STAFFORD -- Planners and designers of the new $28 million Stafford Centre in this Fort Bend County city should be relieved and happy.

Houston Symphony principal pops conductor Michael Krajewski and the orchestra proved the centerpiece performing arts theater a success with their concert on the fireworks-capped opening night Friday.

The 1,148-seat room was comfortable. The sound was good -- very good in the balcony. Commendably, an orchestral shell crucial for non-amplified musical performances is part of the stage equipment. The designers, Gensler Architects, included plenty of backstage space to handle musicals and dance.

The theater is patterned after the University of Houston's Moores Opera House, a multipurpose facility that has some of the best acoustics in Houston.

The Stafford theater mimics the Moores with raised seats at the rear of the main floor, a balcony and side boxes on both levels. But because it lacks an equivalent of the large doughnut-shaped mural hanging in the center of the Moores, the room seemed a little cavernous Friday. (The capacity is approximately 40 percent larger.)

The sound was better in the balcony -- clean, focused, but without much reverberation. (The theater also has to handle amplified theater productions.)

Downstairs, the orchestra's playing didn't seem as well blended; some mechanism to better focus the sound onto the main floor is needed.

Judging from Friday's performance, the orchestra shell can hold a 70-piece ensemble at capacity. That's sufficient for most standard symphonic repertoire as well as pops shows.

Krajewski and the musicians entertained the medium-size crowd very well.

The conductor's trademark deadpan humor was, as always, quietly hilarious, especially when trying to cajole the audience into whistling along to the Colonel Bogey March.

Shostakovich's Festive Overture was a happy beginning and a good chance to get a sense of how orchestral music sounds in the theater.

Familiar light classics such as the Wedding March from Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream hopefully gave the audience a sense that good orchestra music will work very well there.

Pops selections like a John Denver medley, a collection of songs with the names of American states and cities in their titles, and Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever set the right tone for the happy occasion.