Musical Chairs

So maybe “Los Angeles Music Center” was not the most inspired name; maybe it didn’t reflect the panoply of presentations offered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theater. But “Music Center” is what it was christened and what it has gone by for years. There have been no documented tales of playgoers storming out of “The Cherry Orchard” because, by God, they had been promised music, just as no one has left the Lincoln Center in a huff because they got Mozart rather than the Gettysburg Address.

By the close of business 1999, however, “Music Center” was no more. Now we have a frighteningly accurate stage name--the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. Of course, the folks on the hill don’t expect to keep “PACLAC.” They are spearheading a drive for big patrons--which could offer a “renaming opportunity.”

This is Reinvention U.S.A., after all, where there is no obstacle that cannot be lifted, tucked, re-slotted, renegotiated or renamed into nonexistence. On the other hand, there is the expectation that the arts, the self-consciously cultural institutions of our city, would be above this. Would be, well, more mature.

And more lyrical. “Meet you at the Music Center” has a ring to it, evoking a night perhaps of romance, of transcendence. “Meet you at the Performing Arts Center” sounds like there will be a test at the end, or an audition.

But then, that could sell tickets too.