Founded in 1914, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is one of the United States' most prestigious and accessible orchestras. In 2003, it launched the Max M. Fisher Music Center, a performing arts complex, which has become a popular venue for musical concerts of various genres, including some of the most popular jazz concerts in town. The Max houses the famous Orchestra Hall, the Music Box, Atrium and Allesee Hall. Excellent acoustics and state-of-the-art facilities make every performance memorable. The Max also has facilities to host conferences, private concerts, banquets and weddings. Check website for more details on current and upcoming events.

One of Detroit's few treasures saved from the wrecking ball by ardent preservationists, Orchestra Hall, the beautifully restored home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, boasts top-notch acoustics and a fascinating history. It opened in 1919 and was the home of the symphony until World War II. The symphony could not afford to stay here, so, from 1941 to 1951, it was called the Paradise Theatre and was an acclaimed venue for such jazz greats as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Count Basie. By 1960, it was abandoned. Benefits and marches saved the hall from destruction, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It took 19 years of painstaking renovations, plagued by funding problems, before the hall reopened in 1989. It's a real historical gem.

Located inside the golden-domed Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center, the Fisher Theatre has long been Detroit's venue for touring productions of Broadway plays and musicals. These and other national theatrical productions usually fill the seats at this meticulously renovated historic gem. The lobby of the Fisher Building is spectacularly ornate and the theater itself is grand. Over the years, it has been Detroit's stable window on the world of theater and one of the most elegant destinations in the city. All the seats, even in the balcony, are good ones.

Restored to its former splendor, the Detroit Opera House is an aged downtown landmark that now finds itself right in the middle of the action, bordered by the Theatre District, Comerica Park and Greektown. The superb acoustics in the hall provide a prime venue for the Michigan Opera Theatre and for a variety of other performing arts productions, including plays, concerts and dance performances. In days gone by, it was a theater, concert and movie house, the fifth-largest in the world when it opened in 1922. The frescoes, marble stairways, draperies and chandeliers from its glory days have been restored. The Opera House reopened in 1996 with a performance by Luciano Pavarotti.

The preservation of this theater is one of Detroit's proudest achievements. The 5000-seat palace of the arts, arguably the most opulent in the nation when it opened in 1928, was designated a national landmark in 1989 after a USD11 million refurbishment by new owner Mike Ilitch. The oldest, continually operating theater in the United States features a 10-story marquee, a six-story lobby with a two-ton chandelier and 300,000 glass jewels in its interior. The exotic presentation of lions, gold fixtures and jaw-dropping grandeur harkens back to the flamboyant era of movie houses. The Fox is now busy with concerts, family-oriented shows and a wide variety of other offerings. It's the anchor of the Theatre District and perhaps Detroit's greatest civic treasure. Check the website for events and shows.

Looking to bring the allure of Las Vegas to the Motor City, the MGM Grand brings their quality gaming tables and machines to downtown Detroit. This casino doesn't hedge its bets, featuring over 4500 slot and video poker machines, 90 gaming tables, and a premier poker room to satisfy those with the Hold 'Em fever. Situated on the bottom floor of the MGM Grand Detroit hotel, the casino is surrounded by great restaurants and shops to spend your winnings in. What happens in Vegas now happens in Detroit.

The Hilberry is the main venue for Wayne State University's acclaimed graduate theater program, the only such program in the nation. Located in an elegant old building on the southern fringe of the main campus, it features a strong lineup of plays, usually from October through April. Many have matinée performances for school children. The productions are of uniformly good quality. Also in the same building is the small Studio Theatre, where more experimental fare is presented as part of a student workshop program.

The Bonstelle Theatre has long awaited, in vain, the fruition of the many plans to revitalize the area between downtown and the Cultural Center. This bulky, aging, but still splendid edifice has hung on despite the blight surrounding it, because of Wayne State University's commitment to its undergraduate theater program. Plays here are generally classics or revivals of Broadway musicals, with many budding stars seeking spots in the university's prestigious graduate theater program. This is a bargain for adventurous theater-goers.

Developer Chuck Forbes meticulously restored this 450-seat, 1926-vintage theater in the early 1990s, recreating its intricate proscenium panels and original carpeting. The theater, a part of the Century Club building, has a long and checkered history. The first foreign film to be shown in Detroit was screened here and later it hosted vaudeville and burlesque shows. After the Gem's restoration and reopening, the Century Club and Gem seemed doomed, because they were in the path of the new baseball and football stadiums. To save it, it was carted five blocks away in 1997, the heaviest building ever moved on wheels. Now it hosts intimate local shows, such as Jeff Daniels' Escanaba in Da Moonlight. It's a real gem of the Theatre District.

One of Detroit's unique cultural attractions is this popular historic theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts. A citywide chain of art house cinemas had all but closed in 1973 when film buff Elliot Wilhelm persuaded the DIA to let him screen foreign, offbeat and classic films. It's now one of the oldest and most respected film repertory series in the United States. Wilhelm, curator of film at the Institute of Arts since 1984, is still pleasing audiences with unusual, important and distinguished films. And there are still no competitors anywhere near downtown Detroit showing this type of fare.