Broadway Rave
The Loving Touch
Ferndale, Mich.
Feb. 22, 2025
Those who critique musicals because it’s not “realistic” for people to randomly break into song and dance have never met a musical theater nerd. When we come together – look out, there’s no stopping us!
That energy was palpable Saturday evening during the Broadway Rave at Ferndale’s Loving Touch music venue.
Broadway Rave is exactly what it sounds like: Musical theater-lovers join together for an evening of singing and dancing to their favorite show tunes. The national touring event has been coming to Metro Detroit for at least the past three years.
When I first heard about the experience, I had several questions. Mainly, is this going to be some kind of techno remix of these songs – as you’d expect with raves – or are we going to listen our favorite music in their standard recorded format? To my delight, it was the latter, which makes all the difference.
As you’d expect, dancing is the primary activity at a rave, but when it comes in Broadway style, performance is an equal part of the equation. Attendees – of course made up of divas and divos or wannabes – are encouraged to come on stage with the DJ to sing and dance along, which is where the importance of undoctored music comes in. The crowd eats it up, enjoying watching the show as much as they enjoy performing in it on the ground.
The people-watching is great on many levels. Ravers dress in anything from simple branded T-shirts from shows they’ve seen or performed in, to full-on costumes from their favorite Broadway characters. Saturday had at least two ravers in black-and-white striped Beetlejuice suits, another in a replica of Anne Boleyn’s futuristic green dress from “Six,” and a range of cat ears, pink frocks and flapper dresses that could cross over among several shows, plus sequins galore. Oftentimes, they would be the ones drawn to the stage when their corresponding song came on.
The event, as expected, caters to a younger crowd ranging from people in their 20s-40s. The music follows accordingly. Most of the songs come from big shows made in the past 30 years, lots of “Hamilton,” “Rent” and, of course, “Wicked,” but this time the soundtrack from the recent film (and a delightful little balloon drop for “Defying Gravity”). Songs from “Hairspray,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Chicago” also made an appearance, plus a – thankfully – small amount of Disney. While most are the upbeat dancing songs, powerful ballads came through as well, including “Rent’s” “Season of Love” and closing with our Drag Queen DJ’s solo performance of “And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going” from “Dreamgirls.” The only Rodgers and Hammerstein I heard that night was “Impossible” from “Cinderella,” but in this case, it was Brandy’s version from the 1997 film.
While I’ll rarely complain about listening to showtunes, I was a little disappointed when music from the jukebox musicals made an appearance. I can forgive the unique pop mash-up “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge” from “Moulin Rouge,” but ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” can be heard at any wedding or disco club around town; we don’t need it during the one Broadway Rave we get a year. And Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” – which wasn’t even the Broadway version – took up six minutes of music that could have otherwise gone to “Newsies” (the shirt I was wearing!) or “Dear Evan Hansen,” which I heard at last year’s rave but not this one.
From my own experience and talking to others, including a girl who had been to the rave in two other cities, neither the set nor the DJs are consistent. The music selection appears to be at the discretion of the DJ and the requests of the night. In her critique, Saturday’s show had more of the uber-popular hits – largely from film soundtracks – as opposed to more niche shows.
My other main critique of the evening was the duration. Our show lasted three hours – apparently other shows are only 2.5 hours – and that was disappointing. When we only get the event once a year – and it’s about $25 a ticket – surely we’ve earned at least four hours of rave time? Broadway Rave has become one of my favorite dance experiences of all time. I just want more.
