Welcome to Theatre Street. The weather is fine today, and the year is twenty-something. Although you could be in Sydney or Melbourne, I’ve placed my fantasy street in the great Pacific city. Not long ago this was a dusty and decaying thoroughfare, not far from Central Station. Now, it’s a dynamic streetscape which houses half a dozen new, mainly medium-sized theatres. The stultifying old-lady matinee atmosphere of the subsidised Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies is gone, replaced with the liveliness of crowd-attracting commercial productions. Along Theatre Street are new plays, new and old musicals, new dance. Not far away, Off-Theatre…