Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts is a magnificent, fully restored 1928 historic theatre seating 1731 and holding four lounge areas, the Jazz Cafe and 3 Fifty Terrace on the rooftop. Music Hall plays host to a variety of non-theatrical events, including corporate annual meetings, parties, receptions, benefits, and fundraisers. It has presented perhaps more performing artists of world renown than any theatre in America.
The historic Music Hall, through its presentations and productions (including commissions of original artistic work), provides Southeastern Michigan with high quality performing arts programs and education that reflect the diverse mix of cultures that make up our community. Music Hall is Detroit’s “People’s Theater” – the place for high quality but non-elitist performing arts and education with an emphasis on dance, theater and music, particularly Jazz. Music Hall aims to be the most accessible, inclusive and culturally diverse performing arts institution in the country.
History
Matilda Rausch Dodge Wilson, visionary founder of Music Hall, was born in Walkerton, Ontario in 1883, moving with her family to Detroit at the age of 1. In 1902 she graduated from the Gorsline Business College and went to work for the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, at their Hamtramck firm.
The professional relationship between John and Matilda developed into a personal one and in 1907, they married. In 1920, while in New York City on business, John contracted influenza and died. His brother Horace would die less than twelve months later, leaving the widows in charge of the firm. They sold it in 1925, becoming two of the wealthiest women in the country. That same year, Mrs. Dodge re-married Alfred G. Wilson, a lumber broker from Wisconsin.
With architect William Kapp in tow, they toured Europe and the great theaters of the day, intent on learning all they needed to know to create a state-of-the-art house here in Detroit. Mrs. Wilson chose to build a ‘legitimate’ theater -- a theater designed for live stage and theatrical presentations. It was the age of the talkies and everyone believed that the movie industry would edge theatrical presentations out of the market, but she knew better.
The Wilson Theater opened on December 10, 1928 with a production of Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Rosalie.” Matilda’s vision went beyond these four walls, as her original mission specified welcoming men and women of all ethnicities to the theater’s audience and its stages. Her enduring example of inclusion and opportunity remain central to our work today.
Mr. Kapp and his team from Smith, Hinchman & Grylls designed the 1701-seat theater to be built at a cost of $3 million, with luxurious, beautiful, state-of-the-art attributes. The curved wood paneled walls, silk drapes, specially designed seats and carpet, and multi-tiered lobby were opulent for the time and remain so. Dressing rooms to accommodate 100 performers and an orchestra pit for 40 musicians made the Wilson Theater the rival of any major performance facility in the country. Many of the original architectural elements remain today, including the Wilson Theater logo expressed in iron work on the opera boxes and the Jazz Café Terrace. The building is simply one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in Detroit.
Originally host to touring Broadway productions, the name was changed to Music Hall when it was sold in 1944 to Mr. Henry Reichold, who was intent on creating a home for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It remained until 1953, developing broadcast capabilities so that thousands across the country could listen to the Ford Sunday Evening Hour.
In 1953, steel company executive Mervyn Gaskin converted the Hall into the world’s second Cinerama theater, featuring an enormous curved screen, 3 synchronized projectors and 7 channels of stereophonic sound. To support the screen, the opera boxes were removed and the auditorium’s decorative details were – gasp – all painted brown.
Michigan Opera Theater was launched at the Music Hall in 1971 and remained in residence until 1985. The building dodged the wrecking ball in 1974, thanks to the intervention of Detroit Renaissance, the Kresge Foundation and the Board of Trustees. A comprehensive renovation in 1995 restored each and every detail to its original glory, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fred Astaire and Mikhail Baryshnikov have left footprints on our boards. The voices of Etta James, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday have reached into the rafters, and Ray Charles declared us one of his all-time favorite houses to play! The list is extraordinary and growing.
In 2006, new President and Artistic Director Vince Paul added a second venue in a former cloak room – the cozy, 100-seat Jazz Café. It was re-christened Aretha’s Jazz Café in the fall of 2018, in response to the Queen of Soul’s wish for a downtown venue that would carry on her legacy. Our glorious vintage neon tower sign was restored in 2007, and 2014 saw the addition of a third venue. The rooftop 3Fifty Terrace is downtown’s wildly popular summer music spot, seven stories up and nestled among downtown’s stunning architecture. In 2020, at the height of the Pandemic, Music Hall innovated once again by the addition of the outdoor Music Hall Amphitheater built in the adjacent Parking Lot. Programming begins in May and runs through October with concerts, dance, graduations and gala events of every color.
