystic, Connecticut, both Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun offer a full range of entertainment throughout the year. You can take in a Broadway show, dance to the music of some of the country's hottest bands, or check out a rising star if, that is, you can tear yourself away from the casino.
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