Hoping for triumph of romanticism over cynicism

When I studied abroad in England, one of the first things I wanted to do in London was find Dress Circle, a shop in London that specialized in musical theater merchandise. I had ordered things from them already; in those days, before the Internet was as huge as it's become, it was hard to find certain things--for example, Michael Ball CDs in the United States. So I ordered from them. I was on their mailing list. When I finally made it there, it was like Mecca. I couldn't have been happier.

So of course I was bummed to see an article about its fight to stay open. Long gone are the days when every production of a show got a cast recording. And now there's the Internet, the bane of small, specialized shops. The combination is a deadly one.

I can only hope for its survival. I haven't been there in a decade, but it brings me back to my teenage years, when I lived for musical theater. Dress Circle meant a lot to me then. And the thought of it closing is an incredibly sad one.