New Kids on the Block to reunite

They left home in the gray pre-dawn and huddled, a large and excited crowd, ambivalent to the bone-chilling rain. And when the moment arrived on Friday morning and a red curtain dropped to reveal the New Kids on the Block, Rockefeller Plaza erupted in ear-splitting screams.

They’re no longer kids, and they were dressed more like very cool professionals than adolescent heartthrobs, but the reaction of the crowd showed that they haven’t lost any of the visceral appeal that launched the archetypal boy band to superstardom 20 years ago.