7 Best Performing Arts Venues in St. Stephen's Green and Around, Dublin

When this shimmering red-and-gold 19th-century theater is not showing musical comedy, drama, and revues, the sumptuous Gaiety is taken over by Opera Ireland for one of its big shows.

A long-established, tiny, get-close-to-the-band venue upstairs, the International also hosts theater in the afternoon and comedy on weekends.

Set in a striking, glass-front building, Opium hosts regular rock gigs or bass-thumping international DJ sets. There's a Pan-Asian restaurant out front if you get peckish.

Home to Trinity College's drama department and the student Players group, as well as visiting European companies, the Samuel Beckett Centre also hosts dance performances by visiting troupes; the theater was built in 1992 and stands near the center of Trinity's campus.

Under its glorious "pepper canister" cupola, St. Stephen's Church stages a tempting program of choral and orchestral events.

It might look a bit shabby around the edges, but Whelan's is one of the city's best—and most popular—music venues. Well-known performers play everything from rock to folk to traditional music.