It's A Helluva Town!

''New York, New York,
It's a helluva town.
The Bronx is up and the Battery's down,
And people ride in a hole in the ground.
New York, New York,
It's a helluva town."
-- Betty Comden, Adolph Green, On The Town (1944)

East Coast Dash, Day 9 - Times Square

New York City. Home. It's not where I grew up, but it's where I left from, and it's where I spent my entire adult working life. It's where I chose to live as a young adult and aspiring entertainment professional. There was really never any doubt that's where I would be - LA never lured me, and for a musical theatre actress and opera singer there's really no other place to be than in New York.

This is Times Square. It's a vastly different place now than when I arrived in the city back in 1983. Today's Times Square is for locals and tourists alike; the Times Square of yesteryear was a place the locals avoided and tourists were told to steer clear of. But Guiliani took care of that. He cleaned up the city like no mayor before or after him. Once he got finished with Times Square, every corner was squeaky clean, every bum had been swept away, and New York's "red light district" was a thing of the past.

Some New Yorkers resisted the changes, but I thought it was great. Suddenly the theatre district was a place you could enjoy and feel safe in. New York's venerable old theatres could finally attract the kind of crowds they deserved, and families started flocking to New York's brightest Broadway shows without having to climb over the homeless, the druggies and the prostitutes. Although not everyone supported his tactics, Guiliani hit the jackpot when he cleaned up New York's streets; the city flourished, the tourists started coming to town, and the money started flowing into the city's coffers. A newer, safer New York was being advertised and the city served up just that.

Times Square was my work place for several years before I left New York for China. I was a company manager for Phantom of the Opera and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and spent seven days a week in the Broadway houses. It was the fitting culmination to a long entertainment career that started out in musical theatre, moved to opera, switched over to TV, then to film, went back to theatre and eventually ended in production and management on Broadway - I always knew I'd get there eventually, the road just took me on a more circuitous route than first expected!

I love the entertainment industry and always will; it's in my blood and that will never change. Surprisingly, I don't miss NY these days, perhaps because we have Hong Kong, another international urban center, and that gives me my "dose" of city life. When we come back to the States, it's nice to retreat into the quiet of Corning, knowing NYC is there and waiting for us whenever we want to visit. In the meantime, even though I don't spend time in the city as much as I used to, there is no other place I'd rather call home than New York, New York. It's a helluva town!