UNLV ponders how its role will change after Smith Center

Baby will be born a prince.

Which will leave its noble but nonroyal sibling … where?

Dynamics of familial relations within our cultural clan will be intriguing to watch come March. That’s when the Smith Center for the Performing Arts makes its ballyhooed entrance downtown, immediately catapulting to the status of Grand Exalted Mystic Arts Pooh-Bah, certain to eclipse — though not replace — the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, our longtime performing arts hub.

Adjustments will have to be made.

Three cornerstone series — the Broadway/concert-heavy New York Stage & Beyond and classical arts-oriented Charles Vanda Master programs at Artemus Ham Concert Hall, plus the classical guitar presentations at Doc Rando Recital Hall — anchor UNLV’s performing arts seasons.

Certain arts properties are safely in UNLV’s grip — local groups including the Desert Chorale, Las Vegas Master Singers and the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society are regulars, and Ham Hall’s neighbor across the courtyard, the Judy Bayley Theatre, is home to the university’s student theater ensemble, Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

Yet the 1,832-seat Ham Hall must be braced for a booking blow, sure to lose artists and audience, at least initially and likely long-term, to Smith’s opulent, 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall.

"There’s going to be a period where all the artists will like to play the beautiful, new, hot facility, which is natural," says Larry Henley, UNLV’s director of artistic programming and production. "For a while, it will limit our choices."

Choices, he says, that they wouldn’t have made before, when UNLV assembled this season’s Ham Hall schedule. Dropping in on campus: jazz titans Chick Correa, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White (last September), violinist Itzhak Perlman (Feb. 11) and Hal Holbrook’s "Mark Twain Tonight" (May 19). Add in numerous Broadway heavyweights over the years, including "Les Miserables"/"Miss Saigon" star Lea Salonga and iconic singer/actress Rita Moreno.

"It’s income we’ll have to make up, probably by accepting people we’ve been turning down," Henley says. "Business conventions, corporate meetings, ethnic dance events, things like that."

Or are there better alternatives?

"The university will need to reassess what they are doing," says Robert Scales, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California’s School of Theatre and a performing arts consultant.

"They might look at UCLA and Cal Arts (California Institute of the Arts) as to how they program. UCLA has a World Arts program and also uses its facilities for local performance groups. … Cal Arts has programming of experimental performing works. Both of these programs are well-attended by students and the community."

Meanwhile, the Smith Center has booked a chockablock lineup that — beyond big-name touring Broadway shows ("Wicked," "Mary Poppins") that never stopped in at the university anyway — includes artists for whom a Ham Hall gig would have otherwise been appropriate: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Michael Feinstein, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell among them.

(The College of Southern Nevada also has a performing arts center, largely devoted to local and regional performers and student productions, rather than marquee names its budget would be hard-pressed to accommodate.)

"It’s very difficult to avoid duplication given their very full calendar," Henley says. "They’re presenting a lot of acts that we’ve presented over the years. But they’re also presenting some things we didn’t have the technical capability to do. We can’t fly scenery or hang speakers or do rigging. They’re a state-of-the-art facility."

Perhaps artists skipping UNLV for the donor-rich Smith Center also eases a burden for a university whose shrinking resources are tied to an ever-tightening state budget.

"I have said it a thousand times if I’ve said it once, that this community owes a great debt of thanks to UNLV for providing our doses of culture along the way," Smith Center President Myron Martin says.

"But I know the university finds it difficult to program things that lose money and obviously for more than a decade, that’s been the outcome generally, with the pressure of Ham Hall being the place you saw the New York Philharmonic or the Israeli Philharmonic or those Charles Vanda Master Series performers (including Perlman). I hope they would say that the Smith Center created an opportunity where we’ve relieved the pressure of them having to do those things that are very costly and at the end of the day lose money."

Declining to specifically address UNLV’s profit/loss balance, Henley says: "It’s sometimes profitable. But it is an expense we’d like to reduce."

Profit takes a significant hit however, now that Ham Hall’s two long-running tenants, the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre, are loading their U-Hauls and heading to Smith’s acoustically superior, equipment-friendlier Reynolds Hall for permanent residency.

"Those groups both started here," Henley notes. "It is emotionally difficult getting used to the idea that they won’t be here anymore. For the most part it’s been a good relationship between those groups and the university."

More tangible is the financial dent. Each paid Ham Hall’s nonprofit rental rate of $1,650 per day (one fee, even if there were both afternoon and evening shows in one day) plus labor and equipment costs. A similar rate will initially be charged by the Smith Center, though the licensing agreement is renewable annually and could eventually change.

(For commercial performers, UNLV charges $2,700 per day.)

With about eight performances annually combining its Masterworks and Pops series, the Philharmonic made more use of Ham Hall than Nevada Ballet Theatre lately. The dance troupe has been averaging about two presentations per season, its big, "Nutcracker" production having moved to Paris Las Vegas while its "Choreographers’ Showcase" collaboration with Cirque du Soleil has been at Aria’s Viva Elvis Theatre.

Though high-profile artists have highlighted UNLV’s offerings, one benefit of the booking shift will be even more opportunities for student groups that already have a strong presence in its performance spaces.

"Having the new center would probably not affect attendance to student productions," USC’s Scales says.

"Those productions usually have loyal patrons and the goal for those are to train the students who are participants in respective art programs. The public events tend to be less expensive and a bargain. If that programming is right, there should not be a negative effect."

Even among marquee names, he adds, "certain performers will always be willing to perform for students."

While a power shift is imminent, the Smith Center and UNLV seem willing to cordially cooperate. Both Henley and Martin note that shows with an "educational component" — such as a possible return by jazz advocate Wynton Marsalis, perhaps for a Smith Center concert, then a lecture to UNLV music students — could be mutually beneficial.

"If our partners and friends in town have a need, whether it’s to present (a particular performer) or KNPR to bring ‘Prairie Home Companion’ to town, our expectation is to play nice and find great ways to collaborate," Martin says. "Not compete."

Pointing out that the Smith Center has been "very forthcoming" about its programming plans, Henley adds:

"This is a natural process of a growing city. There are some very capable old friends running that facility. We just have to let it happen but not lose sense of who we are and continue on."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.