Hot Times in the Olde Towne

When the temperature drops, Boston heats up with buzz and beauty around every bend.

By Gail Friedman

It may seem counterintuitive, but just when you imagine Boston might shut down for the winter, it heats up. The city's dozens of colleges are in full swing, which alone could keep a metropolis hopping. But in addition, museums are staging important exhibitions, theater is available both from the pros in Boston 's theater district and from quality campus troupes, and hungry epicures are lining up at the city's award-winning restaurants.

Boston Rocks

A place that spawned artists as diverse as Leonard Bernstein and Chick Corea swings to its own beat. Want jazz? There's Scullers Jazz Club at the Doubletree Guest Suites hotel, overlooking the Charles River , or The Charles Hotel's Regattabar, near Harvard Square . An every-night jazz place is Wally's Café, on Massachusetts Avenue , a longtime staple of up-and-coming Berklee College of Music performers. The Berklee Performance Center itself boasts a wide array of shows, including top names in jazz, folk and pop.

But if you're too punk rock for that, the FleetCenter presents big-name concerts, while more intimate shows play at venues such as the Orpheum Theatre, the Paradise and the Somerville Theatre, as well as Cambridge clubs like The Middle East and Club Passim. With Boston University , Boston College , Northeastern, Emerson, Tufts, Brandeis, MIT and Harvard around, there are also surprisingly varied acts on or near campus, including the weekly bluegrass night at the gritty Cantab Lounge near Harvard.

Beantown Blockbusters

Pre- and post-Broadway smashes light up Boston , and this season is no exception, with the Wang Theatre hosting Cats , February 22 to 27, and Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby, March 29 through April 3 (as well as several Boston Ballet performances). At the Shubert Theatre, you'll find True West , January 25 to February 6, while Phantom of the Opera opens at the newly renovated 1928 Opera House on March 30. The Producers returns to the Colonial Theatre, February 2 to 19, and Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate takes over the venue, March 15 to 27.

Other offerings this winter include Nobody Don't Like Yogi with Ben Gazzara, March 8 to 13 at the Wilbur Theatre , and, at the Lyric Stage, The Glass Menagerie , January 7 to February 5; Red Herring , a political black comedy, February 18 to March 19; and Living Out , a modern look at cultural clashes, March 25 to April 23. The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College boasts a variety of winter performances, including opera: La Boheme , January 21 to 23, Alceste , January 28 to 30, and Carmen , March 23 to 26.

The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge , known for an offbeat, cerebral menu, serves up a South African Festival, including Foreign Aids by Pieter-Dirk Uys, January 5 to 23, and Nothing But the Truth by John Kani, January 21 to 30. Also at the ART: The Far Side of the Moon by Robert Lepage, February 4 to 27 ; Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe, March 5 to 26; and an American premiere of Olly's Prison by Edward Bond, directed by the ART's artistic director, Robert Woodruff, April 1 to 24.

Half-price tickets to a variety of shows are available at BosTix booths in Copley Square and Faneuil Hall the day of the performance.

The City Lights Up

Boston clubs don't get bumping until 11 p.m. or midnight, and local regulations close them at 2 a.m. But that just makes for more condensed, intense partying. Check out Boston 's version of billiards at Felt, in the Ladder District, which offers four floors, pool tables galore, DJs and multiple sound systems. Caprice, in the nearby Theater District, comes alive after 11 with an international crowd and music that ranges from salsa to disco to dancehall. Saint, in the Back Bay 's Copley Square Hotel, is another late-night favorite, with a stunning futuristic bar and small private rooms that they dare to call “bed pods.” Sophia's, in the Fenway, offers a mix of Latin and pop on its dance floor. Many other nighttime venues, including the entertainment giants in the shadow of Fenway Park on Lansdowne Street , cater primarily to the college crowd. For those who prefer Sinatra to a “what's your major” come-on, there are few late-night settings more dignified — and dimly lit — than The Oak Bar at the Fairmont Copley Plaza .

Hot Topic

After a night out, you may feel a need to redeem yourself with some intellectual stimulation. From Boston University to Northeastern, there's almost an excess of alma maters, but there's no need to matriculate to benefit from the lectures, concerts and readings on local campuses. Check the universities' Web sites for complete calendars. More often than not, these are called community outreach events. Translation: they're free.

Legendary Figures

If you listen closely, you can still hear the buzz of the Revolution in our crooked cobblestoned streets. Boston makes this history remarkably accessible, whether you're touring the 1798 State House, watching Kennedy-Nixon debates at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, or walking the Freedom Trail. Make sure you stroll at least a piece of that historical scavenger hunt, which meanders past Faneuil Hall's Great Hall, where our Founding Fathers, suffragettes, abolitionists and presidents debated the principles by which we still live; the Old North Church, where lanterns signaled Paul Revere; the first public school; Revolutionary graveyards; the USS Constitution , also known as Old Ironsides ; and Bunker Hill, at the trail's end. Or take one of the Boston History Collaborative's specialized tours, such as the Innovation Odyssey, a trail of discoveries and inventions; the Literary Trail, which introduces the Boston area through the eyes of Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott and other writers; or Boston by Sea, a performance of maritime history.

Shopping That Sizzles

If one stretch of real estate can sum up Boston 's sense of style, it's Newbury Street , where couture disciples shop Chanel, country clubbers line up for Lilly Pulitzer apparel at In the Pink and the fashion-forward face off at the new Marc Jacobs boutique. Every major city has high fashion, but Newbury Street serves it up in 19th-century town houses that lend a quaint New England character to your shopping spree.

A block from Newbury Street are two mammoth indoor shopping refuges — the Prudential Center and Copley Place . They're connected by a glass footbridge, which means a week's worth of one-stop window shopping, from Neiman Marcus and Tiffany & Co. at Copley to Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue at the Pru — and not a snowbank in sight. Another shopping mecca, the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, may be a modern-day home to bountiful souvenirs and gift shops, but it's been a market and meeting spot for more than 260 years.

If you prefer to carry home a bit of history, peruse the antique shops that line Charles Street on Beacon Hill , where vintage goods range from fine period furniture to quirky knickknacks and costume jewelry. Serious bargain hunters, however, run straight for the original Filene's Basement in Downtown Crossing. Not for the lazy or timid, it's home to the clothing tug-of-war, the annual discount wedding dress dash and other cutthroat strategies of competitive shopping.

Blistering Passes

You can snag a ticket to a Celtics game if you're lucky, but don't count out the Red Sox just because it's winter. Fenway Park tours continue all year long, thrilling baseball fans with a peek at the impressive .406 Club (named for Ted Williams' 1941 batting average — the last time a player has surpassed the .400 mark), the view from coveted Green Monster seats and even a walk right into the dugout. Tours leave hourly from the Souvenir Store across Yawkey Way, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sports junkies will also appreciate The Sports Museum inside the FleetCenter, which showcases the history and memorabilia of New England's greatest athletes, including a tribute to retired Celtics; Bruins' Hall of Fame portraits; Pedro Martinez's locker; and a triple-overtime of tidbits on every sport from boxing to rugby.

Exciting Exhibits

Visitors, especially first-timers, focus on the world-class Museum of Fine Arts , which boasts one of the largest Monet collections outside Paris , an extensive collection of Asian art, and masterpieces of photography, modern art and Americana . Known for both depth and breadth, the MFA allows visitors to gaze at a Picasso, a Degas and a van der Weyden the same day they see a Hockney or a Warhol. But if you prefer to discover the world's future Warhols, head to the Institute of Contemporary Art , which has introduced up-and-comers to the contemporary art community for 65 years.

In Cambridge , the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University has a collection that spans the Middle Ages to the current day with works by Degas, Manet, Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Renoir, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Pissarro and Rousseau. Just a few blocks from the MFA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum showcases Gardner 's intimate collection in her former mansion, styled after a 15th-century Venetian palace. Admire works by Matisse, Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian and Sargent, then ask one of the guards to help you find Dante's death mask (a spooky enough endeavor to captivate squirming children).

If the hunt for Dante's funereal face doesn't satisfy the youngsters, entertain and educate them at the Boston Children's Museum, the New England Aquarium or the Museum of Science, where kids can discover the power of electricity, breed virtual fish, play volleyball without a ball, watch state-of-the-art IMAX movies and explore more than 550 hands-on exhibits. On Friday nights the museum's telescopes bring the stars down to earth, when the Gilliland Observatory is open to the public.

Hot on Our Heels

Boston is known as “ America 's Walking City .” Whether you follow the Freedom Trail or enjoy a carefree wander, you can cover much of the city on foot. Discover the Old World charm of the North End, a traditional Italian 'hood that has endured despite a yuppie invasion. Genteel Beacon Hill , crowned by the golden dome of the State House, has been home to two JFKs — one a young, handsome congressman and president named Kennedy and another a war hero-cum-senator who goes by the last name of Kerry. Fashionable Newbury Street runs through the Back Bay, once Boston 's low-rent district, all the way from the Public Garden to Massachusetts Avenue . And the South End still carries a trace of its Spanish accent as it has moved upscale and artsy, becoming the go-go spot for new restaurants and trendy shops. From the Seaport to the Financial District, the city's winding streets yield small treasures — a colonial headstone, a well-tended garden, a venerable bookstore — to curious pedestrian explorers.

Entrées Ablaze

All that walking builds up an appetite. You may see downtown power-lunchers heading to Locke-Ober or The Federalist, but Newbury Street shoppers prefer Sonsie, Stephanie's and the Armani Café. Looking for beautiful people? Mistral and Davio's provide the backdrop for dinnertime celeb sightings, while the North End's Terramia Ristorante or South End's Hamersley's Bistro offer quieter, quality couple time. Abe & Louie's or Grill 23 & Bar serve up steak to suit a beef snob, while dessert fanatics weigh in at Finale, a European-style café that specializes in lavish and sweet works of art. Around the corner, Smith & Wollensky brings its nationally-acclaimed dry-aged steaks and Great American Wine List to one of Boston 's most historic settings: the castle on Arlington Street . The list goes on, with numerous winners of James Beard Foundation awards and other national accolades dotting Boston 's foodscape. Check restaurant reviews on Boston.com and Bostonmagazine.com — or just notice which spots are crowded, then call in advance for a table.