Jun 12, 2007
What's the top tourist attraction in America?
A caller to my Sunday program recently put the above question to me. In answering, I chose as the single top attraction those provocative small playhouses operated in such dynamic theater cities as New York, Minneapolis and Seattle; they alone can justify almost any trip. The tiny "off Broadway" and "off-off-Broadway" stages -- where little-known playwrights present their works -- have been the major means by which controversial new ideas and concerns -- apartheid in South Africa (the plays of Athol Fugard); civil rights in the U.S. (James Baldwin's Blues for Mr. Charlie, LeRoi Jones' Dutchman), feminism in western nations (plays by Caryl Churchill, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler); the AIDS crisis and acceptance of homosexuals (Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart); the plight of the young black woman (Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls...), many others -- have broken out of academia and into the popular consciousness. They have changed America. It is disappointing to find tourists flocking to the too-often mindless musicals of the Broadway stage and neglecting to patronize the smaller theaters of New York where profound new issues are being raised.
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
