πΈ Featured photo courtesy of Theatre Memphis.
Memphis gets called a music city so often that the stages go unmentioned. Pick a weekend: a Broadway tour is loading into the Orpheum π, dancers are working behind the glass on Madison Avenue at Ballet Memphis π©°, and in a Cooper Young studio a kid is learning to jook a few feet from a girl on pointe π. All of it on the same night. And that is a slow weekend!
There is no single theatre district to point at, and that is the good news. Live theatre in Memphis runs from the Main Street marquees Downtown through Overton Square, Binghampton, East Memphis and out past the county line, so a great night on a stage is usually a neighborhood away rather than a destination. Eighteen theatre companies, ballet companies and performing arts venues follow, sorted by where they sit, each with a season link and a way in π«
π Theatre Companiesπ©° Ballet and Danceπ« Stages and Presentersπ Suburban Stages
The Short List
| Company or Venue | Discipline | Neighborhood | Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playhouse on the Square | Theatre | Midtown | 66 South Cooper Street |
| Hattiloo Theatre | Theatre | Overton Square | 37 Cooper Street |
| Theatre Memphis | Theatre | East Memphis | 630 Perkins Extended |
| Tennessee Shakespeare Company | Theatre | Cordova | 7950 Trinity Road |
| Ballet Memphis | Ballet | Midtown | Madison Avenue |
| Collage Dance Collective | Ballet | Binghampton | 505 Tillman Street |
| New Ballet Ensemble & School | Ballet and jookin | Cooper Young | 2157 York Avenue |
| Project: Motion | Modern dance | Midtown | 2085 Monroe Avenue |
| Orpheum Theatre | Touring Broadway | Downtown | 203 South Main Street |
| Cannon Center | Symphony and touring | Downtown | 255 North Main Street |
Ten of the eighteen covered below.
π Memphis Theatre Companies
Playhouse on the Square
π Professional resident company ● Midtown ● Three stages
Memphis theatre at its most consistent: three stages within two blocks on Cooper Street, actors on professional contracts, and a season that put Mean Girls a few weeks off from An Enemy of the People.
Hattiloo Theatre
π Black repertory theatre ● Overton Square ● 37 Cooper Street
One of the only freestanding Black repertory theatres in the region, purpose built on Cooper Street rather than borrowed. Season 20 brings companies from Norway, Nigeria and South Africa to Memphis for Bridging Worlds.
Theatre Memphis
π Community theatre since 1921 ● East Memphis ● 630 Perkins Extended
Producing without a break since 1921, which makes this the oldest theatre company in Memphis and one of the oldest anywhere in the country. Every person on the 411 seat Lohrey stage and the 110 seat Next Stage is a volunteer!
Tennessee Shakespeare Company
π Professional classical theatre ● Cordova ● 7950 Trinity Road
Professional Shakespeare out of the Tabor Stage on Trinity Road, plus the Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series, now in a tenth year of costing nothing to attend.
π« Current productions ● Tickets
Germantown Community Theatre
π Community theatre ● Germantown ● 3037 Forest Hill-Irene Road
Community theatre on Forest Hill-Irene Road in a house small enough to read faces from the back row, running musicals, comedies, dramas and a children's program.
University of Memphis Theatre and Dance
π University productions ● University District ● Four performance spaces
Four campus stages carrying student work in performance, musical theatre, dance and dance science. The cheapest live theatre in Memphis with production values anywhere near this high.
π©° Memphis Ballet and Dance Companies
Ballet Memphis
π©° Professional ballet company ● Midtown ● Madison Avenue
The city's professional ballet company since Dorothy Gunther Pugh founded it in 1986, with repertoire that has played The Joyce Theater and the Kennedy Center. Season 39 runs Macbeth, The Nutcracker, Winter Mix and Romeo & Juliet out of the glass walled Overton Square home.
Collage Dance Collective
π©° Ballet company and conservatory ● Binghampton ● 505 Tillman Street
Memphis ballet built around widening who gets to dance it, housed in one of the largest purpose built dance facilities in the city. Season 17 opens with ORIGINS at Playhouse on the Square, October 23 through 25.
π« Season 17 ● ORIGINS tickets
New Ballet Ensemble & School
π©° Youth ballet and Memphis jookin ● Cooper Young ● 2157 York Avenue
No child is turned away for inability to pay, and more than 400 students train on York Avenue every week on that basis. NutRemix moves The Nutcracker to Beale Street with jookin, flamenco and West African dance, November 21 and 22 at GPAC.
π« NutRemix tickets ● All performances
Project: Motion
π Modern dance collective ● Midtown ● 2085 Monroe Avenue
Modern dance in Memphis has run through this collective since 1987. House Happening stages choreography room by room through the Woodruff-Fontaine House in Victorian Village each December.
π΅ Opera Memphis and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra share most of the rooms in the next section, so a night booked for one discipline usually turns up another on the same calendar.
π« Memphis Performing Arts Venues
Orpheum Theatre
π« Touring Broadway and dance ● Downtown ● 203 South Main Street
The grand room at Main and Beale since 1928, and still where the national Broadway tours land in Memphis. The summer classic movie series is the cheap way in, Wurlitzer and all.
π« All events ● Broadway season
Halloran Centre for Performing Arts and Education
π« Theatre, dance and education ● Downtown ● 225 South Main Street
The Orpheum's flexible sibling two doors up, 361 seats running on a Meyer Constellation system. Smaller theatre, concerts and dance, plus student matinees and summer camps.
The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts
π΅ Symphony, ballet and opera ● Downtown ● 255 North Main Street
At 2,051 seats this is the largest performing arts hall in Memphis and the home of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Ballet, opera and touring theatre rotate through, so the North Main marquee reads differently week to week.
Crosstown Theater
π« Flexible performance space ● Crosstown ● Inside Crosstown Concourse
A 417 seat black box with a sprung wood floor, which is exactly what a dance company needs and what almost no other Memphis venue has. The room breaks down to proscenium, thrust, box or theatre in the round inside of a few hours.
Buckman Performing Arts Center
π« Touring dance, music and theatre ● East Memphis ● 60 Perkins Extended
The most intimate performing arts venue in Memphis, booking since 1996 on the St. Mary's Episcopal School campus. Season 29 lands Urban Bush Women, Lightwire Theater and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
π Suburban Stages
Germantown Performing Arts Center
π« Concert hall and outdoor series ● Germantown ● 1801 Exeter Road
Ballet, theatre and touring concerts fill the Highland Capital Performance Hall on Exeter Road, with BalΓ© FolclΓ³rico da Bahia on the January calendar. The Grove puts a stage under old trees on Thursday nights when the weather turns.
Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center
π« Touring productions ● Bartlett ● 3663 Appling Road
A municipal house on Appling Road running touring productions and community performances straight through the season. Parking is free and attached, which reads differently after circling Downtown before curtain.
Harrell Performing Arts Theater
π Community theatre and touring ● Collierville ● 440 West Powell Road
Open since 1987 on West Powell Road, programmed by the Town of Collierville with the Collierville Arts Council. Volunteer built local productions, plus nationally touring acts on the Harrell Live series.
π Missing a Memphis theatre or dance company that belongs on this list? Memphis adds stages faster than any guide keeps up with, and this one gets refreshed every season.
Send the name and the season to contact@choose901.com, or use the Choose901 contact form. It goes in the next pass!
