September 2, 2004
Author: David Nicholson

Tony Bennett opens the university's Ferguson Center for the Arts.

They glided across the half-million-dollar Italian marble floor and settled into seats made from Japanese mahogany. Up on stage, Tony Bennett serenaded them with pop standards like "I Got Rhythm" and "Luck Be A Lady Tonight."

"Are we in Newport News?" asked an astonished Norman Petock.

If the setting seemed like a dream, it started as one when President Paul S. Trible Jr. and others at Christopher Newport University first conceived of a performing arts center eight years ago. On Wednesday night, CNU opened to the public the first phase of its $54 million Ferguson Center for the Arts with a performance by Bennett and his quartet in the 440-seat music and theater hall.

Tickets to this highly anticipated event sold out in a half hour, even though the $125 price wasn't typical Newport News fare. The crowd was primed for the kind of evening that happens in larger, more cosmopolitan cities.

"This is beautiful, magnificent," said Newport News Councilman Joseph Whitaker. "I served nine years on the Planning Commission and watched the project grow. I'm glad that I stayed behind it."

While the city can be proud of a spectacular hall for its citizenry, the university sees it as a symbol of its commitment to the arts and its student body. Phase two of the project, a 1,700-seat concert hall opening next year, will give the Peninsula something many have been waiting for: a symphony-size performing space with superb acoustics.

Lawrence "Barry" Wood Jr., former chairman of CNU's fine arts department, started the college's first classical concert series in 1973. Looking around the vast Ferguson lobby, Wood commented, "I hoped we'd go somewhere, but I never thought we'd go this far."

There was plenty of gawking as the more than 350 patrons, dressed in everything from black tie to cool-jazz casual, filed into the lobby.

The only complaint heard was the deafening noise level in the lobby resulting from the marble and other hard surfaces. But even that created a buzz of excitement in the air.

Bennett lent his own brand of excitement.

A consummate showman with a rich, claret voice, Bennett kept the crowd spellbound with songs like "The Best Is Yet to Come," "Maybe This Time" and "All of Me." He also thanked the CNU Jazz Ensemble for opening the evening for him.

"That was a tough act to follow," Bennett told the audience. "They played the modern, intelligent, serious kind of music, and I want to thank you for building this school for them and having it happen."

Selma Petock, who lives with her husband in the nearby Riverside neighborhood, echoed Bennett's sentiments earlier in the evening.

"We've watched it grow and grow and grow," she said with pride.

And who can blame her for adding, "We'll probably take some of the business away from Norfolk."

Copyright 2004 Daily Press (Newport News, VA)