2 Best Performing Arts in Lower East Side, New York City

Exclusive premieres and retro screenings, often with celebrity guest speakers, and an ever-changing calendar of both classic and obscure films lure patrons to this boutique movie theater, where six films are usually shown on the two screens each day. There's also a restaurant and a bar in which to hang before or after the show, a small bookstore for browsing, and a retro candy counter with exotic albeit expensive treats.

Founded in the 1980s, this small nonprofit theater continues to host worthy, and frequently unconventional and hilarious, performances of theater, music, dance, and more, with a focus on new works. Its popular HOT! Festival of Queer Performance, held in July, is the longest-running LGBTQ+ festival in the world. Whatever you're seeing—of the some 1,000 shows held here each year—the Lounge, Dixon Place's cheerful bar, is a great place to meet up before the show and connect with artists after.