Times Square occupies the streets between 42nd and 47th, where Seventh Avenue and Broadway collide. This is the center of the Theater District, where the pulsating neon suggests a heart for the city itself. Since the major cleanup launched by the city and by business interests like Disney, the ambience here has changed dramatically. Traditionally a melting pot of debauch, depravity and fun, the area became increasingly edgy, a place where out-of-towners supplied easy pickings for petty criminals, drug dealers and prostitutes. Most of the peep shows and sex shops have been pushed out, and Times Square is now a largely sanitized universe of consumption. The neon signs seem to multiply at the same rate as coffee bars, and Disney rules the roost on the stretch of 42nd between Seventh and Eighth avenues, home to the remaining palatial Broadway "houses" and movie palaces.

Times Tower at the Square's southernmost edge was originally headquarters of the New York Times , the city's (and America's) most respected newspaper. It's here that the alcohol-fueled masses gather for New Year's Eve, to witness the giant sparkling ball drop from the top of the Tower. The newspaper itself has long since moved around a corner to a handsome building with globe lamps on 43rd Street; walk past in the early hours of the morning and you'll see the newspaper coming hot off the presses.

Dotted around Times Square are most of New York's great theaters , such as the majestic 1927 clock-and-globe-topped Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, between 43rd and 44th streets. The New Amsterdam and the New Victory , both on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, have been refurbished to their original splendor, one of the truly welcome results of the massive changes here. The Lyceum , at 149 W 45th St, has its original facade, while the Shubert Theater, which hosted A Chorus Line during its twenty-odd-year run, occupies its own small space at 225 W 44th St. At 432 W 44th St is the Actors' Studio , where Lee Strasberg, America's leading proponent of Stanislavski's method-acting technique, taught his students. Among the oldest is the Belasco , on 111 W 44th St, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, which was also the first of Broadway's theaters to incorporate machinery into its stagings.

Duffy Square is the northernmost island in the heart of Times Square and offers an excellent panoramic view of the square's lights, megahotels, theme stores and theme restaurants metastasizing daily. The nifty canvas-and-frame stand of the TKTS booth , modest in comparison, sells half-price, same-day tickets for Broadway shows. A lifelike statue of Broadway's doyen George M. Cohan looks on - though if you've ever seen the film Yankee Doodle Dandy it's impossible to think of him as other than a swaggering Jimmy Cagney.

Times Square

• Times Square

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