Some of the more adventurous had been to Night's Doorstep before, titillated by its seedy charms, amusing themselves en route to and from the Houses of the Night Court; many had never been.

But he also worries that a big new development would vacuum away the Boardwalk's seedy charms and render the place indistinguishable from any resort destination.

The nephew, who is called Rameau like his uncle, is disreputable, but with a certain seedy charm.

Ujung Pandang, with its population of nearly a million, ought to suggest a seedy charm, but I find it a motley place, with low, faceless concrete buildings and corruguated tin-roofed bungalos scattered southward from the fort.

But both Ray Kaiser and Frederick Barthelme are realists, and so must accept that Biloxi has changed - that, like so many towns across America, it has cashed in its seedy charm for the hard glitter of casino gambling.

The crowd is mostly people in their 20's and 30's who are in thrall to Coney's seedy charm or older folks who grew up coming to the boardwalk and have discovered the show on nostalgia trips.

From a comic perspective, the most amusing were Wolfgang Brendel, who took on the role of Falke with energy and enthusiasm, complete with a creditable cartwheel in the party scene, and Walter Berry, who embodied Frank's seedy charms with sweet assurance.

But slowly, with its own seedy charm, Zizkov is also changing and now has become more of an attraction for tourists, not to mention young Czechs looking for cheap places to live near downtown.

Like the club, the island is an eclectic mix of rich history and slightly seedy charm.