Recalling arts before Smith Center

After the parade of high-profile performers set to break in the main stage Saturday, the outside world will know that The Smith Center is finally here, and Las Vegas is no longer the last major city to not have a dedicated performing arts center.

Didn’t stop us from seeing "Cats" though!

I wonder if the good years ahead will erase the fact that Nevada Ballet Theatre and two orchestras made it work for decades before The Smith Center? Or that market forces dictated that if we wanted to see "The Full Monty" bad enough, we would trudge past miles of slot machines to view it.

I hope not. A quick trip down memory lane that should make us appreciate The Smith Center all the more. But it’s also a nod to the can-do spirit that got the place built, one that ironically may have ended up delaying the new downtown project, thanks to our resourcefulness in getting by.

I can imagine the same civic pride back in 1972 for the new Judy Bayley Theatre on the UNLV campus, when "Folies Bergere" dancer Vassili Sulich guided his dance students to a ballet concert there. That led to the current ballet’s forerunner, Nevada Dance Theatre, a year later.

The pride extended across the flashlight sculpture to Artemus Ham Concert Hall. But by the time Myron Martin became the director of both buildings in 1999 — foreshadowing much of his later work on The Smith Center — the UNLV center had been through a boom-and-bust cycle. The orchestra and ballet had been nudged out as campus-subsidized programs, then welcomed back as tenants.

Much of The Smith Center excitement centers around touring Broadway musicals. But the new building won’t put a complete end to the odd co-existence of Broadway and casinos that goes back to "Flower Drum Song" at the Thunderbird in 1961.

Sometimes it worked out just fine. "Rent" at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1999, or the thrilling Broadway revival of "Cabaret" in 2000, in the room now housing "Ka." More awkward was the cavernous 7,000-seater at the Aladdin; a big concert stage with no orchestra pit. The "Cats" band played from backstage; the one for "West Side Story" was out in the audience.

History already has been unkind to Cashman Theatre, which sold out "Les Miserables" in 1993. It went on to host more Broadway with diminishing returns. There was quagmire over whether it was purely a convention facility, or could function more like a Smith Center. Before it was figured out, charges of financial hanky-panky by a presenter doomed the program.

Beyond that, the problem you heard most often was that people didn’t like coming downtown for shows.

That’s changed now, right?

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.