Tickets on Sale Now!
Tickets for Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel 'Messiah' are available through the Detroit Opera House online or by phone at 248-645-6666.

Listen to an audio clip!
Watch audience feedback.
Read the reviews!
Watch Alvin Waddles Improv/Medley.

Too Hot to Handel at the Detroit Opera House
On November 29, 2008, Rackham Symphony Choir presents "Too Hot to Handel" at the Detroit Opera House for this year's performance of the Motor City's hottest 'Messiah. This production is a soul stirring, hand-clapping, jazz, gospel, blues and soul event - a "Messiah" unlike any other. Soloists include tenors Victor Trent Cook, Rodrick Dixon, soprano Alfreda Burke and the Motor City's jazz luminaries including George Benson, Marion Hayden, Alvin Waddles, Dave Taylor, Ed Gooch, Chris Collins and the 45-piece Too Hot Orchestra.

New This Year!

• Too Hot Express Shuttle from Dearborn and Troy - only $15 round trip.
• Family Pack $99 for 4, including parking.
• Patron Ticket with Artists Afterglow.
• Restaurant Packages with dinner and transportation.  Choose from:
  Tribute ~ Villa Penna ~ Antonio's Cucina Italiana

"A sizzling musical affair...It swings. It rips. It's hot!"
The Detroit News

"Detroit's hottest holiday show...This soul-stirring holiday celebration has a little swing, a little gospel, and knock-down solos." WJR

"The choir and vocal soloists turn the 250-year-old masterpiece of Western music into a gospel revival meeting. Hallelujah!.." Detroit Free Press

"...the music takes flight...letting listeners know that Handel has landed in urban America" Chicago Tribune

Messiah, Re-created
The Concordia Orchestra of New York City commissioned Too Hot to Handel in the early 1990s from arrangers Robert Christianson and Gary Anderson. Since the first performance at Lincoln Center, crowds have smiled, cheered and danced in their seats (and sometimes in the aisles!). Too Hot to Handel captures the essential core of Handel’s famous masterwork and reinterprets it with chords of rhythm and blues, jazz and gospel.


A Detroit Tradition
Rackham Symphony Choir introduced Detroit to "Too Hot to Handel" with the premiere performance at Detroit's Little Rock Baptist Church in February 2002. This soul-stirring performance and extraordinary audience support helped move the performance to the Detroit Opera House for five years where "Too Hot to Handel" became a Detroit holiday tradition. The immensely popular holiday show moved to Detroit's spectacular Fox Theatre in 2007 for an unforgettable performance and the show returns to the Detroit Opera House this year.

Too Hot to Handel on the Road
Rackham Symphony Choir premiered "Too Hot to Handel" in Chicago in January 2006 to rave reviews.
Read the Chicago reviews.