010920...R ROBINS 5...Warren...01-09-20...Home-grown talent Cheryl Warfield performs on opening night of the newly renovate Robins Theatre...by R. Michael Semple

WARREN — Glitz, glamour, history, hometown heroes and music ranging from opera to jazz and rock to swing — the grand reopening of the Robins Theatre had a little bit of everything.

There have been a few sneak peeks in the last month, but Thursday’s event was the official relaunch of the theater following a $5 million-plus renovation project by owner Mark Marvin and his Downtown Development Group.

“If you build it, they’ll come,” Marvin said. “The building is full. Downtown is full.”

Many downtown bars and restaurants were filled with concertgoers before the event, which Marvin and Sunrise Entertainment President Ken Haidaris said was one of their goals when the renovation first was announced.

“People said no one will come to downtown Warren,” Haidaris said. “Well, look at it tonight.”

National act Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was the headliner, but there were plenty of festivities before the contemporary swing band — featuring in the movie “Swingers” and at the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXIII — took the stage.

Those involved in the renovation were wearing tuxes for the event (except for plasterer / painter Harry Leith, a Scottish natve who wore a kilt), and many of the audience members were dressed in gowns, suits and tuxes.

The event took place exactly 97 years after the theater first opened on Jan. 9, 1920. Robin Lake, the son of the then 4-year-old girl who cut the ribbon back in 1920, did the honors Thursday, quickly snipping the red ribbon with an oversized pair of gold scissors.

The ceremony started with a 10-minute film that mixed historic images of the theater with clips from some of the many films that played there over the years. Fittingly, the montage included Arnold Schwarzenegger saying “I’ll be back” and Judy Garland from “The Wizard of Oz” saying, “There’s no place like home.”

There were a few opening night glitches — the sound on the movie was inaudible for most of it — but for a theater that started by playing silent films, it was appropriate, Marvin said.

There was no problem with the sound when the show opened with three hometown heroes who came back to Warren to play the event — opera singer Cheryl Warfield, pianist Dana Kristina-Joi Morgan and singer-guitar player Dennis Drummond.

Warfield showed off the acoustics of the building, singing an aria from “Tosca,” the Italian favorite “O Sole Mio” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” from “Showboat,” the musical in which Warfield made her Broadway debut.

Morgan earned several mid-performance ovations for a flashy piano performance dominated by George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” on the theater’s grand piano. And Drummond showed off the guitar skills that earned him raves from the time he was a child on Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” and an original song, “Stay Gone,” co-written with Nolan Neal, a fellow competitor on the reality series “The Voice.”

Julene and Mike Laborini of North Jackson were among the volunteer ushers working opening night.

“I think it’s absolutely beautiful,” Julene Laborini said. “I love the chandelier and great arm chairs outside the restroom.”

The Laborinis talked about visiting many of the newer downtown businesses on recent trips downtown.

“They seem to be following Youngstown and reopening the downtown storefronts,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

agray@tribtoday.com