Culture Smash
The brand-new Smith Center for the Performing Arts is a masterpiece
Las Vegas long boasted of
being the “entertainment capital of the world” even though it didn’t
have a performance hall worthy of the name.
Now, with the opening of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, all that has changed.
This $470-million addition to the Vegas cultural landscape provides a much-needed venue for plays, musicals and concerts that don’t fit in with the razzle dazzle that dominates the Strip.
Rising dramatically in a palm tree-studded park in downtown Las Vegas, the Smith Center
exudes stately elegance. It has a limestone facade and art deco touches
evocative of another architectural triumph — the Hoover Dam. Its most
striking element is a bell tower that climbs 17 stories and houses a
four-octave carillon with 47 bronze bells.
The
Smith Center has three performance spaces, the largest of which is the
2,050-seat Reynolds Hall. The space has five tiers of seating, terrific
acoustics and great sight lines.
Reynolds Hall is the venue for the Broadway Las Vegas Series, which brings in national touring productions of hit stage shows.
Individual seats for the Broadway series start at just $24.
The 258-seat Cabaret Jazz and the 250-seat Troesh Studio Theater offer more intimate settings.
Christmas shows are on tap this month: singer Deana Martin at Cabaret Jazz and City of Lights Barbershop Chorus at Troesh.
Two resident companies — the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre — make their homes at the Smith Center.
