DAYTON DAILY NEWS                   Copyright (c) 1991, Dayton Newspapers Inc.DATE: Friday, September 13, 1991             TAG: 9109130070EDITION: CITY           SECTION: GO!         PAGE: 3 SOURCE: BY TERRY MORRIS Staff                              THE FRAZE PAVILLION           LINCOLN PARK 'CENTERPIECE' OPENS WITH MARVIN HAMLISCH     History may record 1991 as the year the recession didn't end, but it won'tbe able to downplay the fact that one aspect of the local economy was far fromlackluster. Show business did good business.   When Kettering's new Fraze Pavilion for the Performing Arts marks its unofficial opening Saturday night with a concert featuring Marvin Hamlisch andthe Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, it will be the second major arts and entertainment facility to open in the Dayton area in less than a year.   The first was Wright State University's Ervin J. Nutter Center, which sounded its first fanfare in January with a different orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade.   Now comes the Fraze Pavilion, a 4,600-capacity outdoor theater promoted as the centerpiece of Kettering's Lincoln Park Center and the future summertime home of Dayton's performing arts.   Amphitheater general manager Rudolf Schlegel, who said the official openingof the pavilion won't come until next summer's first full season from MemorialDay through Labor Day, nevertheless promised the facility would be ready for what is expected to be a sellout audience for Hamlisch and the Philharmonic.   Only about 400 tickets remained Wednesday, and those were the lowest-priced$10 and $15 seats on the lawn and the grandstand. A total of 1,500 other fixedseats at $35 and $30, plus several hundred special close-up cabaret seats at $75 and $100 (dinner and post-concert reception included), were long gone.   "Recession or expansion, there's never a good time to open an entertainmentfacility, a sports arena or a restaurant. You just try to get the holes lined up and then you do it," Schlegel said. "We're going to do it."   Schlegel said some of the amenities, such as landscaping, aren't finished, but the basics are ready to go.   "There are an awful lot of people interested in this facility. So we thought, why not open it for a preview? This will be the test drive."   City of Kettering officials, proud of the mixed-use Lincoln Park project with office, residential and leisure components, are probably among those who don't want to wait. The park was developed with more than $4 million in city funds, although the $2.7 million amphitheater was built with private donations.   The biggest came from the family of the late Kettering industrialist Ermal Fraze, who owned the Dayton Reliable Tool and Manufacturing Co. and was the inventor of the beverage can pop top.   Pops-type events, fittingly, are expected to make up a large percentage of the Fraze Pavilion programming. So will performances by Dayton's professional dance companies, theater troupe, orchestra and opera company, which may be able to attract new audience members in a relaxed outdoor setting where ticketbuyers will be able to arrive early for a picnic in the park, then recline on a blanket to watch a performance from the lawn.   They won't be able to picnic inside the theater, "although we will have a picnic basket check-in at the gate so they can drop it off before the show andpick it back up on the way out," Schlegel said.   On the job since June, Schlegel said he is hard at work on next summer's scheduling.   "We're offering the area organizations first shot at the best dates, and we've been having some enjoyable discussions with the Dayton Ballet, the opera, Philharmonic, Human Race and DCDC. It's going to be interesting to see how Dayton's own organizations rise to the challenge of cultivating an audience here."   Some of the other performers Schlegel would like to book for 1992 or '93 are: Bobby McFerrin, Chuck Mangione, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, the American Indian Dance Theater, Ronnie Milsap, Linda Ronstadt, Bernadette Peters, Ray Charles, and Sharon, Lois and Bram of Nickelodeon fame.   He would like to offer classic films - "huge Technocolor whiz-bangers on the biggest screen we can put in here." He would also like to book a big band like the Basie or Ellington orchestra and open the patio area at the foot of the stage for audience members who want to dance.   "I'm looking at a grand opening season in which we'll trot out all the types of events people will come to expect from us in the years to come. This facility was built for flexibility, and and we want to demonstrate that strongsuit right away."   He expects to offer about 40 events next year - one-third of them "of national or international-caliber, or major Dayton arts groups"; another thirdregional touring events, festival events and smaller-scale arts events; and one-third free local community events and children's events.   What not to expect are acts like Guns N' Roses or the Geto Boys.   "This facility wasn't built to accommodate the heavy-lifting rock shows youget in arenas. Besides, this is a predominantly residential center of town. Wewant to be good neighbors."