There will be no shortage of entertainment in Metro Detroit in 2015. The New Year will ring in a lot of premier concerts, musical events, concerts of classical music, theater and art exhibitions. Here's a sample of some of the most important aspects in the coming year:
in 2015, Detroit is partying like its 1989.
That's what will happen May 30 when Taylor Swift brings the year to Ford Field biggest tour. True, only a handful of concerts of the year have been announced, but it is hard to imagine a bigger tour giant Swift making its way through our beautiful city.
There are plenty of other great shows on the agenda for next year. Grammy darling Sam Smith makes his debut in Detroit later this month at the Masonic Temple, and after a year off, Kenny Chesney returns to Ford Field for his eighth blowout home to the Detroit Lions.
In addition, Bob Seger has a March 26 concert in line at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the first of what is supposed to be the hometown of several shows copies of his album "Ride Out". And with Kid Rock release of a new album next month, which is bound to have something big on the sleeve.
Here are the Top 10 shows the Detroit concert can expect in 2015.
1. Taylor Swift, May 30 Ford Field: To call Swift reigning queen of pop is to undermine your net worth. She is the biggest star, period music, and this show Ford Field is the third round of touring behind its giant "1989", the best-selling 2014 album does not get any bigger than this.
2. Garth Brooks, February 20, 21, 27, 28, Joe Louis Arena: Nobody makes big as Garth Brooks, and Megastar country returns to Detroit for the first time since 1996 with six shows in sand, double dipping with two shows a night on February 21 and 28 two arena shows in one night, who does that? Garth Brooks ago.
3. Bob Seger, March 26 Palace of Auburn Hills: The album called "Ride Out" - read into it whatever you want. But even if this show Palace - we're assuming it's the first of many - not his last sand blast in his hometown, comments from his current tour has been so strong that it is a must on their own.
4. Sam Smith, January 22 Masonic Temple: It is six awards at the ceremony next month's Grammy (including album, song and record of the year), but before the British with angelic voice changes by the Masonic Temple to show off their stuff. He will not be in a place this small again.
5. Kenny Chesney, August 22, Ford Field: It's always a party when the rocker country comes to town, and the perennial favorite of Ford Field - who has played the place more than any other artist - is bringing rebellious rocker Eric Church with him. For some, the tailgate has already begun.
6. Lana Del Rey, May 31 DTE Energy Music Theatre: After making his debut in Detroit charming at the Masonic Temple last year, Del Rey graduated to the big leagues with this show DTE. We're not sure how it will translate into a big outdoor stage, but we cannot wait to find out.
7. Ariana Grande, March 7 Joe Louis Arena: Great produces a great sound in a small package, but if you can achieve a spectacular sand seen. His only other Metro Detroit concert to date was a small show at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in August 2013, days before the release of their debut album. We are excited to see what she has in store.
8. Foo Fighters, August 24, DTE: "Roads Sonic" of chronic side stories of the great cities of the US music and Detroit left off the list. We want an explanation, and hope to get one during this celebration of the end of the summer of survivors of alternative rock.
9. An address, August 29, Ford Field: Last summer the British quintet full Ford Field on-back-to-back nights; this year they are back with a new album - the fine "Four" - behind them as his stardom shows no signs of slowing.
10. Meghan Trainor, March 2, the Hall of San Andrés: The summer hit "All about That Bass" came out of nowhere and ruled the charts for eight weeks, but the book has not been written about whether this is only the beginning or the beginning of the end for the singer. His biggest "Title", the label debut due later this month, should have some answers.
And looking beyond the Top 10:
Neil Diamond has enjoyed a revival of interest with the release of a new album, "Melody Road", which will bring some of those songs, plus classics like "Sweet Caroline" and "Cherry Cherry" at the Palace of Auburn Hills March 20. Barry Manilow says is his "One Last Time!" tour, and considering that he has not been on the road a lot in the last decade should be a hot ticket for the writer of "Mandy" and "I Write the Songs" when he performs with Dave Koz at the Palace of Auburn Hills February 15.
January always brings a treat for lovers of traditional American music with Folk Festival Ann Arbor, January 30 and 31 at the Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor. Fundraiser this year for The Ark has Jason Isbell, Amos Lee, Ani DiFranco, Brandi Carlile, BuffySainte-Marie, The Dust Bowl Revival and many others.
Detroit never gets both country music as we would like, and the annual Downtown Hoedown focuses on recent pop-country acts, we hear a lot about modern country radio. But we will always Windsor: Dwight Yoakam brings his sound California at the Colosseum at Caesars Windsor January 10 and Trace Adkins to perform in the same venue on March 21 Kenny Chesney The Big Revival is set for August 22 in Ford field.
Stand-up comedy has great headliners coming through this year too. "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg was announced for April 17 in the sound board MotorCity Casino Hotel (tickets go on sale January 8). Kathy Griffin Gossip Queen is in the same place January 22. Other big names are coming through Aziz Ansari in a total Masonic Temple almost full on January 25 and Lewis Black at the Fox Theatre on April 25 probably worth a hour or so in the car to see the legend in the making Kevin Hart in Toledo Stranahan Theater on January 21, too.
Adam Graham, Susan Whitall and Melody Baetens
classical music
Nobody working with a couple of ears can call classical music season fall of a bust, which with an explosive performance of "Elektra" with Christine Goerke at the Detroit Opera House, pianist Garrick Ohlsson address Rachmaninov with the DSO, not to mention a band of top-drawer chamber and solo recitals.
But as Frank Sinatra sang the song CY Coleman 1959, "the best is yet to come." Winter, spring and early summer hold a treasure trove of delights, and some are truly "must-listen."
Here are some of the most promising offers classical music in the new year:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra: hoping to repeat the success of last year's Beethoven Festival, the DSO in February draws attention to the music of another titanic composer: Tchaikovsky. Besides the six symphonies of the Russian master, concerts and other works will be performed. Violinist Julian Rachlin and pianist Olga Kern are some of the soloists. The three-week festival begins February 12.
On March 6-7, the DSO celebrates the contributions of African Americans to classical music concerts in its annual classical roots. Ex DSO Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins returns to the podium.
The orchestra limits its regular subscription season with a concert version (ie, without costumes or sets) of romantic opera Puccini's "Tosca". Soprano Patricia Racette sings the title role. May 29 and 31.
Michigan Opera Theatre: Speaking of opera, the most anticipated book of the season is "Frida" by Robert Xavier Rodríguez (7-28 March), based on the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It fits with the display of the DIA "Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit." The opera of 1991 is part of the regional coverage MOT, so instead of their usual residence in the Detroit Opera House, "Frida" will be mounted alternately in the center of Macomb for the Performing Arts in Clinton Township, the Berman Center the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield Township, and space Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA. Catalina Cuervo, sensual Colombian soprano to sing the part of Kahlo tortured and talented, she sang an excerpt from the opera last summer at a press conference here, and she was electric.
Opera fans will also want to take the big Deborah Voight, who plays the lead role of effervescent Lehar's operetta "The Merry Widow" (April 11-19) at the Detroit Opera House. The American soprano will make his long awaited debut MOT.
University Musical Society: As great as our DSO is instructive and enlightening to hear other orchestras around the world, and the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor invites some of the best sets of the globe to these parts, including: vaunted Russian Mariinsky orchestra with Valery Gergiev on the podium (at 24-25); Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra of Holland, directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the energetic music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra (February 19); and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra, with pianist Jeremy inventive Dank taking two concerts of Bach (March 25) in Britain; and Orchestra South Korea Seoul Philharmonic, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, as thin as a conductor who is a pianist (April 23). Denk, incidentally, also appears in a solo recital (January 25), presented by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit.
Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival: Our music teachers used to warn us that summer is no excuse to slack off, and this festival two weeks in June brings home that advice. Back when the event adventure began in 1994, the concerts were limited to Catholics and Protestants Jewish houses of worship in Oakland County. But the festival, which now stretches from Windsor to Ann Arbor, has grown exponentially. After the 2014 season, the artistic director James Tocco handed the reins to cellist Paul Watkins. At press time, no details of the program, but the alignment must be consolidated by early spring.
George Bulanda
Food
the last 12 months was a banner year for new restaurant openings in Detroit (see Molly Abraham story on page 4 M), and the year is not nobody went hungry, either. Coming in the next few months, foodies Metro Detroit have even more than expected, from the center to the suburbs, casual to upscale.
One of the most anticipated restaurant openings Detroit in early 2015 is the chef Kate Williams double threat in the historic building GAR, a structure that looks like a majestic castle in Grand River and Cass. Previously chef Rodin, Williams will first open a tavern called Republic, followed by more casual dinner Parks and Rec.
Williams says his inspiration for food in Republic is "the building itself."
"I'll have to bring in the old world techniques," says Williams, who adds that the culinary presentation will be plentiful and rustic. "It cooking by smoking, Corning and all kinds of conservation methods that would be used before modern refrigeration existed. It was very local, and I could only cook with what he had in his pasture."
"It's a beautiful space and is definitely more stylish with leather armchairs and some interesting original elements."
Williams plans to open Republic, which seats 92, and in the second week of January. Later this year, which will debut Parks and Rec, a more informal and smaller with what she calls "comfort, food chef," including a full bar lunch and dinner.
Other anticipated restaurant openings include:
Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails: Rustic American restaurant owner Oakland cocktail lounge office in Ferndale. 15 E. Kirby, Detroit.
Zeke Rock and Roll BBQ: A new hangout for neighborhood with a full bar, smoked meats and occasional live music on the road. 240 W. Nine Mile, Ferndale.
GreenSpace Cafe: This vegetarian and vegan restaurant is open in the front room of Mary operated for over two decades. (A new Mary is in the works for Oakland County elsewhere.) 215 W. Nine Mile, Ferndale.
HopCat Ann Arbor: Hundreds of people lined the December 13 HopCat Detroit when opened, and uproar in Ann Arbor beer bar should be no different. Opening February 14 to 311 Maynard, Ann Arbor began.
Jolly Pumpkin: This brewery / winery / distillery will also have a pizza joint when opening this spring. 441 W. Canfield, Detroit.
B Spot: Iron Chef Michael Symon has plans to open two more of their burgers, one at Partridge Creek and fourth in a central location. Partridge Creek, a shopping complex in Macomb, is also ready for a Blackfinn Ameripub in 2015.
melody Baetens
Art and Museums
The blockbuster of 2015 will be "Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit" in the Detroit Institute of Arts, a highly anticipated survey of the careers of both artists, with a special focus on the time spent in the Motor City of 1932- 1933, while Rivera murals created "Detroit Industry" museum. Furthermore, exposure, years in the making, will feature more than 60 paintings, prints and drawings, 27 of which are by Kahlo.
The show runs from March 15 to July 12.
"There are all sorts of weird, wonderful and not so wonderful turn in Detroit at the height of the depression issues," says DIA associate curator of contemporary art by Mark Rosenthal, who organized the show. "They come to the city just after Henry Ford sent thugs to beat up union organizers - and yet here comes Rivera, the Mexican Communist is rare and strange.”
There have been other Kahlo and Rivera shows, but Detroit has built a huge advantage over most places, as exposure include "Detroit Industry", widely regarded as one of his greatest masterpieces.
But if Detroit was good for Rivera, Kahlo city also drove forward in his artistic expression.
"Detroit is the moment when, in fact, becomes Frida Frida," says Rosenthal, "when she starts making the first paintings that focus on your body after miscarriage".
1986 Exhibition DIA, "Diego Rivera: A Retrospective" attracted 227,000 people. With the addition of Kahlo on this occasion, the museum hopes for even more.
"Frida seems to take people wherever they go," says the director of the DIA Graham Beal. "Tate Modern in London had record attendance for 2005 show, and I think she did the same in Vienna with a recent exhibition there."
Moving on to something completely different, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit will open its second show "Detroit Affinities" February 2 with cartoons, over-the-top painted Jamian Juliano-Villani based in Brooklyn.
The exhibition runs until March 29.
The "Affinities" series consists of 10 individual exhibitions sequential, half of artists from Detroit and half from elsewhere. Exposure Juliano-Villani promises to be colorful and intriguing. GQ Magazine named the 27-year-old, one of the "10 artists to watch" at the Festival of Art Basel Miami Beach this year.
In Bloomfield Hills, Cranbrook Art Museum will host "MR MDWST. - A Real Good Time in Beverly Fre $ h", starring a stylized autobiographical character who is a substitute for the artist and the Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate Zack Ostrowski. The show runs from February 2 to March 22.
And design geniuses will be pleased to hear that "Harry Bertoia Jewelry" opens March 14 and run through November 29, with delicate metalwork principles of the famous Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate and longtime collaborator with furniture designers Hans and Florence Knoll.
And in a nod to the vast population of reducers Michigan, Henry Ford will open "Engines Exposed" January 10 that lets you get under the hood of 40 cars on display key "Driving America" museum. The show closes March 15th.
And on May 9, the photo exhibition "Roadside America: From the lens of John Margolies" will open and run until September 7th.
Michael H. Hodges
Theater
all imaginable theatrical tastes must be satisfied in this season.
It is not the familiar, "Memphis the Musical" at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on April 17, and the new, "2AZ" at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea June to August 11, 29, and a few surprises in the middle.
Broadway in Detroit offers a solid line of eight plays all at Fisher Theatre, Alan Lichtenstein, executive director of programmers Nederlander Detroit for the Fisher Theatre and Opera House Detroit, call one of the greatest seasons in a long time.
It starts with two award-winning programs Tony for Best Musical. The first is "Walking Tall" by Harvey Fierstein-songrwriter playwright and singer Cyndi Lauper, running at 15 to 25. It won Best Musical in 2013.
The other, "Once" about a gentleman who gives up his musical dreams until he meets a woman who inspires, runs 3 to 15 February. The musical won a Tony Award in 2012.
"What is very interesting about 'Once' is that all actors are also the musicians in the show, so play all musical instruments," says Lichtenstein. "And in fact we have a bar on stage where people can come and have a drink before the show and during intermission."
In the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, ready for the premiere of a musical tribute to the Godfather of Soul, "is a man's world: James Brown Story" on May 8.
"We've been keeping this a secret for three years," says Vince Paul, president and artistic director of the Music Hall. "We have the rights to three years from the family, but we knew Mick Jagger was doing the movie and he also paid for the documentary, so we waited."
The full-length musical was written and directed by Don Roberts, who also wrote and directed the film "Drum Line".
Apart from three or four stars known nationally, the rest of the cast is local.
Expect an opening red carpet with all the bells and whistles of a world premiere.
