Off-Broadway’s ‘Empire’ Follows in Footsteps of Broadway’s ‘New York, New York,’ but Audiences May Desire Different Directions

Set at the dawn of the Great Depression and in 1976, this musical focuses on the men and women who conceived and built the Empire State Building. At times, the production can have an amateurish feel.

Matthew Murphy
The company of 'Empire.' Matthew Murphy

A little more than a year ago, Broadway welcomed “New York, New York,” a big, splashy new musical inspired by the Martin Scorsese film of the same name. Ostensibly a tribute to the Big Apple, the show defined its characters largely by race, ethnicity, and class, but ultimately had nothing interesting to say about any of those subjects — or, by extension, about the diversity and pluck that give our city its distinct personality.

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