No slots or showgirls at new Vegas culture megacenter

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas never has been known as a cultural oasis.

That changed Saturday with the opening of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, a $470 million facility including a stunning 2,050-seat concert hall (seats are chocolate-colored mohair, the acoustics amazing), jazz club, outdoor stage and other venues. The Center will host children's educational programs as well.

The opening night event, hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris, enlisted stars including Jennifer Hudson, Willie Nelson, Martina McBride dueting with Pat Monahan of Train for a show taped for future airing on TV. Medleys from Broadway hits also were featured.

The Smith Center later will host acts ranging from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, to The Pink Floyd Experience, to full-length Broadway shows — not the usual Vegas 90-minute condensed version. The Las Vegas Philharmonic also will play here, instead of at the University of Las Vegas as it did before.

The impetus for the center, funded in large part by the city and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation: "We're the entertainment capital of the world, but we don't have a truly world-class arts center," says Smith Center CEO Myron Martin. That's changed, and there's not a slot machine in sight.

The center is located away from the Strip, near the heart of downtown. Its décor includes an Italian marble "grand hall" with art-deco touches such as three 19-foot chandeliers incorporating green glass, a mezzanine with aluminum railings and what Martin calls "a wedding-cake" tiered ceiling. Textured Venetian plaster is on some walls.

"The goal was a building that looks timeless and elegant," says Martin. He and the design team visited great arts centers including La Scala and La Fenice opera houses in Italy, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (a partner with the Smith Center in the children's programs). Every seat in sloped, horseshoe-shaped Reynolds Hall has a decent view of the stage; no pillars obstruct. Boxes are backed with elegant areas for serving drinks and food and hanging coats.

Smith, which sits on five acres, also is the first LEED-certified performing arts center of its size in the world, a spokeswoman says.

"It has been called the most important project to be built in Nevada" in recent years, Martin adds.

Culture vultures still tend to look down on Las Vegas, he says. "We still get the perception: 'Do you live in a (casino) hotel and deal blackjack?'

"We do a great job of entertaining tourists," he says. "Now, people (in the cultural community) are coming from around the world to see this. This is significant in the world of performing arts, and it gives our community the chance to be entertained and inspired. Tourists will find their way here."

For tickets and other information, visit thesmithcenter.com.