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(Kipp Ortenburger) The Smith Center for the Performing Arts has been called the "Heart of the Arts," and before the pandemic, it was home to Broadway musicals, intimate jazz performances, classical ballet and big-name musical acts.

Well, now the important home for live performance is back open.

Joining us to talk about the Smith Center's reopening and more is president and CEO Myron Martin.

Myron, thank you so much for joining us.

-Really happy to be here.

-It's such an exciting time, you know, but I'm sure a lot of trepidation.

I want to come back and jump right into this and talk about those that say Las Vegas does not compare to the New Yorks or the growing cities.

We don't have culture; we don't have art here.

What's your response to that?

(Myron Martin) So I moved here 20-something years ago, and I was quoted in the RJ as saying that I had moved to a cultural wasteland.

You know, I really wish I could put those words back in my mouth, but the truth is we were growing at the time.

UNLV was doing a really good job of bringing symphony and different performances to Artemus Ham Hall, and we were growing as a city.

At the same time we were the Entertainment Capital of the World, so I don't buy that.

But today the Smith Center for the last nine years, each and every year has been a part of Pollstar Magazine, the international concert magazine's top 100 performing arts centers in the world.

-Wow.

Let's talk about your experience.

As you mentioned you're quoted, maybe not misquoted, correctly quoted in the RJ when you first got here.

I did read your bio, and I know it was very hard for you coming from New York, coming from arts and culture.

When or what changed that to endear yourself to Las Vegas more, especially related to the arts and culture side of this?

-I moved here to look after the Liberace estate, the Liberace Foundation.

You're right, I moved here from New York City, and it took me a couple of years before Las Vegas started to feel like home.

But it was around that time when I was helping out UNLV with their performing arts center that Don Snyder and Keith Boman and a handful of community leaders got together and said you know, we're the largest city in North America without a world-class performing arts center.

What do we need to do to change that?

And I think that was the moment where I started to realize that this city really was going to become an important place to live.

-Let's talk about the Smith Center more specifically and how it increases appetite for arts and culture itself.

It's primarily performing arts here, but is it increasing more of a global effect on appetite for arts here, particularly with our local residents?

-Well, absolutely, positively.

When you think about the Entertainment Capital of the World, when you think about the Strip, we always did a great job of entertaining guests.

With the Smith Center and other things that are happening here in our great city, we're now doing wonderful things for those of us who live here, and I think that's the big difference.

Could we use a new art museum?

Yes.

Are there other things that we can do to bolster our kind of arts and cultural scene?

Yes.

But today as we sit here, I can say that people around the world are taking note of Las Vegas as a cultural city.

-And you might have just answered my next question for you there.

If the Smith Center was phase one for really developing us into more of a hub, what is phase two?

What is that one benchmark thing we still need?

-I think it's a series of a lot of things.

I mean, I happen to be one of those who believes that a world-class art museum would be important for our city, and I know a group of folks are working with the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno to make that happen one day.

I'm a big fan of theirs and the work that they're doing.

I think we're going to see more local theater companies evolve.

You know, as people come to the Smith Center, as they see big Broadway shows, they want to see smaller, more intimate productions, maybe more straight plays.

I think there's going to be more and more really good local theater companies, and we have them already.

I just think they're going to grow and get even better.

-Let's talk about the residents that have never been to the Smith Center.

If you had somebody like that in front of you now, what are they missing out on?

-So here's the thing.

The Smith Center is for those of us who live here, right?

We try to keep our ticket prices as affordable as possible for that reason.

We don't try to be the Strip where tickets can get pretty expensive, and we try to have something for everyone.

Whether you like rock music or jazz or classical, whether you like dance or Broadway or other forms of theater, there is something for everybody at the Smith Center.

If you've not checked it out, you go to the Smith Center website, I guarantee you when you pull down that list of people who are coming, you're going to be surprised by some of the artists that are coming to Las Vegas, sometimes for the very first time, to make an appearance here for our local audiences.

-It is very diverse, and it's a great point.

It is affordable too.

It's maybe not what do you first think of when you're thinking about performing arts, but it is, it is affordable.

I want to talk about where the Smith Center is.

It's part of Symphony Park.

There's been some wonderful visions of what Symphony Park could become.

Let's talk about yours.

Who would you like your neighbor to be in Symphony Park?

-Well, so I have to start by saying I couldn't ask for a better neighbor than the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health.

What they are doing for Las Vegas is phenomenal.

Their plans include some expansion, I think, I hope.

We're going to see some new restaurants opening not too far down the line in the Smith Center neighborhood and Symphony Park.

I look forward to that.

The fact that we have new residences, places where people are living today, living in Symphony Park means a lot to me.

And because I mentioned it before, if Symphony Park ended up being the home for a new art museum, that would make me happy.

-And that has been talked about.

-It has.

-It has been talked about for sure.

We did some research on you.

We looked at a bio, and I don't know how we found a bio of you from 2009 that the Las Vegas Sun did, but 2009 was such an interesting time.

I want to come back to that and have you revisit that.

First off, of course this the heart of the recession.

You're still fundraising for the Smith Center.

It was only 11 years ago, still fundraising, and you had not broken ground yet, and you're dealing with the challenges of a recession.

Eleven years later, and you're dealing with COVID and the closures.

How do the two compare, the two challenges?

-Well, it's funny.

I just said to my board recently that raising the money, designing, building and opening the Smith Center was hard.

Reopening the Smith Center is much harder, but here's the thing.

When I look back, I think of the tailwinds that we had that kind of helped us glide into a successful opening night, and today in the reopening effort, we're faced with these enormous headwinds that are making it tough.

Headwinds of COVID and mask-wearing and, you know, vaccination cards that you have to show as you walk in the door and all the things that we've had to do to make the building safe: Paperless tickets, cashless bars where we're no longer asking people to touch money back and forth, and all the things that we've done like that.

So there's no comparison between opening the Smith Center successfully and reopening the Smith Center successfully.

-What keeps you up at night now?

I mean, we've gone through somewhat of an economic downturn.

We've seemed to kind of fare that storm okay, but there's always the looming possibility of us hitting a downturn, which I'm going to assume could be very hard on your sector.

Are you concerned about that?

-Yes, absolutely.

I lose sleep every night.

Like I say this is tough, and you're right.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring because we've never had a pandemic like this.

We've never had an experience like this before.

For now all we can do is the best that we can do in making this a safe place, and I have to tell you something.

We opened our first Broadway show in 18 months just a couple of nights ago.

Cats is here in town, and every performance is full.

And seeing these audiences in the lobby just excited to be there with other people, and seeing them as they are leaving with that level of joy and excitement on their faces having had a shared experience in a theater with real Broadway shows, it's been an amazing, amazing time.

So yes, I'm losing a lot of sleep but we're moving forward to make sure that we make the best possible experiences for those of us who live here who come to the Smith Center.

-And that energy, we've heard that before.

I mean, we've heard that with our sports teams, anything that is reopening here.

Let's talk more specifically about that.

How comparable is it to what the regular energy is for any type of Broadway show you have compared to where it's been since you reopened?

-Well, I think a lot of people would probably tell you that they took a lot of what we did for granted before.

Now they appreciate it.

Just the little things that we do for our guests when you arrive at the Smith Center, they're noticing.

I've spent every night out in the lobby, and people walk up and tell me their experience of parking or how they like our new paperless tickets that they have right there on their own phones, and I'm getting lots of feedback.

We have a lot to learn, and we're still working on some of these things to make them even better but what I'm hearing from people is how appreciative they are of what the Smith Center is doing for the city.

-Let's talk more about the city specifically.

Let's get away from maybe the arts and culture.

I mean, what endears you to Las Vegas?

-Well, this is my home.

I love Las Vegas so much.

Having been a part of giving birth to the Smith Center has something to do with it but, you know, the process leading up to the Smith Center made me fall in love with this city.

Oscar Goodman and Carolyn Goodman, our mayors, played a big role in my love for this city.

The City of Las Vegas and the way they approach development and redevelopment and the way they think about the future makes me proud to live here.

So this is my home; I'm not going anywhere.

-With that said, let's go into some rapid-fire questions.

We've got just a couple minutes left.

The next big thing in Las Vegas will be... -Well, you know, in the entertainment business, I have to say the MSG Sphere sure looks like it's going to be the next big thing.

I can't wait to see how they pull that off.

It looks pretty amazing.

-Yes, I drive by it every once in a while and just the differences in infrastructure components they're putting into it, you just wonder what is this thing going to be when it's done.

-Yes, yes.

-Favorite part of the Las Vegas Valley.

-Well, you know, I just sang the praises of our great mayors, so I have to say my favorite part is Downtown Las Vegas.

-Best thing to do on a weekend.

-Well, you're looking at a guy who, you know, seven days a week spends his time at the Smith Center, so the best thing you can do on a weekend is come join me at the Smith Center and see a show.

(laughter) -Myron, thank you so much.

-Of course.

-We appreciate your time.

-Glad to be here.

-For a more in-depth look at the Smith Center's reopening, check out Nevada Week at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday or 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

You can find us anytime on vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek and follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @nevadaweek.

Thanks again.

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