ENTERTAINMENT: Can worthy efforts become PBS content?

  I ventured beyond the realm of casino-based entertainment Sunday to see “My Fair Lady Swings.” The Las Vegas Jazz Connection re-created a Shelly Manne concept album, one that reworked the Broadway warhorse with arrangements by “Johnny” Williams (who went on to be “John,” the composer of “Star Wars,” etc.).
  The event filled the Judy Bayley theater, drawing a far bigger crowd than would usually gather to hear the program’s first half, original big-band compositions celebrating late jazzman Russ Freeman. This was due, I suspect, to the accessible appeal of “My Fair Lady” and the participation of Clint Holmes, pictured, who vocalized some of the songs with Cyndi Lee.
  I drove away thinking — as I often do after a community-based performance — that it’s a shame something so first-rate, involving so much talent, is so fleeting. “Swings” would be perfect for PBS, a notion reinforced later that night when, channel flipping, I saw one of the PBS digital channels airing yet again a concert version of “South Pacific” with Reba McEntire.
  To be sure, filming for broadcast would complicate things greatly with the musician’s union, which would suddenly expect its members to be, like, paid or something.
  Beyond that issue, the new performing arts center downtown takes things a step in the right direction. The center’s director, Myron Martin, says both the large theater and the 300-seat cabaret will be prewired for fiberoptics with locations identified for “typical camera mounts.”
  “We’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about television,” Martin says, whether it’s comparably small stuff or big commercial events such as awards shows.
  For one thing, the center will be able to transmit real-time video right to the new digital PBS station, KLVX, Channel 10.