Big Apple Bounces Back

had planned to spend fall break in the Big Apple long before Sept. 11. But when Midway Airlines (my carrier) went under two days later, thanks in large part to the terrorist attack's blow to the airline industry, I had the chance to rethink my trip. My friends and I decided that we would get tickets on another airline and go anyway. The show must go on, so they say.

So they say on Broadway, a huge sector of the New York arts industry that has also suffered since Sept. 11. For the first few weeks after the attacks, one of the greatest arts scenes in the world nearly came to a halt. Stage actors played to empty theaters and paintings hung unadmired in museums. Four Broadway shows closed, while other productions cancelled performances and lost millions of dollars. With hotel occupancy at a mere 18 percent, the tourist economy that fuels the arts industry was being choked.

But five weeks after two commercial jetliners careened into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, things seem to be picking up. I had half-expected to have Monet's Waterlilies all to myself and to not have to spend my Saturday afternoon waiting in long lines for rush theater tickets as I was accustomed to doing on my many previous visits to the city.

Well, not only did I spend my afternoon waiting in line for tickets to the off-Broadway Molly Ringwald musical tick tick Boom!, but after getting shut out, my friends spent their evening in line for tickets to De La Guarda, another off-Broadway show. And they were shut out too. We got smart and queued up earlier the next day, and we finally saw the show standing amid a full house. (Yes, we were standing--"De La Guarda" is an artistic and innovative Argentinian production, reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, that takes place entirely in the air, with the performers swinging from harnesses. This masterpiece is a must for visitors asyet unacquainted.)

The scene was similar along Museum Mile. We waited to get into the MOMA, and we waited on the sidewalk to get into the Met. But New York residents informed me that these lines were not usual, or at least not before September 11. Security guards were thoroughly searching all bags at the door, and anything larger than a purse had to be left at the coat-check. And while the galleries looked packed to me, a ticket attendant at the MOMA said business was slower than usual, but much better than the first few weeks after the attacks, when the museum, he said, was "dead."

Maybe that's because you don't have to go to the MOMA to see one of its most famous paintings. Posters of Jasper John's "Flag"--a 1950's rendition of the American flag painted over a newspaper collage--have become the centerpieces of many a Manhattan vendor's sidewalk stand. Flags, ribbons, buttons or anything red, white and blue, line the streets of New York City, alongside new posters that read "I [heart] New York More Than Ever."

And musicians trying to make a buck are out in full force--from the guy belting out "America the Beautiful" on the trumpet on 3rd Avenue, to the dude with the flute in front of the Met who only knew how to play "Yankee Doodle Dandee," to the shaggy-haired hippie guitarist on the subway who wrote his own song about the perspectives gained from the events of September 11. Maybe you could even say that last month's attacks have helped the arts in New York.

Nothing would prove that better than The Concert for New York City tomorrow night in Madison Square Garden. With over a dozen performers, including Paul McCartney, The Who and Bon Jovi, the satellite collaboration is bound to be one of the best concerts ever, and all the proceeds are going directly to the families of the World Trade Center victims. But if watching it on VH1 isn't good enough for you, head up to the Big Apple and support New York in person--Lady Liberty will thank you for it.