Before the date rolled around for the Smith Center for the Performing Arts’ first live event since March of last year, President and CEO Myron Martin said he was excitedly anticipating the moment he could welcome guests back to the Symphony Park hub.
It happened on September 14, when longtime local favorite Frankie Moreno returned to the stage at Myron’s, the intimate cabaret space named for Martin. And it certainly didn’t feel like an ordinary show for anyone in the building.
“I’ve probably done 150 shows or more there, and it’s just a special venue, but when we went in for soundcheck, everyone was just bubbling. It was like, Can you believe we get to do this again?” Moreno said the morning after. “I can easily name 10 things that feel like achievements in my career—like playing Carnegie Hall or the Hollywood Bowl or my first No. 1 album—and last night goes in, because of the way it felt. This room is just about music for people who love music, and everyone there gave a thousand percent to make sure everyone had a good time, including themselves.”
Frankie Moreno at Myron’s
The Smith Center was among the first local performing arts and live entertainment venues to cancel shows when the pandemic struck, and over the course of the past 18 months, Martin consistently said it might be among the last places to reopen.
Last month, the venue announced it would require all guests to show proof of at least one dose of the COVID vaccination or proof of a recent negative COVID test along with ID. Face coverings also are required. For updated safety info, visit thesmithcenter.com/safety.
“It’s an inspiring time, but it’s also a tenuous, difficult time, still full of uncertainty,” Martin says. “We heard from a lot of people, saying thank you for doing this, thank you for looking after patrons and employees and the artists who perform there, but we also heard from a very vocal smaller group of people who just feel like they should be able to go wherever they want without a mask and without a vaccine.”
No matter the current COVID circumstances in Las Vegas, the Smith Center’s comeback marks a significant milestone, because it’s such an important part of this community and its culture. That was clear during Moreno’s sold-out performance, and Martin says tickets are selling well across the board.
“It’s not for one thing or another, it’s everything,” he says. “People just want to come back, because there’s nothing like having a shared experience with a room full of people, most of whom you don’t know, where you all gasp at the same time or laugh out loud together or feel an emotional tie at those moments in a show together.”
This week brought another major comeback with the return of the Composer’s Showcase, the long-running performance series created by Broadway and Vegas veteran Keith Thompson that allows local and visiting musicians to present their own original material. It’s been a part of the Smith Center since it opened in 2012, and it raised funds for out-of-work performing arts workers during the pandemic through virtual shows and its TCS Entertainment Community Relief Fund.
Next up at Myron’s: Soul singer Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. performs on September 24-25; local jazz favorite Michelle Johnson returns to the room on September 26; the David Perrico Pop Strings Orchestra (a group that recently evolved into the Raiders house band during football games at Allegiant Stadium) performs on September 29; and gospel singer and pianist Oleta Adams visits on October 1-2.
Brody Dolyniuk’s Symphonic Rock Show is slated to be the first performance in Reynolds Hall on October 1, where the Smith Center’s Broadway Series will return with Cats on October 12-17. Then the resident companies return, first with the Las Vegas Philharmonic on October 23, then Nevada Ballet Theatre’s annual holiday presentation of The Nutcracker starting on December 11.
