>> Tonight, New York's big bet on casinos.

The latest plan to bring gambling to New York City and then the good times never seemed so good.

Kicking off Broadway week on MetroFocus with a little rock 'n' roll.

It all starts right now.

What this is MetroFocus with Jack Ford, Rafael and Jenna Flanagan.

MetroFocus is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, come the Peter G Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Bernard and Denise, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg and by Jody and John Arnhold, Dr. Robert C and Tina Sohn foundation.

The Estate of Roland Karlen and Request good evening and welcome to MetroFocus.

I am Jenna Flanagan.

There is a fierce battle underway over the future of casinos in New York City.

There are no less than 12 competing developers to build a casino in the city including a proposal for a gambling entertainment complex in Times Square.

That proposal has gotten a lot of pushback from the Broadway industry.

Proposed projects on Citi Field and Nassau Coliseum have also drawn protests.

Here to tell us all about the proposal on the table and what New Yorkers are saying about the prospect of having a casino in their neighborhood is Andy McDonough.

This is the deputy City Hall reporter for this -- for the state of New York.

Welcome to MetroFocus, Annie.

>> Let's start with what exactly we are talking about when we say a casino in New York City.

>> Just to take it back a little bit, this all started in 2013 with a ballot measure to expand its casino gambling in New York State.

There were four built of state and 10 years later, we are finally -- the state's get to the process of potentially ordering up to three new casino license, Vegas style gambling downstage.

There are proposals in the town of Manhattan, Citi Field, Nassau Coliseum is one of them.

It could really go anywhere at this point.

There are two front runners, really.

There are two existing casinos with horseracing.

Because there are -- those were already existing establishments.

Officially, there are no frontrunners for the state and any of these three licenses could go to any of these.

Up to a dozen so far.

>> So many things to unpack for what you just said.

I think what will probably get a lot of people's attention is the idea of Vegas style in New York City.

There is already so much to do.

What is the argument for putting in a casino which is usually a tourist attraction when New York City does not have a problem with getting tourists?

>> That is corrected.

This is the argument that these teams are real estate developers and gambling companies are doing across the city with these proposals.

There is a massive bit of revenue for these companies to be made.

Hundreds of millions in annual net profits.

This is also tax revenue for the state.

That is part of it.

The discussion about what a casino can do for New York at this stage recovering from the pandemic has taken on new urgency.

There is the argument that tourism is not what it once was.

And these casinos could have a role in bringing renewed energy, new tourist back to back on the city or on Long Island, Coney Island as well.

They are also trying to argue that it is not just a benefit for their specific establishments but it will have some trickle benefits for other restaurants and hotels in the area.

Because you have this well of tourists coming in.

There was see Broadway shows while they are here.

That is the argument that these would-be applicants are trying to make at this point.

>> I kind of see where the developers are going.

Say people go and gamble in Vegas and maybe they stay and see our residency show or something like that, that could be Broadway but what is the pushback from the theater community?

>> The theater community -- we are pretty early in the process here.

Applications have not even gone in yet.

They are still in development.

We are early in the game.

The Broadway league that is a trade organization has been very outspoken for months now against Times Square casino.

Their arguments about increased congestion in one of the most congested blocks in the country.

Disruption with existing entertainment theater industry there.

There is that argument against it.

It is also local community residents outside of Times Square.

Those worried about congestion are worried about crime, the problems with gambling.

We are starting to see at this point coalitions of community groups come together with their objections to just the idea of these proposals, several Manhattan community boards have come out with their opposition to the idea of a casino in the area.

We will see that pickup in the next few months as more details about the proposals come out.

>> As you were laying out what all these community groups and neighborhood organizations -- in a lot of cases it sounds like they are vocalizing their opposition to this.

When it comes to the approval process, who has final say?

This is not just public opinion we are talking about.

>> Corrected.

There is a state three-person board that was created called the state gaming location board.

They are overseeing the entire application process and at the very end of this process, we don't have a deadline for it yet.

A few months from now, we will see them make recommendations to the state gaming commission about which of these applications that make it through the long gauntlet should receive one of the three licenses.

Before that state gaming Board can even consider these applications, every application I have submitted will have something called a community advisory created in the local community.

There will be members appointed to that committee by each of the local officials, that is the governor, the mayor, the County executive.

Local legislative leaders.

They have to approve by two thirds vote -- give their local signoff before the proposal can move forward to the state.

>> Out of curiosity, every time I hear about a board that is nonpolitical, I assume these are not elected positions, they were appointed by somebody.

>> Designed to be nonpolitical.

These are people who have not held prior elected office.

They have knowledge of government.

They are not meant to have any connection to gambling companies.

One of the members of the board would not be an elected official.

That is the intention of this board.

Our very vocal mayor who has been very vocal about getting people to come back to the city, do we know where he stands on the possibility of a casino in Times Square?

>> He has not given his specific opinion on where a casino should go.

>> This is the one thing he has weighed in on.

>> He wants to see a casino in New York City.

He has not played any favorites yet.

There is Times Square.

There is the Manhattan one and then there is Coney Island.

There is talk of exploring one in Staten Island.

He has not played favorites at all.

At least not publicly.

In terms of where a casino should go.

He has said he supports a casino in the five boroughs.

>> So much of what we have been talking about, we have been talking about the idea of a casino in Times Square.

Some of the other locations, has there been similar pushback?

Is this something that we welcome with open arms?

>> There were starting to be.

It is a Hudson yours proposal.

It is hard to imagine a casino in the middle of Midtown Manhattan and those developers have already put up a pretty aggressive PR campaigns and they have done community outreach.

Steve Cohen is mulling a proposal at Citi Field.

He talked about what to do with that.

A casino entertainment venue is an idea.

There is a Coney Island proposal that would aim to turn Coney Island into a year-round destination for tourists and New Yorkers as opposed to just a seasonal one.

Both those proposals would be proposals, there has been some level of community pushback already.

There's also been coalitions saying, local businesses and residents recently put out a statement about how this would benefit their community.

It is going to come down to these two arguments, who will show the strongest coalition of support and whether those in opposition can effectively make their opposition known to the local board and stop this proposal in its tracks.

Request the final question is there is so much talk about the importance of housing and making the city hospitable to people who already work here.

Is there any indication that any of these potential products would aid in what seems like the bigger issue of New York City being a place where the people who work at these potential casinos live?

>> There are couple of proposals that talk about including a certain number of affordable housing units as part of a larger development that will include a casino.

It is a little bit hard to tell at this point.

We don't have the actual application details about what this looks like.

But Hudson yards for example has talked about -- this was a space that was initially going to include affordable housing units and it has talked about including that into the casino there.

That is a lot of the opposition.

People saying if there is space to be used to build a casino, why not?

Why not use it for sorely needed green space?

>> I believe that is food for thought for all of us.

We look forward to more important to find out how this all shakes out.

Thank you for joining us on MetroFocus.

>> Thank you.

♪ Sweet Caroline ♪ ♪ >> That was the cast of the Neil diamond musical beautiful noise.

The show is a rollicking trip through a musical catalog to rival any other.

It certainly left his body is singing along.

We are happy to have two men who play the iconic Neil diamond on stage.

>> I saw the show.

It was fabulous.

I am a Neil diamond fan.

I saw him in concert at Madison Square Garden some years back.

But I have a question for the two of you.

I will ask you the same question.

I have seen the show described as a concert where a play breaks out or a play were a concert breaks out.

How would you describe the show?

>> That is the best one I have heard.

It is a unique show in its structure.

There is probably the temptation with one of these kinds of shows to make it a big concert, seeing all of Neil's songs and have a great night and a great evening and go home but ours is a much different idea.

Structured in a play format.

Then these huge numbers erupt out of it.

>> Half of our audience thinks they are at a rock concert.

I think it is a play.

But from my perspective, in view of what I need to do with what I call my scene partner, my therapist, I definitely have to approach this play and hope for the best.

Let's talk about that if you will.

Explain what you mean by that and the structure of the show and how it starts out with you.

>> Our concept is Neil is in psychotherapy and working with his therapist, the elements of his life arbitrate understated by young Neil or Neil then.

That is how the musical numbers are presented.

From my standpoint, I am in therapy the entire evening.

>> It is interesting to contrast.

I will get to that.

When you talk about the idea of portraying an iconic figure that is still with us, talk a little bit about how you prepared to become him.

>> And after approaches every role of the differently on this one is unique in that Neil is a really well-known personality, everyone knows exactly what he sounds like, what he looks like and what he has done.

So there is the danger of not nailing that because people know exactly what to expect.

I just started his movements and sound on YouTube trying to get it just right.

>> This is not somebody you did not know very much about.

>> That is true.

Neil is my dad's favorite singer of all time and I just grew up with Neil as part of my breakfast practically.

He was just always on the loop in our house and in the car so I very much had all these songs in my bones.

It is a nostalgic project for me.

>> SR that Neil himself had said he was both flattered and embarrassed about the idea of having this show based on him.

He said he insisted that if it was going to happen that it would portray him warts and all.

I guess the warts part comes back to you.

In this conversation because you have this beautiful noise taking place in the story and will evolving as the Neil and then coming back to you.

It is some tough conversations.

>> That is what therapy is.

It does get tough.

It goes to painful places.

The experience of rehearsing this in the studio, I have Neil diamond sitting there 10 feet away watching himself in therapy.

I never thought about doing that before.

It is quit intimidating.

It is the nature of psychotherapy.

You go into many times painful issues.

That was overwhelming.

I sometimes can't believe that he and Katie, his wife have done that and the script is very explicit but the difficulties he has encountered in his life including his current illness.

>> The same question to both of you.

I know he was there.

Did you find yourself as you are rehearsing and doing this glancing over toward him to say how was he reacting?

Does he think I am getting this right?

>> That was unavoidable.

Performing as Neil diamond in front of Neil diamond trying to emulate his sound and tell his story within 10 feet of him, it was impossible not to want to see if he was interested or liking it.

I think we were all having this out of body experience.

Particularly the first time we ran the show for him.

And also, he sort of closed his eyes the first time and we thought that he thought it was terrible then he was sort of meditating.

He was dancing in his seat and then he opened his eyes and was singing along and we were like I think he likes it.

That was kind of thrilling.

Super intimidating.

One of the more bizarre and surreal experiences.

Request it is him is like good news and bad news.

The good news is he is right there for you and the bad news is he is right there for you.

>> At one point, the first time he saw a run through, he was up on that catwalk area in the studio and he raised his arms high over his head and he held them there and I don't know what he was doing, I don't know if he was stretching or if it was a physical manifestation of what he was experiencing but it was an indelible thing to me to see that.

I actually use it in the show at one point.

We sing a very famous song and I tried to emulate what he did because for me, it is effortful to do that and it kind of matches what he's been through in a little motel room in Memphis to write this iconic song.

It kind of physical eyes is it for me.

You get after the danger of maybe not getting there.

>> That was a great scene.

There are great teams but especially that one.

He locked himself in the motel room in Memphis.

Let me ask you about something that got a lot of attention.

And deservedly so.

Neil diamond being there on opening night, coming on stage and suddenly you get Sweet Caroline and he is up there and you are there.

Your audience is up there.

Did you know he was going to come up on stage and purchase debate?

>> We did not know if he was going to sing or not.

They were definitely going to be standing there with a microphone in the gym and say would you like to do anything?

We were prepared to do our curtain called the way we normally do.

I think you has done that song sometimes -- thousands of times.

It was just in his bones.

Then he grabbed the mic and sang sweet Caroline for us.

If you like the ceiling blew off the theater in the moment he started singing.

>> It is such an anthem.

We talked about the idea of the Boston Red Sox singing it.

Every night, this is like 1959 or 1970.

Every night, last song to close the song down, sweet Caroline.

What about this?

Often times you hear people say this is a show for all ages but it is not always.

Especially for music.

There are some types of music for music personalities that don't necessarily work now.

Why do you think you can accurately say this is a theater show for all ages?

>> It is his music.

It resonates now just as it did with previous generations.

All they need to do is be exposed to it.

I don't know how will feels about it but it is so heartfelt.

It seems to -- it is not cerebral.

I don't think.

His lyrics and his music are very much who he is and I think anybody of any age, any particular cultural background can appreciate that.

It is remarkable to me.

Maybe they had to be brought by their parents or grandparents.

I think it resonates with anybody who is on the planet at this moment.

>> I said when I was there it was like a concert.

I had never been in anything where everybody is singing along.

Sometimes up on their feet singing along, going into this, did you expect that this show would generate that kind of extraordinary response from audiences show after show?

>> We did not know what to think.

We knew sweet Caroline was a sing-along song and we knew the worldwide anthem for sporting events for all kinds of things.

We have -- we had a feeling that people might sing-along for that one.

We had a contingency plan and then we went out of town to Boston to do our tryout.

Neil was in the audience.

Everyone saw he was there so everyone sang along like crazy.

The next night, everyone sang along again.

Then they continued to.

We thought I guess that is how it is going to be.

It is very much a sing-along every night.

It is also a thoughtful show.

Not just a concert.

You come out having enjoyed singing.

It is called a beautiful noise.

It is sensational.

I want to thank you for joining us.

Congratulations.

I hope you are both well.

Quick thank you for turning into MetroFocus.

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Estate of Roland Karlen.