8 Best Performing Arts in Mumbai, India

The popularity of stand-up comedy has been on the rise in Mumbai ever since India received its own version of Comedy Central on cable back in 2011. Located in a luxury mall, this theater is a great place to catch local comics tuning up their act.

This annual festival, held on one full moon night in December, draws top classical Indian dancers and musicians from around the country to perform outdoors against the magical backdrop of the Ellora Caves. Ask at the Tourist office or the MTDC.

A good place to catch a Bollywood film, or the latest English one, is the upscale Inox.

The Godrej Dance Academy Theater, a main venue for classical Indian dance performances as well as workshops and master classes, is in this huge complex, along with the Drama Opera Arts Complex, a 1,000-seat auditorium that is Mumbai's ballet and opera theater. There are also several theaters, including the Tata Theatre, a grand 1,000-seat auditorium that regularly hosts plays, often in English, and classical concerts by major Indian and international musicians. It also boasts a spacious and well-regarded Mediterranean restaurant, Amadeus, that occasionally holds wedding functions. Note that some NCPA performances are open to members only; a year's membership is Rs. 2,500.

One of Mumbai's major venues, this auditorium regularly showcases theater, music, and dance performances.

Run by the famous Kapoor acting family (current Bollywood stars Kareena and Ranbir Kapoor are two of them), the theater stages plays each week, many in English, with reasonably priced tickets. It often hosts special programs for children, too. It's a 45-minute drive north from downtown Mumbai, or 20 minutes from the airport in nontraffic hours. An evening at Prithvi, which has an arty café and a carefully curated bookstore, can make for one of the more memorable cultural experiences in the city.

One of the last in a dying breed of South Mumbai's gorgeous art deco theaters, Regal is a tourist treasure in its own right, and well worth the price of admission, regardless of the quality of the film itself. Here, flowing curtains still draw open at the start of a film and intermissions bubble over with gossip about the Hollywood and Bollywood stars on screen, harking back to a charming, almost forgotten time in India's pop culture landscape.

Current English-language (and Bollywood) films are shown here.