Arsht Season Aims Right Up the Middle

We’re about two weeks away from the start of the new season at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County — and I’m not exactly counting down the days. Not that this looks to be a bad season. Oh, no. There is absolutely, 100 percent, no risk that this season will be anything but crowd-pleasingly, seat-fillingly, solidly good. Ho hum.

I am happy to see the resident companies plugging away despite economic woes, and always look forward to performances by the Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera, and the New World Symphony. Pretty much everything else I could catch any day of the week on a tour package in New York City, or Chicago, or probably even my native Cleveland.

I’m not complaining about the opportunity to hear blues legend Buddy Guy pick and strum or watch Chinese piano marvel Lang Lang bedazzle the classics. I’m content to see Spring Awakening again, although I’ll probably sit out The Color Purple and Joan Rivers after catching those shows on tour in Los Angeles, um, was it last year or two years ago? Then there will be a few moments of distinct deja vu: didn’t I just see Alvin Ailey in the Ziff Ballet Opera House last season? And didn’t I already groove to the Idan Raichel Project in the Knight Concert Hall?

While we’re repeating things, where on the schedule is Miami Light Project’s Here and Now Festival? So far, that has been the most reliable showcase of thrilling, only-in-Miami work at the Arsht. (This cannot be a casualty of cuts to the county arts budget. Philanthropists and regular art-lovin’ folk, donate now!)

All I’m saying is, with the generosity of Adrienne Arsht, the Knight Foundation, Carnival Cruise Lines, the Ziffs, and, frankly your tax dollars and mine, can’t we have a few nights of daring work on the schedule? Just a little somethin’, somethin’ so we know we’re not in Minneapolis or Phoenix or Philadelphia? Just a little thrill to remind us we’re alive?