Detroit City Guide - Culture

Unfortunately, Detroit has a reputation that precedes it - as a city scarred by urban waste, surrounded by vast suburbs of malls and parking lots. In some ways, nothing could be further from the truth. Not only was Detroit home to the birth of Motown but it has had a thriving arts scene for a very long time. Professional opera dates back well into the 19th century and continues to thrive within the superb acoustics of the historic Detroit Opera House. Detroit also has a thriving theatre community spearheaded by the well-known Fox Theatre. The city also possesses the most live theatre seats in the United States outside of New York.

Ticketmaster (tel: (248) 645 6666; website: www.ticketmaster.com) sells tickets for a large number of Detroit cultural events. The monthly city magazine Hour has good listings and is available from news-stands and some hotels.

Music: Michigan Opera Theatre (website: www.motopera.org) stages opera, operetta, dance and musical works at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway (tel: (313) 961 3500). Orchestra Hall, 3711 Woodward Avenue (tel: (313) 576 5111), one of Detroit's most prized cultural and historic landmarks, was recently restored and modernized as part of the development of the US$60m Max M Fisher Music Center. This new centre was unveiled by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) (website: www.detroitsymphony.com) in 2003 and has lived up to its billing as the destination for all types of music. In addition to the world's greatest classical music by the renowned DSO, The Max has played host to jazz, pop, family concerts and much more.

Theatre: The cornerstone of the Detroit theatre district is the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Avenue (tel: (313) 471 3200; website: www.olympiaentertainment.com), which hosts big-name musicals. The Fisher Theatre, 3011 West Grand Boulevard (tel: (313) 872 1000; website: www.nederlanderdetroit.com), plays host to touring productions of New York comedies, dramas and musicals. The Plowshares Theatre Company, 2870 East Grand Boulevard (tel: (313) 872 0279; website: www.plowshares.org), is Michigan's only African-American theatre company, presenting comedies, new works and state premieres of African-American plays.

Dance: The Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, 350 Madison Avenue (tel: (313) 887 8500; website: www.musichall.org), dubbed the 'dance capital of middle America', is an intimate theatre that possesses good sightlines and acoustics and presents a strong dance programme. The Detroit Dance Collective, Royal Oak (tel: (810) 444 4553; website: www.detroitdancecollective.org) and the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, 1541 West Hamlin Road, Rochester Hills (tel: (248) 852 5850; website: www.ede-dance.org), perform modern dance throughout the Detroit area.

Film: Visitors wishing to take in a movie in Detroit will find a Motown-themed lobby and stadium-style seating at the AMC Star Southfield, 25333 West 12 Mile Road, Southfield (tel: (248) 368 1802; website: www.amctheatres.com). The AMC Forum, 44681 Mound Road, Sterling Heights (tel: (586) 254 5663; website: www.amctheatres.com) features no less than 30 different screens, while the Birmingham Eight Theater, 211 South Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham (tel: (248) 644 3456/FILM), has eight state-of-the-art screens in restored art deco splendour. Tickets may be purchased over the telephone. Repertory and arthouse films can be seen at Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue (tel: (313) 833 7900; website: www.dia.org) and the Landmark Main Art Theater, 118 North Main Street, Royal Oak (tel: (248) 263 2111; website: www.landmarktheatres.com).

The pleasant community of Grosse Pointe was the setting for the romantic comedy starring John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage, 1998). The more sinister side of Detroit was explored by Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987), a tale of urban decay, insane corporate greed and technology run amuck.

Literary Notes: Mitch Albom is a Detroit native who is one of America's recent publishing phenomena following the success of Tuesdays with Morrie (1997). After hearing that one of his former university professors was terminally ill, Albom spent a great deal of time with him and documented the life of his mentor in this moving work, which had a very lengthy run on the New York Times bestseller list. He went on to write the best-selling The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003), which was quickly adapted into a TV movie starring Jon Voight and Jeff Daniels. Elmore Leonard is one of America's best-known thriller and Western writers and lives in Detroit. He is most celebrated for Rum Punch (1992), which was made into Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), and Get Shorty (1990), which was made into a movie of the same name starring John Travolta. Having written over three dozen novels, it is not surprising that his hometown and surrounding countryside make it into his subject matter. City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (1980) is the story of a veteran homicide officer in a showdown with a psychotic killer.