Today a mass of media members took a spin through Las Vegas’ new House of Wows, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. As they say in the maternity ward, whoa, baby.
To someone who has been shown dozens of wonderful artists’ renderings of Las Vegas projects that never made it off the flat page, that the Smith Center has met its high expectations of design and appointment is in itself welcome news. Entering the 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall is nothing less than a staggering experience. The music hall’s five-tiered seating chamber, awe-inspiring ceiling (where a glass opening lets the sun shine in), vast stage and full orchestra pit, represent the city's most ornate performance venue. There's no contest.
Reynolds Hall is already being broken in, as Randy Travis is concluding a pair of “hard hat” shows this evening. He performed for workers and Smith Center staffers on Thursday night, too. Smith Center President Myron Martin said those who performed the heavy lifting and support tasks for the center were simply asked what type of act they would enjoy to see in the hall as a reward for all their hard work. The answer was most often some form of “Randy Travis.” (Martin is a guest on the latest episode of "Kats With the Dish," available via click atop this column).
We can also add more names to the list of those performing on March 10 at Reynolds Hall’s opening night, too. Carole King and Mavis Staples, in duet, have been confirmed in a lineup that already features emcee Neil Patrick Harris and performers Willie Nelson and Jennifer Hudson. Emmylou Harris is also expected to participate (in a duet with Nelson), and performing a piece that is a closely guarded secret on the level of the Pentagon Papers is violin virtuoso Joshua Bell.
The premiere show was originally restricted to an invitation-only audience, but expect tickets for the black-tie gala to be open to the public next week, with prices set at $250, $750 and $1,000 (keep checking the Smith Center website for updates). Expect refreshments to be served, and also expect to take away a commemorative book marking the event. Today, media members were issued a lapel pin reading, “I Was There,” so maybe you can expect one of those, too.
What is not in place in the final, for-real version of the Smith Center was a venue prominently featured in its original plans: An intermediate-capacity theater that would have seated 300 to 500 guests. That showroom-sized venue was unceremoniously edited out of the initial Smith Center design documents.
“That happened in 2005 or 2006, and that came about primarily because there is no market in Las Vegas for another venue of that size,” Smith Center Board of Directors Chairman Don Snyder said today. “There are a lot of those types of venues in resorts, and all over the community. Every decision we’ve made has been driven by good business sense, and it made good business sense to take another look at that space.”
And it made better business sense to use the space once reserved for that theater for the Discovery Children’s Museum.
The most influential benefactors of the project were fine with that move. As Snyder said, “The Reynolds Foundation (which has donated $150 million to the project dating to 2005) applauded that decision.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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