A casino in hectic Times Square? This theater critic says heck no.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 5:10 PM
  • Peter Marks, The Washington Post

That “permanent floating crap game” that good old reliable Nathan is always trying to set up may be coming to Times Square. I’m not talking about “Guys and Dolls” — though that, coincidentally, may be in the cards, too. No, what’s actually being pitched is a casino in the heart of the theater district, a serious proposal that has deeply alarmed the Broadway establishment.

It’s a ghastly idea.

“As if Broadway wasn’t already a gamble,” a Tony-winning director joked to me. But what makes the notion truly untenable is the chaos that Times Square already is, and that a Vegas-style casino would only ramp up. “Hadestown” is at present a mythical place that only exists on the stage of a theater on West 48th Street.