National Theatre, Budapest

Newly opened in 2002 near the Pest end of the Lágymányosi Bridge, the Hungarian National Theater attracts theater lovers from near and far. Various plays, including Shakespeare's "King Lear" and Sophocles' "Oedipus," take one of the two available stages and wow the crowds every week. Some other must-see plays are Gerhart Hauptmann's "The Beaver Coat," a stage version of Mikhail Bulgakov's Russian classic, "Master and Margarita," and Reginald Rose's "Twelve Angry Men."