This is a great place to go watch a show. Very enjoyable experience watching bedknobs and brooms…read moresticks, slight technical problem but still enjoyable. The seats were comfortable and view was great. Staff friendly and helpful. Great experience and thoroughly enjoyed will return to watch another show.

A little while ago I went to this venue to see Aled Jones take on the role of Caractacus Potts in…read more'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and finally got to see this splendid new building from the inside. Most people who are at all familiar with Cardiff would recognise the armadillo/woodlouse outer shell of the Wales Millennium Centre, and the giant lettering gracing its sides. But, unfortunately, few people seem to have actually ventured inside. The space is modern and clean, without looking barren, as so easily might have happened. The theatre itself has excellent leg-room, comfortable seats and pretty much unrestricted views. I sometimes struggle with low volume when attending musicals, but the acoustics were excellent, and every word clear as a bell. As well as shows and events, there are also food outlets and guided tours available. There are also free performances most days on the Glanfa stage, which are certainly worth checking out.

I've been to St David's hall a couple of times now, mainly for comedians like Ross Noble and Sean…read moreLock. As a venue, it plays hosts to a huge variety of acts and entertainment. In the coming week alone you can see acts as varied as Stan Stennett (?), Brian Conley, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Roy Chubby Brown. It's not the most aesthetically interesting or pleasing venue in Cardiff, being beaten hands down by the Millenium Centre in the Bay, but it nevertheless remains the favoured venue for most acts, probably due to it's slightly larger seating capacity of 2000 (as opposed to 1897 in the Millenium Centre). It still hosts the annual Welsh Proms aswell. My own experiences have all gone pretty smooth, with very little queuing and helpful, professional staff. I suppose it's good that there's nothing of note I can really say here, as the things that would tend to stick in your mind about something as general as a concert hall would in all likelihood have been bad experiences anyway. It's a top venue though and it's important to Cardiff as a city to have somewhere encouraging the arts and being constantly active in doing so.

I have always found St David's Hall to be a little bit of a strange venue. That's not to say it's…read morenot good. Just odd. I think that's because it was, when built, quite a modern design, and that design was not universal enough to quite stand the test of time. What remains is an odd mixture of wood, green carpets and wide areas which make sense when they're full of people, but which are just tired when not. That being said, the selection of music, comedy, ballet and theatre in this venue is great. The theatre itself is vast, but seems much more intimate because of their carefully tiered seating. Seats encompass the stage, and there is a massive organ on display. Unfortunately, I've always found this venue to a little dampening to sound. Or the speakers aren't loud enough, or something. A good venue though.

A grandiose venue within the National Museum Cardiff, from inside the Reardon Smith Theatre looks…read moremuch larger than its 350 capacity, crescents of seats lending the feel of a university lecture hall constructed for royalty. Lectures, guest speakers and conferences are its bread and butter. But it's as a criminally underused occasional music venue that the Reardon Smith becomes most interesting, with fantastic views from all seats and impressively bombastic sound filling the cavernous space right up to its regal ceiling. As an antidote to sticky-floored gig holes, you can only hope that many more future shows find their way to the Reardon Smith Theatre, although they'll need to resolve the glaring lack of a bar first.

This is Cardiff's best comedy venue with some of the best acts…read more My only bit of advice though is to go when there is somebody you want to see appearing and book in advance. The best way to do this is to sign up for email alerts on their website. I've been twice, once to see Ross Noble which was brilliant and a normal night which I wasn't that impressed with in fact I found the price they were charging for the food and drink a better joke than some of the comedians tried.

Oh I do like a laugh. And where better to go for such shenanigans than to a comedy club. I believe…read moreLee Evan's owns it, but don't quote me on that. The Glee club has been fantastic everytime I've visited. Grade A comedians that cruelly try and split your yours sides do so as you enjoy a lovely dinner (paid separately) and spit your drink out everywhere. There was a host that tried on a punters coat while he was in the toilet, all fine and dandy you would've thought. However the guy who's coat it was went absolutely batty about it and left there and then...Some people clearly don't have a sense of humour, the irony. It is expensive in here though, not alot different if you visited a theatre to be honest. Looking near the £4 a pint mark. Last but now least, after you've wet your self laughing you can attempt to dry yourself off with a boogie as the place turns into a disco for a couple of hours. However, it's generally empty.

Earthfall is a pioneering, radical hybrid dance-theatre company that puts on exciting, energetic…read moreand unique productions. Since forming in 1989, the company has become widely known and very well-established across Wales, has won several awards, and has performed all over the world at major festivals. They've featured on TV programmes and have been involved in film work, winning the Bafta Cymru Award for Best Short Film for 'Too Old To Dream'. Unlike most conventional dance companies, Earthfall uses some performers who are not trained dancers, and brings political and social issues into the dance arena, as well as using sound and installation in their productions, alongside dance and theatre. If you haven't seen an Earthfall production, find out what they have coming up ('The Factory' is on in October 2010) - and get yourself a ticket! You're unlikely to have seen anything quite like it before.

Jessica Cohen and Jim Ennis formed this pioneering dance theatre company over 20 years ago and have…read moregarnered a reputation for issue-based work that combines radical choreography with live music and strong visual imagery. The award winning troupe seek a deeper experience of physical theatre resulting in performances that are gritty, emotional and often stamped with the word 'mesmerising' in press reviews. Earthfall as a company continue to develop and explore their relationships across the globe, they have regularly worked with companies in both Poland and Brussels, and have toured internationally across France, Germany, Holland and South America. This August will see Earthfall continuing their international work through a co-production of their 2005 show After The Birds, with CHOREA, a polish based theatre company. Earthfall are financially supported by the Arts Council of Wales and the Lottery Division of the Arts Council of Wales.

MMMMMMMMMMMM. Yeah. Huh? Sorry? UHHUH…read more Excuse my mumbling. What I was trying to tell you is that UHHUH are an inclusive dance theatre company with 'an artistic preference for individual creative expression.' They like to celebrate the diversity of dance and dancers by including people of different physicalities, movement vocabularies and ages. Mostly, they aim to produce accessible and challenging dance theatre. The Cardiff-based contemporary dance theatre company has ambitions. These ambitions include a desire to stay active and prolific, working in Wales and further afield. UHHUH was founded in 2001 by Sarah Hall and Jon Luxton, and began life as Talking Bodies, offering inclusive dance workshops at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. In 2002, Talking Bodies ran a season of inclusive dance workshops with visiting practitioners including Adam Benjamin and Petra Kuppers. Following the success of the workshops, Talking Bodies took a mandatory break whilst Sarah had a baby - fair enough, right? - and subsequently retrained. Jon continued to pursue his creative passion individually, with performances with Blue Eyed Soul (a Shropshire based inclusive dance company) and Cardiff-based Found Reality. Since 2006, UHHUH dance has had a limited output but still put on the occasional has full length shows, receiving strong support from funders and their audience.

Want to see Boy Zone? Take That? West Life? Enrique Iglesias? Pink? Then this is the best place in…read moreCardiff to go, when these and other pop stars come to Wales. I long for Britney Spears to come and sing here. I've seen her in London, but it is not the same as it would be to be able to see her here. I really enjoyed the Boy Zone concert it was amazing, they were on roller skates and they performed scenes from the Movie Grease. This was back in their early years. It ended with fireworks and started with fireworks. Spectacular! I saw Busted there as well that was another awesome concert! I'd never had such fun in a long while, before I had been to that concert. I didn't even really care about how loud it all was, which I often do. I recommend it for all; especially teenagers, the older the better I feel. It's near Cineworld cinema, in the town centre.

This is a really good arena. I've never been to it to see any sports (I don't even know if they do…read moredo sports there - sometimes places really surprise you and you realise that they have an ice rink under the floor and things!) but only music. It's a fantastic venue to see a concert. There is always a really atmosphere - and although part of that will obviously be my own excitement, a bad venue can hinder a gig. There's a good amount of seating and of standing room and the prices are always reasonable. I just wish there were more loos! That's always the problem!

I went to see Rain Man here a few months ago featuring Oliver Chris and Neil Morrisey. As a…read moretheatre virgin as it were, I entered with much trepidation, unsure of what to expect. I was highly impressed. It's decorated quite lavishly in a pretty old-fashioned way. It certainly conformed to every imagining I had of what a theatre should look like inside and was in keeping with the history of the building, built in 1878. Onto the bar then! The service was quick and the drinks were reasonably priced. A surprise, as I thought I'd get stung for a drink here. A cool service they provided (I have no idea if this is standard fare or not) is that you could order drinks for the intermission, so when you come out, rather than waste any precious time queueing and paying, your drinks are there waiting for you with your name on! I thought this was brilliant. As nobody really wants to stand up in the middle of a tense scene and shuffle past an entire row, there was the expected mad rush for the bathrooms at the end of the performance but the toilets were adequately sized which was great. I'm not a big theatre person but I had a really enjoyabke night here and would definitely go back if something that took my fancy came to town.

The New Theatre is an old classic looking theatre that I always remember when visiting it on school…read moretrips to see what shows they had. I vaguely remember seeing 'The Hobbit' on stage and that was enjoyable. The New Theatre is one of the oldest buildings in Cardiff and still delivers shows for everybody. If I were to put a certain category of shows the New Theatre has it would be pantomimes. Everyone loves the pantomime and The New Theatre knows this, it has had shows like Aladin, Dick Whittington and a variety of other shows. It does have some drama plays too. I went to and see Romeo and Juliet with my girlfriend. However, this does bring me to mention a problem the auditorium has. We were sitting at the back of the stalls and unfortunately we had a giant pillar between our seats so we couldn't even see each other, this wasn't exactly the most romantic way to spend an evening watching Romeo and Juliet's final scenes and all I have to comfort me is a pillar. New Theatre I beg of you, please knock this pillar down. The New Theatre is an old classic theatre that still has a buzz when a performance starts. It may not have the most contemporary shows but it's brilliant for families. My only problem is that annoying pillar. Knock it down!

Welsh National Opera is a world-renowned touring opera company based in the Millennium Centre in…read moreCardiff Bay. It has a permanent company of 250 people, including the chorus, the orchestra, the principal singers, various music staff and other creative teams as well as supporting administration staff. I'm not very good at sitting still for very long, and the idea of going to an opera that's nearly three hours long makes me feel nervous. They do, however, put on some shorter performances which are more suitable for first-time opera goers. This huge operation is often off on tour elsewhere - it's incredibly well-respected and tours Wales, the rest of the UK, and other worldwide destinations - each year giving more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a total audience of around 150,000 people! Luckily, they do often give performances in their home city of Cardiff, too - at the Wales Millennium Centre and St David's Hall - and even occasional outdoor performances at St Fagans. They have lots going on in September/October 2010 in Cardiff, as well as in February, March, May and June 2011.

Now I must start this review by saying I'm not the biggest fan of opera. I like the idea of it, but…read moreI don't get moved to tears by it, unless I have no way of escape. I like singular songs from some opera. I can appreciate the beauty of someone bursting into operatic song, even if they are in Grangetown. I like people like Antony and the Johnsons. Okay, now I've confessed that, I have still enjoyed some of the projects by Welsh National Opera. Projects like their collaboration with National Theatre Wales for Shelf Life. I also have plenty of friends who rave rave rave about them. So this is just a matter of taste, okay. I also don't like football, but you probably do. WNO is Europe's busiest touring opera company and the largest provider of touring opera in the UK. The world-class touring opera company has a permanent company of 250 people.

I want to write poems about this place…read more Live Lounge is the last chance saloon for the rest of Cardiff. Open until 4am, it is the stopping off place for the most hardcore patrons of every other bar in Cardiff, so chances are by about half 3, you're going to know at least three different groups of people in there. The cocktails are delicious, and made with consummate skill. One bartender in particular knows the ins-and-outs of his bar, and it shows. Every member of the barstaff in fact are cheerful, energetic and entertaining. Drinks are preposterously cheap, which is always a nice bonus (£5 for a bottle of wine quickly sends any female friends down the slippery slope of happy alcoholism). With live music performed by a selection of the top local Cardiff bands every lunchtime and evening, the club certainly earns its name. And, whilst it is always packed, and can sometimes get a little hairy in there, it is always fun and rarely an annoyance to end up there at the end of the night.

Right, here is the break down of the rating I've given Live Lounge:…read more 1* - It is open until 5 in the morning every day of the week. Now, I feel like this is how late most clubs should stay open but most of the places here shut at 2 or 3. As a result, there is always a surge towards Live Lounge when the clubs let out. 2* - And, to be honest, 3*s as well, for the prices of the drinks which are quite ridiculously cheap. They are also really good and the cocktails are delicious. The bar can get pretty busy so I wouldn't recommend having the cocktails at night but at lunchtime or in the evening, they're a must. 4* - The music caters to a lot of tastes. A standard night will see people dancing to 90s cheese, club classics, a little bit of indie and some RnB. If you're looking for more specialised music they also have a lot of live bands playing. 5* - The building in general. The dance floor is big, it's located near a cash point (and near fastfood for those who've had too much). It's near the main clubs. It's near the union. It's near the taxi rank.