Los Angeles Times: "The Geffen Playhouse is attempting to turn some bad reviews for its production of 'Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas' into marketing gold.
In an advertisement appearing in the Sunday Arts & Books section of the Los Angeles Times, the theater company runs quotes from reviews, including from The Times and Variety critics, both of whom panned the movie-industry satire in their respective pages."
4 comments:
At least they are turning a negitive into a positive. Although it is almost false advertising.
I agree with the article, it is like they are trying to take a marketing trick from the movie industry and are happy to wear their bad reviews. It is almost pompous and pretenscious. IF it were me I would take the reviews, go back and rework the show, make it better, and re premeire it. A new and improved version of sorts. Instead the Geffen Playhouse honors their "two thumbs down" badge .
Best of luck to them!
It is interesting to see how theatre's respond to critics. I know many directors and theatre companies that just don't listen to reviews at all because they don't actually help the company.
For example when the review on THE OTHER SHORE came out in the post-gazette, we didn't really pay attention to it or use it to change the show at all.
There is of course the major difference between educational theatre and professional theatre. Educational theatre is allowed to fail and use it to learn for the future, while commercial theatre must maintain a certain level of artistic viability to remain in business.
So while this is a clever way to address criticism, i really feel that in context those quotes are highly critical and the way the theatre chose to use them completely changes the meaning into a more positive light. To me this seems rather un-ethical but in the end if it helps keep a theatre company in business then it's worth it.
As someone who has worked for the Geffen Playhouse in the past, I can say that it is not the Geffen's marketing style to embrace their failures rather sweep them under the rug. However, in Los Angeles audience's are drawn to epic failures so perhaps creating controversy will work in the Geffen's favor. Considering that the season impedes any changes to the show, this seems like the most positive take on the negative comments.
It is interesting to me what marketing departments will do with reviews. It proves a book title, "All Marketers are Liars." However, that is there job, to spin anything go give the best impression and sell the product. However, I feel that in this case, they are falling pray to false advertising. The quotes they pull are taken completely out of context. This may be why the critics are though by Joe Plumber to always be wrong. You have to give credit to the Geffen for dealing with the reviews they have given, but I do not applaud them for this performance.
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