With such great booking, the Gypsy Tea Room doesn't really need to pander to the local scene. The Deep Ellum mainstay's larger ballroom is the perfect mid-level venue for touring acts such as Ryan Adams, The Roots and Robert Plant, who want to sell a thousand tickets and still consider their concerts "intimate," while the smaller "tea room" gives up-and-coming indie stars like The Raveonettes, Aesop Rock and Death From Above 1979 plenty of space along with a quality sound system. Those national shows could pay the bills by themselves, but it's the club's concessions to local promotions, like monthly Final Friday hip-hop events and Spune Productions' singer-songwriter socials, that prove the club isn't just looking to make a buck. These Gypsies care about the scene. No sound system or sightline can top that fact.

Readers' Pick
Gypsy Tea Room

Once again, it's all about the all-gay all-the-time Uptown Players. With this summer's sold-out run of Del Shores' Southern Baptist Sissies, this theater group earned enough money (and a little more) to pay off its debts and fund the rest of its season. That's how strong the following has become for this troupe, whose mission is to do theater that reflects "contemporary and alternative lifestyle themes." Attracting the top actors and directors in town, Uptown has such a good reputation that out-of-town playwrights often fly in to see productions of their plays--and end up telling Uptown producers Jeff Rane and Craig Lynch that their little company has outdone the New York or L.A. versions. Andrew Lippa came in to check out The Wild Party. Playwright Shores was so impressed with their staging of Sissies that he promptly hired one of the actors, Emerson Collins, to take over a main role in the Los Angeles revival in 2006. Founded in 2001, Uptown Players get more ambitious every season.

Readers' Pick
Uptown Players