In the current issue of VARIETY, Robert Hofler laments the apparent loss of gay audiences on Broadway. He suggests that changing gay lifestyles and the emergence of gay gay gay on television (Bravo, Here!, Logo, Showtime, HBO and even the networks) has lured gay men from the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd. Silly girl. How can critics be so wise and yet so blind? Broadway has become a tourist attraction, a sterile land of corporate sponsors and product placements, national brands, family-friendly entertainments, marketing super powers and sure bets. Gay men were drawn to the risk takers, the pioneers, the innovators, the Fosses and the Sondheims. Today's Broadway rarely sees experimentation, innovation and theatrical art. Today's Broadway is designed for expense accounts, tourists and merchandising opportunities. Giuliani cleaned up Times Square and Broadway. In fact, Giuliani cleaned out Times Square and Broadway. Soaring rents, chain stores and chain restaurants and theaters with names like American Airlines, Ford, Nokea, Hilton and Disney have driven New York's real theater world and its gay audience off and off off Broadway. Mr. Hofler suggests that the "gay" play "The Little Dog Laughed" failed because gay men are staying home and watching "Will and Grace" and Logo's emasculated and bleeped versions of Brokeback Mountain. I would suggest that gay men have simply lost the habit of even paying attention to Broadway for the same reason that they generally don't take their dates to Bennigans.