DO NOT TOUCH YOUR DIALS!! 

(or your delete key or any of that other stuff)! 
        We have taken control of your modem and 
... whatever else there is to take control of!

        Do Not--repeat Not--do what it was 
recommended earier this month in a story on this 
page that you do!
        
        Earlier this month, an editorial comment 
on this page said that those of you who have not 
seen the Cleveland Ballet's presentation of "Blue
Suede Shoes" should try to get tickets for the 
April 11-13 performance at the Music Hall.

        Forget it!

        The Elvis Presley rock ballet goes on the 
road at the middle of the month, and Ballet Artistic 
Director Dennis Nahat says there are too many
technical and artistic kinks (well...he didn't say, 
"kinks", but that's what it comes down to) to be 
able to do the Music Hall shows.

        Instead, the Ballet will go through a week 
of "intensive rehearsals" to get ready for the 
international tour.  That tour opens April 15 in Detroit.

        In Cleveland, this production has been 
(editorial comment inserted here) a delight!  On 
the road, scenery must be changed, music has to be
revised, and new dance floor and lighting 
sophistication must be accommodated.

        Those are artistic words that mean, 
"Hey, guys!  We need more time to get our act together!"

        It's a $1.3-million production and they 
certainly don't want it togo wrong out there with the 
Cleveland Ballet face hanging out in Detroit,
Mexico City, Los Angeles, St. Petersburgh, Denver, 
Chicago, Miami, and College Station, Texas!        

        Okay!  

        Now, your "set" is released back to you and 
you may return to the story of April 3, called "Threefers."

        And, if you bought tickets for the Music Hall, 
call 216-621-2260 to find out about refunds, or go to 
wherever you bought the tickets to get your money back.

        But keep thinking "Blue Suede Shoes" for 
future Cleveland performance!

        Sometime.

        Whew!

In New York--perhaps, it is the case in other major cities, too--there sometimes occurs a term called, "Twofers."

It's a "theatre" (note the "re" ending, rather than "er") term, meaning that you can get two tickets to a show for the price of one ("Two-fer"....get it? Okay; no one said it was rocket science).

Big deal.

We in Northeast Ohio now have "Threefers!"

The Cleveland-Akron-Canton area halls-of-fame (those edifices of entertainment and information named for inventions, rock-and-roll, and football) will sell you one ticket ($25 for adults/$19 for children) that will get you into all three attractions: Inventure Place in Akron, the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame in Canton, and the Rock-and-Roll Hall-of-Fame-and-Museum in Cleveland.

"Visit 3 halls of fame for only 25 smackeroos...and come experience the most famous minds, muscle and music for not a lot of moolah."

That's what an ad for the marketing venture says.

The directors of the three halls like the idea.

"A positive impact for the halls and on the region," one said. "Any of us who can attract visitors to Ohio is a positive," another said. And the state's tourism people see the threefer-trumpeting-of-the-triumverate as an "...economic boon for Northeast Ohio."

The savings in the "threefer": $4.45 off single ticket prices for adults and 59-cents for kids. That will improve next month when the Rock Hall jacks up its prices from $12.95 to $14.95/adults and $9/50 to $11.50/children.

They call the campaign (and the state will heavily promote it, they say): "Brains, Brawn and Blue Suede Shoes--the Great American Hall of Fame Connection."

Spin-off possibilities to other entertainment/sports venues?

You bet!

Spin-1: The Cleveland Ballet's "spring repertory" has begun with the opening of "Graduation Ball," "Summerscape," and "Apollo" at the State Theatre. (April 2-6; tickets are $15-$55 at Advantix: 241-6000, or 1-800-766-6408, or at the box office).

Spin-1-A: With dance on one's mind, it is easy enough, perhaps, to "spin" from the artistry of ballet to artistry of "The Lord of the Dance."

"The Lord" is Michael Flatley, creator of the fantastic "Riverdance" presentation. Flatley--can one believe that it was 22 years ago (yes, 1975) that Flatley won the "World Irish Dancing" championship? He was a wee lad of 17, then--is back now with another extravaganza. "The Lord of the Dance" (April 16-17 at The CSU Convocation Center...tickets: $20-$42.50 at the box office or at Ticketmaster locations or call 241-5555) has been called "sensational" and "innovative" and a return to "...the hours of gladness" from "...the days of the Kerry dancing and the ring of the piper's tune!"

It is not "Riverdance."

It is different.

But then, "Riverdance" is certainly different from the tradition of Irish folk dancing.

Spin-2: If the Rock Hall gets more people from the "threefer" plan, then it makes some sense that the neighboring Great Lakes Science Center and Omnimax Theater should benefit. The Science Center already has brought in more than 550,000 visitors and "Special Effects," showing inside the Center at Omnimax, has gotten rave reviews.

Spin-3: The Pro Football Hall of Fame may lead one's thinking to the once-was-and-again-will-be Cleveland Browns, and perhaps to a focus on continued interest in the new stadium.

The "final" design for the football stadium is in (even as the woof-woofs--however muted they might be--continue, calling for the putting of "...a dome on the thing").

The new stadium will be a concrete and glass structure 12 stories high, with a "halo band of light" along the edge of its canopy. (Oh, as partial answer to the cry for a dome, that canopy will go out 35 feet over the top deck--it'll cover about 15 rows of seats. About 20,000 of the 72,000 stadium seats will have some protection from the elements, they say. They also say that "notches" in the bowl of the stadium should reduce inside wind and turbulence.)

The playing field will be natural turf (with high-tech stuff under the sod to keep the field from freezing). Landscaping will include three plazas outside and large walkways around the stadium. Parking problems? Probably: they're still working on that.

There will be more than 40 concession stands and buffets.

Restrooms? This was a big and oft-screamed-about problem in the old stadium. How many will there be in the new playground? How many for men and for women? Where?

Can we get back to you on that?

Thanks.

And not spin-offs, but firm stand-alones:

Stand-alone 1: "Anne Frank: The Legacy...The Promise." This joint project of The Cleveland Play House & The National Conference" has opened at the Bolton Theatre in the Cleveland Play House complex (Tickets: $28-$35. Call: 795-7000).

The exhibit (through May 23) of "Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945" in Studio One of the Play House includes more than "...600 photographs and two award-winning videos depicting life in the Secret Annex where the Frank family hid from the Nazis in World War II." More than 3-million people have seen the exhibit in the past 10 years.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "The Diary of Anne Frank," runs through May 17.

The Play House resident director, Scott Kanoff, has been quoted as saying that "Americans like their heroes sugar-coated. This (play)," he says, "is not a memorial service; it's a play about real human beings."

Stand-alone 2: "Faberge in America." It continues through May 11 at The Cleveland Museum of Art, and features more than 400 works (including 15 of the fantastic "Eggs") from the artisans of Peter Carl Faberge, court jeweler to the last two Russian czars.

Footnote:

One struggles to cope with the juxtapostion of such opulence in Imperial Russia in the days of Faberge to such dehumanization by Nazi Germany in the days of Anne Frank...or, indeed, to cope with each decadence separately.

Both are here with us.

Each is here for us.

Do we smile or do we cry?

Or both?

OTHER STORIES by John Herrington

RETURN TO Cleveland, The New American City

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