Austin: Bass Concert Hall

The Longhorns’ old baseball diamond became Austin’s biggest stage. Bass Concert Hall has hosted Hamilton, The Lion King, and just about every major Broadway tour to pass through Central Texas.

Bass Concert Hall opened in 1981 on the University of Texas at Austin campus, built on the former site of Clark Field, home to Texas Longhorns baseball from 1928 to 1974. Formally the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Concert Hall, it honors Fort Worth-based philanthropists and longtime UT Austin benefactors Nancy Lee and Perry Richardson Bass — a different Bass-family namesake than Fort Worth’s own separate Bass Performance Hall, a mix-up worth avoiding. As the flagship venue of the University of Texas Performing Arts Center, part of Texas Performing Arts under the College of Fine Arts, Bass Concert Hall is the largest of TPA’s five theaters and the largest performance venue in Austin, seating roughly 2,900 depending on configuration, with an orchestra pit that can hold up to 100 musicians and dressing rooms for more than 100 performers.

Renovated for the Modern Stage

The hall underwent a $14.7 million renovation in 2007 that reworked its acoustics, expanded the lobby, and added a glass façade and outdoor deck; orchestra-level seating was replaced in 2012, and a further $3.5 million renovation in 2021 rebuilt balcony seating and upgraded technology throughout the building.

Home of Broadway In Austin

Bass Concert Hall is the home of Broadway In Austin and has hosted the city’s premieres of major touring productions including Hamilton, The Lion King, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Frozen, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, Mean Girls, and Hadestown. Beyond touring musicals, it regularly hosts Texas Performing Arts’ own presenting series of orchestras, dance companies, and international touring artists — even serving as a recording stop for national programs like NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Since 1981, it has functioned as Central Texas’s primary large-format venue for major touring productions, standing alongside Austin stages like The Long Center for the Performing Arts as one of the city’s two great halls for large-scale performing arts.

I’ve been here ♪