Venue Difficulties Cancel 2023 Theatre Bizarre
It is with deepest regret that we announce the 2023 Theatre Bizarre season has been canceled.
A double-booking at the Masonic Temple has created an impossible situation that disrupts much of our main floor space, including our main entrance. We do have a contract for the space and have been pressing for a solution for some time. Unfortunately, resolution remains out of reach.
The Masonic Temple has been a tremendous partner for 11 years, and we are hopeful this situation will be addressed and a spectacular return produced in 2024. The Temple is an extraordinary venue, with a layout and mystique that intertwine perfectly with the Theatre Bizarre experience and storyline.
To our dedicated leads, cast and crew who have been hard at work on performances, designs, logistics and scheduling, our hearts break with yours.
To our featured performers, both stage and lane, who commit their time, vision and effort to their roles year-round, your immense talents will be sorely missed.
To our patrons from all across the country and beyond, whose experience has been denied, we share your disappointment and frustration.
To our many Detroit-area vendors and partners who will suffer a great loss in revenue this year without this production, the impact this will have on you weighs heavily on us.
This includes the Detroit Hostel, which we rent in its entirety for almost two weeks, caterers who will lose nearly $130,000 feeding both our crew and patrons, the approximately $60,000 we spend on security, the Eastern Market farmer who will lose $15,000 in pumpkin sales, and the legendary Rocky Peanut Co., whose confections are enjoyed by our guests throughout the night. As well as the material suppliers, production houses, sound and lighting companies and countless other businesses that we rent from and work with. Not to mention the many Detroit-area hotels, restaurants and Uber and Lyft drivers that house, feed and transport nearly 10,000 patrons over the course of two weekends.
Theatre Bizarre has become an iconic Detroit event, even garnering a permanent spot on the timeline at The Detroit Historical Museum. Few other immersive theater events exist in the world, and none approach seven to nine hours in length, involve nearly 1,500 performers and musicians, or cover eight floors of the world’s largest Masonic Temple.
We appreciate all of you so much and could not have made it these 22 years without your passion, dedication, creativity, and blood, sweat and tears. With utmost commitment to each of you and the City of Detroit, we remain determined that The Greatest Masquerade on Earth will return in 2024.
With gratitude and love,
John Dunivant, Founder
Dawn Orebaugh, Controller
Maria Christian, General Manager
Zombo, Patron Saint
Immerse yourself in an elegant masquerade of intoxicating allure with an exclusive and intimate exhibition of Theatre Bizarre’s decadence and delights! Revel in our guided tour through a curated showcase of our most phantasmagoric entertainment, and indulge in a lavish cocktail reception, open bar, and strolling dinner, as we lead the procession through the many transformed floors of Theatre Bizarre - an immersive art installation on a massive scale.
- Don’t miss a thing, as we feature an exclusive curation of performers that must been seen to be believed.
- Drink yourself to death in an all-night open bar & feast upon a succulent selection of cuisine and confection with our strolling dinner throughout the night.
- Delve into 8 floors of lascivious debauchery while discovering our Ghost Train ride, Odditorium, Asylum, Ice Cream Parlour and so much more.
- Take in the enigmatic enormity of Theatre Bizarre comfortably, at 1/10 the crowd size of Saturday’s event.
- Live deliciously.
Explore 8 floors of the labyrinthine tower of our completely transformed Masonic Temple to uncover endless curiosities, shows, roaming performers, and unexpected delights around every corner. Embark upon a massive “choose your own adventure”, celebrating the decadent and depraved until the early hours of the morning at an event unlike anything else you've ever seen before!
- A myriad of rooms featuring local and international displays of music, sideshow, burlesque and more - each running simultaneously all night long. It’s impossible to see it all!
- Discover 6 main stages, 19 performance spaces, or wander through the halls to discover that absolutely anywhere can host an impromptu theatrical experience.
- Enter the Dirty Devil’s Peepshow for a lurid display of the most tantalizing exotic dances this side of the underworld.
- Dance the night away in the Grand Ballroom, Dancehall, Beelzepub, and more - with over 20 unique musical acts ranging from punk, rock, jazz, and funk, to marching bands, barbershop quartets, and swing DJs.
- And much, much more!
THE GREATEST MASQUERADE ON EARTH