Stage Directions: In a fun story about the politicking and press that happens in the big-stakes Broadway world, longtime New York Post gadfly and Broadway gossip columnist Michael Riedel lost a bet to Finding Neverland producer Harvey Weinstein, and had a bucket of ice water poured over his head as part of the ALS ice bucket challenge. After Riedel wrote a column criticizing Finding Neverland (which is playing at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., in a run-up to a Broadway debut) without having actually seen the show, the producer Harvey Weinstein invited him to see the show for himself and offered him a challenge: if less than 80% of the audience did not love the show, Weinstein would do the ALS ice bucket challenge. However if 80% or more of the audience loved it, Riedel would have ice dumped on him. The show was surveyed and the results were verified by accounting firm Ernst and Young. After 96% of the audience voted they loved the show, Weinstein doused Riedel.
1 comment:
This is hilarious! More importantly, though, it makes an important statement about passing critique on a production or artist: Know what you're talking about. Try it before you knock it. Particularly when one has as much sway on the theater world's opinion as Michael Riedel (my boss this summer distributed Riedel's articles on a weekly basis, to gauge theater word-of-mouth), one should be wary before dishing out harsh criticism at any time, but it's particularly uncouth to do so without experiencing the work for one's self.
Furthermore, there's a great lesson to be learned here from Weinstein in how he handled a potential press disaster. 1) Rather than spewing back harsh words at Riedel and causing a scandal, Weinstein put himself in the position of a gracious host by personally inviting Riedel to the show...ok, granted, dumping ice on your guest's head isn't exactly "gracious," but it was in good fun, and that particular stunt served another purpose. 1a) The charity doesn't hurt Weinstein's image either. 2) Whether Riedel won or lost the bet, the audience would have gotten to enjoy someone of theatrical importance getting doused with ice, so their voting could be objective...and that means Weinstein also got instant feedback on what audiences think of his show in the process! 3) Most importantly, though, Weinstein demonstrated such unwavering faith in the quality of his show/the product he was selling, that his example will surely inspire confidence in future audiences/investors that money spent on Finding Neverland will be a worthwhile investment.
There's a lot to learn about being a good producer from Weinstein's example!
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