What Smith Center boss Myron Martin is going for: goose bumps

By John Katsilometes

Saturday, March 10, 2012 | 2 a.m.

He wants goose bumps.

Myron Martin frequently talks of goose bumps. He seems always to be experiencing goose bumps, or ruminating about goose bumps, or awaiting the moment when he will once again get goose bumps.

In a story he tells often, Martin got goose bumps in fourth grade, when he first visited Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in his hometown of Houston. He recalls the grandeur of the building, the mohair-upholstered seats and where he was seated — eighth row in the center. The house lights dimmed, the curtain was raised, and …

Goose bumps.

“I got goose bumps in the fourth grade,” he says. “My daughter is in the fourth grade, I want her to get goose bumps, too. I want school kids and seniors and everyone in between to have that feeling.”

As president of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Martin has helped shape that sort of inspirational environment. The center’s Reynolds Hall opens tonight with a gala performance featuring 24 stars of nearly every entertainment medium, a show produced by Emmy Award-winning producer George Stevens and his son, Michael, who produce “Kennedy Center Honors” among many other TV variety specials. The show is to appear as a special on national TV, and officials are hoping to make a deal with PBS for that broadcast.

Martin was interviewed for the episode of “Kats With the Dish” on KUNV for the show that aired March 2 and spoke about the Smith Center during a media tour that day. What he had to say as the $470 million arts center is set to open:

How did the lineup of artists come together for opening night?

We have a stream of incredibly talented people, but what the Stevenses do better than anybody, I think, is they don’t just book talent and say, “Give us your best three minutes,” and throw them on the stage. They write the show first and then find talent that fits appropriately. They are writing things and putting people together in duets and trios in ways that you’ve never seen before. You’re going to hear Jennifer Hudson sing something you’ve never heard her sing before, ever, as part of this show, and it will be part of the big finale to our television program.

You chose to honor those who worked on the construction of the center with a couple of concerts by Randy Travis. Why was that important?

When we started construction, the world had changed. All of the contractors and subcontractors were looking for work. They had gone from a period where they couldn’t even take on new jobs, they were so busy, to looking for work. It meant that all of the contractors and subcontractors were hanging onto their best talent, their best workers, and all of those best workers wound up getting assigned to the Smith Center.

So we had 3,600 highly skilled workers building the place. They had taken such pride in their craftsmanship, creating something that they knew, when building it, that their grandchildren’s grandchildren would talk about. This was the place where future generations could say, “My dad helped build the Smith Center a hundred years ago.”

You were co-producer of “Hairspray” at Luxor, which closed after eight weeks. “Avenue Q,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot" and “The Producers” all closed in Las Vegas. How is the “Broadway Las Vegas Series” going to work in a city where Broadway has been a tough sell?

When we had the preview weeks for “Hairspray,” before the official opening night, those were performances dedicated to locals. And during those weeks of locals performances, we were sold out, every show. People from Las Vegas really embraced the show. Then you get into the normal operating routine in a hotel-casino, and it’s all about tourists, and there is so much competition, so much of what I call “media noise,” when someone gets off the plane and most of them have no idea what they’re going to spend their entertainment money on when they get here.

You go to Broadway, you buy your tickets months in advance. In Las Vegas, you leave the money in your pocket and wait for the whim to hit you. Somebody says, “Let’s go see that!” A lady at baggage claim a few years ago asked her friend, “What do you want to see tonight?” I thought, “You’re already here, and you haven’t even planned what you’re going to see?” But we feel locals will embrace the Broadway series, absolutely.

Tickets are selling well?

People have stood in line and bought season tickets to every show in the Broadway season, because they want to see this series. Our goal for season ticket sales was exceeded after two weeks of sales (the figure officials are now using is 10,500). We’re way beyond our goal now. People have really embraced our Broadway season, and that’s even before we get to “Wicked” in August.

We’ll get all of the first-run Broadway shows, and most every show, every performance, will sell out. We will all get our doses of high-quality Broadway out there. Then the next show comes, and the next, and the next. Those tickets are available starting at only $24.

You and Smith Center officials have been all over the world touring various music halls and opera houses, among them La Fenice in Venice, Paris Opera House and La Scala Opera House in Milan. What did you take from those famous halls?

We took pages and pages of notes and found a lot of things we loved and aspired to do, and some things we just wanted to do better. For example, sight lines — there are no giant poles or columns obstructing views anywhere in here. It wasn’t easy to do, but these guys did it. … We fought and fought, in a good way, about having carpeting in the boxes.

Our acoustician said to me, “You hired me to give you acoustics that were Carnegie Hall or better. I can do that if you let me determine what the materials are, everywhere, including the floors. But if you insist on putting carpeting down, I can no longer guarantee Carnegie Hall or better.”

So, needless to say, I couldn’t win that battle. … Now the floors are all made of terrazzo, for the best acoustic quality, Carnegie Hall or better.

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