Review - 'Here's to Tin Pan Alley, a Yankee rally, a show like Sally…'

Thanks to Wayman Wong for bringing this New York Post article to my attention. It's not bad enough that we've seen the demise of so many New York theatres in recent years, now five of the buildings on West 28th Street that made up historic Tin Pan Alley are up for sale and likely to be demolished in order to put up a high rise.

Back in the day, this was the center of America's popular music industry, housing publishing offices where future greats like Irving Berlin and George Gershwin worked as song-pluggers; pianists who would demonstrate the latest tunes for vaudeville performers searching for new material. Legend says the street got its name from the cacophonous sounds you'd hear outside through the windows as dozens of song-pluggers would be playing at once.

In this city of immigrants, where the proximity of so many different cultures combined to create the sound of American musical theatre, these buildings are, as much as any Broadway theatre, important monuments to the art form that we love.

As Johnny Mercer wrote, "Progress is the root of all evil."

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