There’s something about attending a theatrical performance that never fails to be breathtaking.

It’s the energy in the air; the anticipation of the curtain going up and seeing a new scenic world and performers appearing for the ultimate storytelling journey. It’s the sound of the orchestra striking their first chords or actors speaking their first lines. Most of all, it’s the connection that comes from sitting alongside others and bearing witness to the extraordinary art unfolding onstage — and the immediacy of knowing that there will never be another performance exactly like it. While the script may be the same, each performance is alive and distinctive and current.

Venues, too, are exceptional, and The Palm Beaches’ buzzing performing arts scene is a theater lover’s dream. From a dazzling world-class performing arts center to thriving regional stages and a historic Art Deco community playhouse, there is spectacular stage entertainment just waiting to be experienced throughout Florida’s Cultural Capital®.

Here’s a look at some of the extraordinary venues and companies that make up The Palm Beaches’ rich and diverse local theatre scene.

Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

With nearly 2,200 seats in its majestic Dreyfoos Hall, 300 seats in its Rinker Playhouse and flexible seating in its Helen K. Persson Hall, the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts offers a sweeping large-scale theatrical experience in downtown West Palm Beach. With a vibrant schedule of local, national and international performances, theater fans flock to the nonprofit performing arts center’s annual Kravis On Broadway series, which brings hit Broadway tours to the region. The Kravis Center’s 2023/24 season features Chicago, Mean Girls, Beetlejuice, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Jagged Little Pill, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, Six the Musical and Hamilton.

Maltz Jupiter Theatre 

Fresh from a luminous $42 million expansion, the 659-seat Maltz Jupiter Theatre brings dynamic professional performances to Jupiter’s beachside. The largest regional theatre in the southeastern half of the U.S., the nonprofit theater is currently celebrating its 20^th anniversary season and has a bright future in store, including its current campaign to complete the interior buildout of its 199-seat second space, Goldner Conservatory and onsite restaurant. With a full schedule of limited engagements, the theater’s primary focus is its celebrated annual season of plays and musicals. Its 2023/24 season features Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, A Christmas Carol, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical, Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite and 42^nd Street.  

Palm Beach Dramaworks 

With a prime downtown location in the heart of West Palm Beach’s arts and entertainment district, Palm Beach Dramaworks offers theatregoers an invigorating focus on dramatic work and an immersive, up-close-and-personal experience in its 218-seat Don & Ann Brown Theatre. In addition to numerous educational initiatives, the nonprofit regional theater is a working hub for playwrights from across the nation and nurtures their work through lauded initiatives such as The Dramaworkshop and the theater’s annual play festival, newly named the Perlberg Festival of New Plays. The theater’s 2023/24 season features Lobby Hero and the world premieres of two commissioned works: The Messenger and The Cancellation of Lauren Fein, as well as Death of a Salesman and Trying.

The Wick Theatre and Costume Museum 

Tucked along Federal Highway in eastern Boca Raton, the Wick Theatre and Costume Museum serves as a flourishing arts cornerstone for the region. Operated by Marilynn Wick and her daughter Kimberly, the venue features a 340-seat nonprofit regional theatre and the adjacent Wick Costume Museum, which has undergone a dramatic high-tech transformation. Its stunning new venue offers 360-degree virtual video experiences, with an entirely new immersive exhibition experience this season: Dancing Feet The Experience, 42nd Street: Celebrating the Art of Dance. The venue offers luncheons with live entertainment, with dinner events that feature nationally acclaimed acts on its cabaret stage. The theater’s 2023/24 season features I Love a Piano, Bye Bye Birdie, Fiddler on the Roof, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.

Lake Worth Playhouse 

With its gorgeous downtown spot in bohemian Lake Worth Beach, the historic Lake Worth Playhouse serves as a renowned community theater, offering continuous year-round theatrical programming. Located in the former Oakley Theatre — the oldest surviving Art Deco building in Palm Beach County — the nonprofit theater’s initiatives include award-winning plays and musicals on its 300-seat mainstage, area premieres, children’s shows, classes and concerts. The playhouse offers cutting-edge theatrical programming in its black box-style second space, the Stonzek Theatre, which also operates as a movie theatre with a full slate of foreign and independent films. The Lake Worth Playhouse’s 2023/24 season features West Side Story, RENT, A Christmas Carol, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Clue and Ragtime.  

Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University  

The professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University, Theatre Lab offers fresh theatrical fare at the intimate 99-seat Heckscher Stage theatre space on FAU’s campus in east Boca Raton. Laser-focused on new work and new audiences, the nonprofit theater offers acclaimed full professional productions, workshops and conversations with leading playwrights and theatre artists. As one of the only theater companies in South Florida exclusively dedicated to new work, the company offers audiences the chance to see regional and world premieres of new American plays before their titles become famous. The company’s 2023/24 season features the family-friendly Florida premiere of The Many Wonderous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd, the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of The Berlin Diaries, the Florida premiere of Rooted and the world premiere of What’s Best for the Children, in addition to its popular annual New Play Festival. 

Delray Beach Playhouse 

Nestled in a picturesque corner of Lake Ida East Park in one of Delray Beach’s poshest neighborhoods, the Delray Beach Playhouse is a historic community theater that has drawn theatergoers from across the Palm Beaches since its opening in 1947. Today, the 238-seat theater’s fare is more exciting than ever, delivering Broadway plays, musicals, interactive studio theatre, cabarets, nostalgia concerts, children’s theater productions, youth classes and camps. The nonprofit theater’s beloved annual Playhouse Playwrights’ Project each fall showcases work by local up-and-coming playwrights. Its 2023/24 season features She Loves Me, Grumpy Old Men, Merrily We Roll Along and The Lost Virginity Tour.

Boca Stage at the Delray Beach Playhouse

A professional theater company that has produced shows at Sol Theatre and The Willow Theatre in Boca Raton, Arts Garage in Delray Beach and locations in Broward County, Boca Stage today performs in the 140-seat black box/cabaret hall at the Delray Beach Playhouse. With a goal of offering new and topical works for theatergoers looking for alternatives to revivals and musicals, the award-winning company (previously known as Primal Forces) focuses on regional premieres and sophisticated, inspiring dramatic work. Led by artistic director Keith Garsson and director Genie Croft, Boca Stage’s 2023/24 season features an updated version of the classic suspense thriller Wait Until Dark; Boeing Boeing and America’s Sexiest Couple.

Linnea Bailey

Linnea Bailey is an award-winning journalist based in West Palm Beach. Her freelance work can be found in Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, The Palm Beach Post, Florida Weekly, Modern Luxury, art&culture magazine and more. Linnea enjoys traveling, spending time with family and experiencing all the arts and cultural offerings The Palm Beaches have to offer. Find her on Instagram @linneabaileymedia.