“The long-awaited Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts at last has an official opening date. The ribbon-cutting on the downtown Orlando theater complex will be Nov. 6, with an opening gala the following night, center president Kathy Ramsberger confirmed Monday,” writes Matthew Palm in Monday’s (1/6) Orlando Sentinel (Florida). “The celebration will last several days and include a community open house and free performances…. The gala will include a dinner for donors, and one of the free performances will be a concert on the plaza. Local groups, such as the Orlando Ballet and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, will be invited to participate, she said….. Shortly after the opening, Orlando’s touring Broadway series will begin performances in the 2,700-seat Disney hall. Center officials have announced the musical ‘Newsies’ will be part of the Broadway lineup. The complete schedule of the center’s programs should be announced in March or April, Ramsberger said. The 300-seat Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater also will open in the fall. A 1,700-seat acoustic hall, which will house performances by the ballet and orchestra … could be complete by 2018…. Offices in the center will open in late spring.” The Orlando Philharmonic currently performs at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center; it recently purchased the Plaza Live Theater and is beginning renovations to that space, where it plans to perform smaller-scale concerts.
Posted January 9, 2014
