Hey Detroiters, welcome back to Culture Canvas. 

As we get further into December, there’s tons to do in Detroit to celebrate the holiday season, from big shows like Cirque Dreams Holidaze and Champions of Magic, to screenings of holiday favorites like “Love Actually,” “Home Alone,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, there’s the upcoming Menorah in the D and the Motor City Kwanzaa celebration to look forward to. 

Check out the BridgeDetroit website for a list of holiday activities to do during the next few weeks. 

Have suggestions for events to check out? Send them to us and we will update the list!

Meanwhile, another event happening this season is Detroit Public Theatre’s third annual Holiday Cabaret. The adult-leaning show features performances of classic holiday songs, some not-so-familiar songs, and a whole lot of sass. The cabaret is directed by DPT Co-Founder and Co-Producing Artistic Director Courtney Burkett and stars performer, musical director and cabaret co-founder Eric Gutman, along with Bryana Hall, Lulu Fall, X. Alexander Durden and Mariah Colby. 

Tickets for the Holiday Cabaret start at $52, with the show running until Dec. 21.

I talked to Gutman about creating the cabaret with Burkett, fitting 26 songs into the show’s lineup and his three new cast members. 

BridgeDetroit: How did you and (director) Courtney Burkett come up with the idea for the holiday cabaret? 

Gutman: We started this three years ago. We saw that a lot of other local theaters in the area had their own versions of holiday shows. Meadow Brook has “A Christmas Carol,” Tipping Point in Northville has “A Very Northville Christmas,” and there’s lots of others that are doing the same. We thought, “Why not Detroit Public Theatre?” But in Detroit Public Theatre fashion, we didn’t want it to be traditional. We wanted to be a little bit off the beaten path, and we put together what we felt was a great show with some classics but a lot of other different songs that maybe people have never heard of before. And it went so well that they wanted a second year, and now we’re into our third. The biggest difficulty this year was the fact that so many of the amazing patrons that came to the show for the first two years said, “Listen, we want to come back. This is part of our tradition now, but we don’t want to hear a lot of the same music.” Our second year was only about 50% new music, and so we took it to heart. I’ve curated and arranged 26 songs this year. About half of those songs are interludes. They’re only about a minute each, maybe a minute and a half. 

BridgeDetroit: What are some of the songs in the lineup? 

Gutman: You have traditional songs like “Silent Night” or “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but then you take a sharp right turn and you do a song like, “What do Elves Look Like Naked?” It’s a wide range. But we also have the Joni Mitchell song “River.” We have a song called “Home” from The Wiz. There are definitely songs in there that people know, but then there are others that people have never, ever heard of in their entire lives, I can guarantee it. 

I didn’t write any of the songs. We just found an inordinate amount of strange songs, and then I curated and arranged them all. 

BridgeDetroit: As musical director, how difficult was it to fit 26 songs in the show? There are hundreds of Christmas songs out there to choose from. 

Gutman: There were a ton of songs that we decided against. I mean, we had a list of probably 40 songs, and after a while, you just need to decide which ones are going to work and which ones aren’t. It’s just like, “How much traditional music do we want to include in the show?” “How many songs are we allowed to present that these people have never heard of?” And, is it far enough into the show where they begin to trust us and they can hear a very weird, silly song and know it’s good fun and to just kind of go along for the ride?

We learned all 26 songs in five days, which is not an easy feat,and that’s a testament to the incredible performers that we have in the show. It’s an embarrassment of riches of very talented and musically adept performers that I’m so thankful for. But yeah, we only had two weeks to put this entire thing together. The first week was just all music, it was all me. Then the second week was more with Courtney’s side of the show, of trying to find that emotional through line. All this talking about what the holidays mean to us in different ways, trying to find the context of the songs and how they might relate back to us, and how we can communicate that to the audience. And then we got it on our feet. We had a great choreographer that helped us in that regard. Then the next week was tech, and then we started shows.

BridgeDetroit: Many holiday shows are geared for the whole family. Why did you and Courtney decide to make the show more adult-oriented? 

Gutman: I don’t like traditional holiday music, it gets a little boring. By the time Thanksgiving hits, it’s all you hear. You can’t turn on your radio, you can’t walk into a store without hearing something about Jolly Old Saint Nick and our audiences don’t need to hear more of it. If I’m going to do a traditional piece like “Silent Night,” I’m going to do a killer five-part harmony of it. It’s a song that they’ve heard, but never quite like this. We want people to come to this show knowing that they’re going to have a different experience than any other holiday show or anything that they’re listening to in their cars. 

BridgeDetroit: What has it been like working with your three new performers this year (Fall, Durden and Colby)?

Gutman: They’re amazing. I miss my friends from last year, but to have Lulu (Fall), X. Alexander (Durden) and Mariah (Colby) join us, it has lifted the show in ways I couldn’t imagine. And to still have Bryana Hall with me for the last three years, like I said, it’s an embarrassment of riches. I’m very lucky to have this cast and Betty-Alexandria (Pride) on piano. She’s been wonderful as well.

BridgeDetroit: What are you looking forward to the audience seeing this year? 

Gutman: It’s just hearing the responses and the reactions. In different shows, you get different reactions from different people. That’s been my favorite thing, is to hear a laugh when we typically haven’t gotten a laugh before, or a bigger laugh than before. People are coming because they know they’re going to have a good time and to know that we’re able to give that to them is just an incredible feeling. I’m just looking forward to seeing how the rest of this goes and we’ll just keep going forward.

As always, have a great week! 

Until next time,

Micah 

313 Scene 

• Detroit Opera opened its 2025-26 season Sunday with the double bill, “Highways and Valleys –– Two American Love Stories.” The production, which pairs Kurt Weill’s 1948 folk-opera, “Down in the Valley,” with William Grant Still’s 1963 opera, “Highway 1, USA.” The production will also have performances on Thursday and Saturday. 
• RoboCop has finally found a permanent home in Detroit. A statue looming 11 feet tall and weighing 3,500 pounds has been drawing fans since it began standing guard over the Motor City on Wednesday afternoon, after about 15 years in the making. (The Associated Press)
• The building at 664 Selden St. has seen a revolving door of restaurant concepts, some of them short-lived, including Smith & Co., Vigilante Kitchen + Bar, and Epiphany — Nain Rouge Kitchen. Now, a new concept called Medusa Cucina Siciliana is preparing to open in the space. The space is being renovated by Patrick Thompson Design, the firm responsible for the interiors of Detroit’s Monarch Club and the AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle, eyeing an opening date in late December or early January. (Detroit Metro Times) 
• After gaining a cult following in recent years serving vegan takes on classic American comfort food, Street Beet is celebrating the grand opening of its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the former Bobcat Bonnie’s space at 1800 Michigan Ave. The grand opening celebrations officially kick off from 4-11 p.m. on Thursday. (Detroit Metro Times) 
• The documentary “The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit,” makes its streaming premiere on Prime Video on Tuesday. It’s a passion project guided by former Detroit Free Press arts reporter Mark Stryker as an extension of his critically acclaimed 2019 book “Jazz from Detroit.” (Detroit Free Press) 
• Detroit rapper Big Sean has partnered with music superstar Usher to invest $1 million in a new entertainment production facility for Detroit youth. The Detroit Entertainment Innovation Incubator, which will be housed in the new Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan inside Michigan Central, will offer a virtual production studio, special effects lab, a creators’ lounge and more, according to the Boys & Girls Club. (The Detroit News) 

What’s Going on in the D? (Non-Holiday Edition) 

• Concert of Colors is hosting its second annual Colors of Detroit event on Friday, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Berry Gordy Estate in the Boston-Edison neighborhood. The soiree, which benefits WDET-FM and the annual multicultural festival, will feature an on-site broadcast of the Don Was Motor City Playlist hosted by WDET’s Ann Delisi and Don Was, a performance by the Amen Ra African drum and dance group and a DJ set by WDET music host Ismael Ahmed. An open bar and strolling appetizers will also be provided. Tickets start at $50 on Eventbrite. 
• Detroit Roller Derby is gearing up for a battle between the Devil’s Night Dames and the Detroit Pistoffs beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Masonic Temple. Tickets are $22 on Eventbrite. 
• 2000s girl group Danity Kane is performing at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel. Tickets start at $54 on Ticketmaster.