The flagship of the West Side redevelopment program, the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center and the Hippodrome Theatre, opened last night with a red carpet debut of The Producers. Limos, local big shots, $500 tickets … you get the picture.

eebmore.com had planted embeds posing as volunteer ushers to report on the event (or, more accurately, I ran into a couple of friends last night who had volunteered as ushers and were kind enough to tell me about it).

Governor Ehrlich spoke, and appeared unprepared, unintelligent and generally unconvincing. Hey, that’s EXACTLY what the Maryland Legislature said when he presented his first fiscal budget centered on unrealistic gambling revenues. Mayor O’Malley spoke afterwards, and the audience was captivated and hung on every dripping charming word that came out of mouth. We’re so going to kick your ass in the next Gubernatorial race, Robby.

My embeds also informed me that the interior of the Hippodrome is absolutely spectacular. Apparently, the developers did such a fine job restoring the Hippodrome into a state of the art venue for high-end theater productions, it has beaten out the Kennedy Center as the location for the upcoming regional debut of the Lion King. I have ambivalent feelings about this. I’m always happy when we beat out Washington for anything; but The Lion King? Ick. I fear that Washington may have actually won out on that one. Oh, how I hate musical theater, let me count the ways.

The Baltimore Sun In Depth coverage of the Hippodrome Theatre