3 Best Performing Arts Venues in City Center and Parnell, Auckland

Auckland's main venue for the performing arts and medium-size conferences is in the center of the city and often mounts free art exhibitions in its public spaces. There is a good café on the steps leading into the main foyer. The New Zealand Opera performs three annual main-stage seasons here, accompanied by either the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra or the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. 

The New Zealand Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestras perform here in the Great Hall of this Edwardian baroque revival building, which holds up to 1,529 people on three levels. Some say the 1911 building has some of the finest acoustics in the world. It also features the largest musical instrument in the country, the Town Hall Organ. More intimate concerts take place in the Concert Chamber. 

This landmark movie theater, now a performing arts center, hosts movie premieres, intimate rock concerts, live theater, and dance parties; some entertainment is family-oriented. The extravagant Moorish Revival–style building with Asian motifs was the talk of the town when it opened in 1929, but the owner, Thomas O'Brien, went bust and fled soon after, taking the week's revenues and a female usher with him. During World War II, a cabaret show in the basement was popular with Allied servicemen. One of the entertainers, Freda Stark, is said to have appeared regularly wearing nothing more than a coat of gold paint. Now the café at the front of the Civic bears her name. When you sit down to a show or movie, you'll see a simulated night sky on the ceiling and giant lions with lights for eyes on stage.