Xanadu the movie was a ridiculous extravaganza featuring Olivia Newton-John as the goddess of a roller disco.
Xanadu the stalled Meadowlands mega-mall was already a ridiculous extravagance before a $390 million state Economic Development Authority grant/gift was announced on Halloween. A Canadian company plans to bring the monstrous, moribund money pit back from the dead -- even as malls lose their grip on American consumers.
The project has been a decade in development and in 2011 was re-branded as American Dream Meadowlands. But until the EDA bonanza, the only recent Xana-news was a technical announcement that the developers hailed as "another positive step" in moving the project forward.
The liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective assailed the EDA's generosity, as did the N.J.Sierra Club. But Gov. Christie, who signed the bill authorizing the EDA benevolence, seemed too busy preparing for his re-coronation to comment on the spectacular act of taxpayer-subsidized corporate welfare.
The developer predicts American Dream's indoor skiing and other attractions will make it so much more than a mere mall. And perhaps that cool $390 million will prove to be just the ticket.
Consider: The disco movie Xanadu -- released in 1980, after the death of disco -- was reincarnated as a Broadway musical.
It only took 27 years.
--KEVIN RIORDAN