Within the next few weeks, we may learn whether future Broadway shows will be staged in the city or the suburbs. And while many of us want the Rochester Broadway Theatre League's new home built downtown, competition with RBTL's suburban suitors is tough. RBTL's decision will be, too.

Developers of projects in two of the suburbs - Brighton and Irondequoit - have offered substantial help with the theater. The City of Rochester, on the other hand, isn't a developer. It can't build the theater. It can't guarantee that anyone else will come up with any money.

In a presentation to RBTL's site-selection committee on November 30, Duffy said the city wants the theater located downtown. He offered "a considerable part of the Midtown parcel" for a theater and said the city wants to be "a partner" with RBTL and county, state, and federal representatives.

Duffy continues to add qualifiers to his support, though, and he doesn't seem convinced that the theater is viable. In his presentation, he repeated the concerns he raised when the theater was planned for Ren Square: Where will RBTL get the money to build it? Who will own it? Who will operate it? How will the operating costs be paid? Rochester has a history of building things, Duffy said, but we don't always do so well operating them.

Following Duffy's presentation to RBTL, representatives of Christa Development apparently participated in a closed session. Christa plans to develop the tower portion of Midtown into high-end residential units, and a theater would be an attractive neighbor. So would restaurants and other new uses that the theater might generate.

Pulling together a package and a partnership for a Midtown theater will take time, though. And time, RBTL's Arnie Rothschild said earlier this week, is an enemy. "The developers," he said, "are used to working faster than government."

The suburbs have given firm proposals to RBTL. The city has not. If one of the suburban developers ups his bid, offering to build a theater and lease it to RBTL, would RBTL officials turn it down, hoping that they can work out the kind of partnership Duffy suggests and get a theater built at Midtown?

The current estimate for building a new theater is about $50 million. I can't imagine that a developer would go that far. And while Duffy can't wave a magic wand and come up with a bundle of state money, he can ask state leaders - all of whom, like him, are Democrats - not to help fund a theater if it's in the suburbs. So maybe the city's bid is stronger than it appears.

I hope so. Surely there's a way to work all of this out so that RBTL stays in the city.

I also hope that as the public discussion about the theater continues, we can all be civilized and broadminded. The theater has generated a good number of comments on our website and in our mail, and some of them are openly antagonistic toward RBTL. Some are also a bit elitist, suggesting that a good theater for popular entertainment is not important, that the kinds of shows RBTL brings in aren't "high quality."

Ten years ago, when a true performing arts center was being discussed, I was disturbed at the attitude of some RBTL supporters - including some government officials. A new theater for entertainment - for touring Broadway shows - was far more important than a theater for the arts, they said. Arts enthusiasts, they told me, "just don't get it."

Both arts and entertainment are important, of course. Both can boost our spirits. Both are economic-development tools. Happily, we now have an expanded Nazareth Arts Center and a renovated Eastman Theatre, and a new performance hall at Eastman is under construction. We need to find a way, and the private and public funds, to keep RBTL in the city.