Phone Booth Sighting: Belasco Theatre

It's not wooden, but it sure is weird.

This old metal phone booth sits in the basement of Broadway's Belasco Theatre, just to the left of the men's "lounge." It's been their for ages, looking lost and out of place.

Since critics stopped rushing up the aisles at curtain to file their reviews with the drama desk decades ago, I can't imagine—in the age of the cell phone—who uses this booth or why the management hasn't yanked it up by the roots and placed it on the sidewalk for collection. I've never seen anyone employ it, though the phone is in perfect working order. But it's a wonderously surreal sight to Belasco theatregoers. Men lined up for the bathroom stare at it with a look of sweet-natured confusion.

There is also an ice machine nearby, as if the Belasco were some roadside motel.