Well, it's official (and for a while now)...Disney has taken over New York City's heart (and by 'heart', I mean center, not the public's). There used to be a time when Broadway and Times Square had an edge to it. A gritty, seedy, but energetic vibe to it. Now, it's nothing but a tourista trap for people from the midwest who desperately want to see Sex and the City locales or their favorite Disney movie live.
I don't blame Disney for wanting to make a buck or two, but why don't they back plays and musicals that offer something different, cutting edge and mind-expanding? And now, they're running ads in the same format that Andrew Lloyd Webber used to run. If by running the likes of Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid gets children to experience theatre, that's a good thing, but the opposite is true - Disney wants a buck, and they'll do anything to dumb-down the American public (although The Lion King was phenomenal - it was written on many levels).
After having left NYC just over a year ago, I still miss the old girl. I thoroughly enjoy where I live now, but I'll always love New York's streets filled with the bliss of multiculturalism, her buildings and spires reaching for the stars, her people warm as toast, but with an edge about them.
A true New Yorker is not someone who was just born in NYC, nor just lives there. A true New Yorker is someone who has lived there and is still pulled to her by her magnanimous spirit. NYC is vanishing, and although I applaud change and creativity, I fear the Old Gal is losing her character to commercialism.
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