Spring hit Detroit sideways this year, the way it always does, one warm Tuesday followed by sleet on Thursday. But the weekend of April 10 through 12 doesn’t care about the weather. There’s serious live performance happening across the city, and you don’t want to sleep through it.
Riverdance Turns 30
The show that put Irish step dancing on every continent is back at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., and the anniversary production isn’t coasting. Riverdance 30: The New Generation runs April 10 and 11, and every dancer in the cast is under 30 years old. New choreography. New costumes. Updated lighting rigs and graphic design that push the production forward instead of just celebrating what it used to be. Tickets start at $43 through 313presents.com. Thirty years is a long time for any show to stay genuinely watchable. This one has.
Two More Shows in Final Days
Stop waiting. Both ”& Juliet” and “Come From Away” close out their runs this weekend, and neither one deserves an empty seat.
”& Juliet” plays through April 12 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd. Canadian writer David West Read, who most people know from Schitt’s Creek, reimagined the Romeo and Juliet story from Juliet’s point of view. She doesn’t die. She decides she’s got a life worth living, and the whole thing gets scored with pop songs you already know. It’s genuinely funny, which isn’t always the case with concept musicals. Tickets start at $25 through us.atgtickets.com. The Fisher is a great room, wide and warm, and this show fills it right.
“Come From Away” is also in its last weekend. That Tony-winning musical is built around what happened in Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001, when nearly 7,000 passengers on diverted flights landed in a small Canadian town that didn’t blink. The town absorbed them all. Good luck keeping it together. Shows run through the weekend.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
This one’s getting undersold. The Paul Taylor Dance Company has been shaping modern American dance since 1954, and its influence runs through practically every choreographer who mattered in the second half of the 20th century. The company performs April 11 and 12 at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St., with two signature works on the program.
“Company B,” said one longtime Detroit dance observer who told me they’d seen the work three times across different companies, “pulls from the anxiety and turbulence of the Great Depression era.” The other piece, “Esplanade,” does something harder to describe. It’s slow, precise, and quietly devastating in the way only dance can manage when it decides to stop trying to impress you. Tickets start at $30 through detroitopera.org. For context, that’s less than a decent dinner on Woodward. The company doesn’t come through Detroit often.
Broadway Rave in Ferndale
Not every night has to end with you reconsidering your life choices. Broadway Rave lands at The Loving Touch in Ferndale on April 10. The premise is exactly what it sounds like. Theater people show up, the music plays loud, everyone sings together, and dignity stays home where it belongs. It’s the kind of night that shouldn’t work but does, because it turns out a lot of people want an excuse to belt out a cast recording in public. Tickets are $26.49 in advance and $12 at the door. Details at Hour Detroit.
Getting Around
If you’re hitting the Fox or the Fisher, the QLine runs the Woodward corridor and can drop you close enough to skip the parking math. It’s a 3-mile stretch that connects most of what matters downtown. Worth knowing before you circle the block for 22634 reasons you’ll never fully explain.
April 11 is the heaviest day. Riverdance at the Fox, Paul Taylor at the Opera House, and Broadway Rave the night before in Ferndale if you’re building a full weekend. Detroit doesn’t always stack the calendar this well. When it does, you go.
