Ronnie Polaneczky | Stellar lineup lends respect to Dell East

SOMETHING is stirring at Robin Hood Dell East. And for once - this week's brick-oven weather notwithstanding - it ain't hot air.

It's euphoria.

"Aretha Franklin's coming!" says Shields Carter as he scans the outdoor amphitheater's summer-concert schedule, taped to the box-office window. "Oh, my goodness, this is awesome!"

"She's the queen of soul!" yelps another gentleman - who won't give me his name, as he now plans to call out sick the night of the Aug. 6 concert by Her Highness at the Dell.

Because, he says, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

"The schedule hasn't been this good in five years!" says Albert Martin, who has dropped by the venue in East Fairmount Park to buy his season tickets but is reluctant to leave once he has them in hand.

Even in the sweltering heat, it's just fun to be here.

"Isn't this great?" he keeps asking, a big grin splitting his perspiring face.

And so the audience response has gone this week, as word spreads that the Dell - whose summer-concert series had been plagued by last-minute scheduling of mostly C-list performers - has gotten its groove back.

How groovy is it?

In addition to Aretha, the 2007 "Essence of Entertainment" lineup includes - pick up your jaw - Patti LaBelle, Freddie Jackson, George Clinton, Jeffrey Osborne, gospel great Dorothy Norwood and two more "big-name" acts whose booking is imminent, promises Vic Richard, commish of the city's Recreation Department, which runs the Dell.

Most fab is that Dell tickets are a pittance of the prices other venues charge for the same acts.

Aretha, for example, is playing Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall a few days before her Dell show. Heinz tickets cost $57.50 to $112.50.

The Dell's? From $14 for a lawn spot to $24 for a real seat.

I quickly bought two. They'll go a long way toward helping me forgive the Rec Department, on whose watch the once-venerable Dell had become a joke.

But for now, let's hold the forgetting. We'll have to wait to see if this season marks the Dell's return to its glory days.

One person I will be watching: Steve Turner, the entertainment consultant who booked the Dell for the city these last few years and remains involved. Rec commish Richard wouldn't elaborate on his role, except to say that creating the Dell's schedule has been "a three-part operation," with input from his department, Turner and others who submitted booking proposals.

Uh-oh.

In the past, as I have reported, Turner treated the Dell's booking like a crappy part-time job while his politically connected mother, radio host Mary Mason, who books gospel acts, made excuses for the embarrassment the Dell had become.

One season of their disregard for the mission of the Dell - to bring high-quality entertainment at affordable prices to city residents, in a timely and professional manner - should have been enough to bounce the duo out of the Dell.

Instead, as a city controller's report showed last fall, they were given more chances. Shame on them for failing so arrogantly - and shame on the mayor for allowing Turner and Mason, his longtime friend and influential supporter, to let it get as bad as it did.

So I'll trust that the 2007 Dell season is a winner only when the last notes drift toward heaven on Aug. 20, when, fittingly, soul legends The Dells play the season's closing concert.

Still, it's hard to stay skeptical around the Dell's enthusiastic box-office staff. Yesterday alone, they sold about 600 tickets - more than were sold for the first four shows of the 2006 season.

"This great lineup came out of left field," says box-office manager Jerry Kelly, happily juggling papers in the air-conditioned chaos of the Dell's front office as his co-workers man the phones and ticket window.

"We had no idea it would be this complete, or this good. People are thrilled. It feels like a real venue again."

That's the response rec commish Richard was hoping for. "There was an increase in the entertainment budget to . . . make sure that we gave the patrons something to be proud of," he says when I call later to congratulate him on the season's schedule. "We've been working on this."

As Aretha might say, sock it to us, sir. *

For schedule and ticket information, call 215-685-9560 or log on to www.phila.gov/delleast.

E-mail polaner@phillynews.com