Sunday, August 05, 2012
Theater Review Economics
NYTimes.com: In addition to covering economics, I also write theater reviews for the Arts section. And as some of you may know, we have an odd little tradition in theater criticism, in that we (almost) never publish a review until after a production’s official opening night. I’ve long wondered about whether it makes good business sense for productions to enforce this embargo.
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2 comments:
Rampell's view that reviews should come post opening for shows is one that is probably shared by most everyone in theatre. The dress rehearsals and opening night are rarely the best nights of a show, so judging it on those is a very narrow view. Shows don't hit their stride until after a couple of performances, so reviewing them after they've run for a bit is not a bad plan. The other point she made about concentrating the reviews to one day just simply can't be done. One would have to organize all of the publications to conform to one day to review their one show, and that's an imposing task. Rationally, publications will publish their reviews whenever they want, and there's nothing to be done except influence which show they attend. Barring the press from dress rehearsals and even opening night can really help change things.
Personally, the timing of a review of anything is irrelevant. I rarely read or even pay attention to reviews because every person sees and reacts to things differently. I might love a show or a movie, but someone else could hate it. The argument regarding review publication is not a good use of time, but if they must be published, they shod appear in the early moments of opening so audiences can decide if they want to invest time and money, and so production teams and producers know what to expect for the production's future.
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