Leeds City Guide - Culture

Leeds is a city that holds its leisure time dearly and is proud of its thriving performing arts scene. For theatre try the West Yorkshire Playhouse (tel: (0113) 213 7700; website: www.wyp.org.uk) on Playhouse Square in the east of the city or The Carriageworks (tel: (0113) 224 3801; website: www.carriageworkstheatre.co.uk) in the Electric Press development on Millennium Square in the northeast of the city. Opera North (tel: (0113) 244 5326; website: www.operanorth.co.uk) is a touring company based in Leeds that regularly performs at the spectacular Grand Theatre Leeds (tel: 0870 121 4901; website: www.leedsgrandtheatre.com) on New Briggate; the group has an excellent reputation for staging works that challenge the preconceptions of what opera should be.

The Northern Ballet Theatre (tel: (0113) 274 5355; website: www.northernballettheatre.co.uk) stages a number of dance productions ranging from classic works to contemporary pieces.

A great venue to watch live music is the Leeds Met Students Union (tel: (0113) 209 8435; website: www.leedsmetevents.co.uk) located a short walk north of the city centre.
 
The city also boasts a great comedy scene and visitors have two comedy venues to choose from in the city - Jongleurs (tel: 0870 787 0707; website: www.jongleurs.com) on Albion Street and The Hi-Fi Club (tel: (0113) 242 7353; website: www.thehificlub.co.uk) on Central Road, which serves up a pre-club comedy night every Saturday.

For quieter nights at the movies, there's a Vue Leeds The Light (tel: 08712 240 240; website: www.myvue.com) cinema on The Headrow that shows all the latest releases. For art house films, visitors will have to travel out to the wonderful old Hyde Park Picture House (tel: (0113) 275 2045; website: www.hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk) on Brundenell Road northwest of the city centre.