The Federal Reserve's latest "beige book" roundup of economic conditions "shows the economy is still frail," as the WSJ understates it.

Reporters regularly comb through the beige book looking for red flags to write about, which is how the WSJ's Erica Alini conjured up "Are Lights Going Down on Broadway?" Yes, the beige book says sales and attendance on Broadway dropped in May after a slight rebound in April. But then Alini gets melodramatic. She concludes, based on a Marist poll, that "the vast majority of New Yorkers already think a Broadway show is far too expensive."

You think? Shit, that's what New Yorkers say even when they're riding atop a bubble.

Alini does have a tidbit, however: After Barack Obama took a chopper to NYC with wife Michelle to see Joe Turner's Come and Gone, ticket sales for the play soared. So did complaints by the GOP, which Chris Matthews addresses in the above video.

And no matter what critics say, nothing rakes in dead presidents better than a live one.