Smith Center planning ahead

What are you doing Tuesday? What Broadway shows would you like to see in 2012?

Memorial Day weekend ceremonies usually reflect on those we lost. But events downtown give us something to look forward to: a new performing arts center.

At 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. today, a bronze bell will be molded at the site of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts (located at Grand Central Parkway and Bonneville Avenue). At 10 a.m. Monday, the mold will be shattered to reveal the bell. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the bell rings for the first time at the groundbreaking ceremony.

On Wednesday, the area "becomes a construction site" for the building that will be topped by the bell, says Myron Martin, president of the Smith Center.

So far, Martin has been busy raising money for the $245 million complex and its design. But he has started "big programming conversations" about early 2012. "For big Broadway shows, those schedules are already getting locked."

The much-delayed arrival of "The Lion King" -- 12 years down the road -- is a reminder that for everything Las Vegas offers, one thing it lacks is a series of nationally touring Broadway titles.

Martin says Las Vegans can look forward to a schedule comparable to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, one that will mix touring musicals and concerts with local fine arts.

Orange County recently hosted "Grease" with Taylor Hicks. So we dodged a bullet by not being ready in time for that one. But September brings "Legally Blonde," and November is "Spring Awakening," before December wraps the year with "Xanadu." Another bullet dodged?

But it's all a matter of choice, right? And currently in Las Vegas, it's all or nothing. The big musicals do a sit-down run in a casino or they don't come here at all.

"The Lion King," "Phantom" and "Jersey Boys" aren't tours. They are specially licensed productions. The only problem there is a lack of flexibility. They can't pack up and move on after a few weeks (or months), so we don't get as many titles.

There will be titles, such as "Wicked" or "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," that will go "right down the middle" in whether they go to a casino or the new center, Martin says. But one way or another, we will get them, along with dramas a casino wouldn't touch. All we have to do is wait.

Being impatient, I used the "Lion King" media night to not-so-subtly remind Thomas Schumacher, head of Disney Theatricals, of an interim option for the likes of "Mary Poppins": the Cashman Theatre downtown, which theater promoters have ceded to more modest community events.

I don't think he bit. So the wait goes on. But at least now we know when it should end.

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