The American theater generally, and the New York theater specifically, do not play much of a role in the cultural life of the nation. It was not ever thus. As recently as 30 years ago, Broadway was still a world unto itself, with its own stars, its own glamor, its own legends and tall tales, its own rich people willing to put up money to finance shows just so they could bask in the reflected glow. No longer. Where once Broadway boasted of Mary Martin and Ethel Merman, Alfred Drake and John Raitt, Katharine Cornell and Laurette Taylor — larger-than-life performers who were considered somehow higher and more noble than the common run of Hollywood performer, and who made only occasional forays into the movies or television — now a Broadway performer only becomes a star when the movies or television anoints him as such. The latest example is Nathan Lane, who has been burning up the New York boards for a decade. But with a starring performance in The Birdcage under his belt, Lane has suddenly become a box-office draw and receives an automatic standing ovation when he first steps on stage in the new Broadway revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The theater isn’t allowing itself to descend into cultural irrelevancy without a fight. What it needs is what it used to have, and what the movies, television, and pop music possess in abundance: glamor, mystery, controversy, and high drama.