In 1819, when Erie was still a rugged settlement of less than a thousand, an Irishman named William Hughes opened a hotel at the old Bell House on the corner of French and Sixth streets. He reminisced fondly about his younger years as an actor and soon organized a “dramatic company” for Erie’s young men. Before long, they were putting on performances in a nearby building a few blocks north. It wasn’t for fortune or glory. It wasn’t to pay their bills. The creative process and community were the point.
Over two centuries later, that creative spirit remains in Erie. There is no shortage of live performances around the city. One can find musicians performing on stage nightly, stories interpreted through dance by numerous ensembles, interactive dinner theaters at The Station and Peek’n Peak, and explorations of life expressed through humor at events organized by Flagship City Comedy and Kellar’s, A Modern Magic and Comedy Club.
There is something for everyone on the city’s stages. You can find theaters performing everything from Rodgers and Hammerstein classics to the more gritty and quirky to the locally written and experimental. Want to watch professionally performed Broadway favorites like Music Man, Kinky Boots, Clue, and The Book of Mormon? Warner Theatre’s Broadway Series has you covered in 2026…