The Detroit Opera House is unquestionably one of the most glamorous, beautiful spaces in the city.

The last two decades have seen tremendous success and incredible performances. The building was officially reopened on April 21, 1996. Thankfully, the Michigan Opera Theatre took over the rundown theater in 1989 and launched a massive fund-raising campaign to bring it back to life as its new home.Ī groundbreaking for the project was held June 21, 1993, and the MOT set out to spiff up the chandeliers, replace cracked terra cotta, patch up holes and fix a million other things needed to truly restore the theater to its original splendor.

The theater started hosting rock shows during the early 1980s, hosting everyone from The Clash to U2 to Bon Jovi, but safety concerns over its wobbly balcony and a fire in 1985 would lead to it becoming abandoned. Such a beautiful building, spared by smut and crime.

The last films shown at this grand old movie palace was a triple billing of 'A Naked Rider,' 'At Last, At Last,' and 'Jailbait Babysitter.'Īs undignified as this sounds, these types of flicks and Detroit's depressed property values likely kept the theater from being torn down. We're talkin' horror, gore, Blaxploitation, kung-fu and, you guessed it, soft-core porn. As they limped along trying to survive, most of the downtown theaters started showing the kinds of films you wouldn't find in the prim and proper 'burbs.

Detroit opera house nutcracker