Broadway News: “Crrrritic!” Estragon sneers as the trumping put-down in the battery of insults he trades with Vladimir in “Waiting for Godot.” You might say that for theater critics, it’s been downhill ever since. And when are critics not crrrritics? That’s easy: When we don’t write rrrrreviews.
4 comments:
The quote that really stuck out to me in this piece was that critics and journalists "don't work for producers or playwrights" and " have a stake in assuring their role in the ongoing conversation about art". As I become more involved in the professional world of theatre, I find that I often turn to read reviews of shows to understand it further or engage in a conversation about a piece of theatre I have seen. However, this idea that producers have the ability to dictate whether or not their shows get criticized is actually more hurtful to the show. One, as an audience member it raises the question of why this choice would be made, (has the show not been received well?, does the creative team think they are above receiving a critic?, etc), but also I think that it does not open the conversation up to people to discuss the show because, In my opinion, good theatre sparks a conversation. Overall, I think that journalists should write about whatever they want independent of the wishes of the show.
Critics have an extremely important job. Not only do they, in many cases, decide what closes and does not, but they also provide critiques important to the way theatre interacts with the world at large. I think it's important to allow people who may not have the resources to just go to shows to see if they're good or not to have some information before buying. Like any other kind of journalism, there should be no constraints on what they write. While bias is probably more common in theatre criticism and any other opinion piece than with more fact-based journalism, it should still be reduced as much as possible. I think the idea that producers may have an effect on the reviews of their shows is really harmful to audiences and their relationships/trust of journalists. Like the author points out, sometimes big-budget shows are not, by nature, good and it's important for critics to express that and lift up good shows with low budgets and exposure. To me, this is just another indication of the progression of journalism towards a more biased place.
This article takes a bit of a doomed tone that might not be warranted. 'Theatre is the ever-ailing patient,' after all. But I do think that it is problematic that critics often don't have a seat in the theater. It's maybe not quite a freedom of press issue, but it's in the same vein. Reviews are the most basic way that audiences judge whether it's worth it to go see a show. If producers don't let critics in to review shows, they deprive the public of that chance at a first look. I'm not really sure how to remedy this. It hardly seems to warrant legislation, but there also doesn't seem to be any other way to force producers to let critics in. Maybe a widespread audience effort to only go see shows with reviews, but garnering that sort of collective action would be nigh on impossible, and would probably hurt the industry short term.
I thought this article addressed some issues that I wasn’t really in the know about. When trying to figure out what shows I wanted to see in New York, I definitely was looking for reviews from critics in order to engage with a thoughtful observation of a new show. An example brought up in the article that I found relevant to my experience was the mention of Ed Harris starring in To Kill A Mockingbird. I have chosen to see it as a fan of Aaron Sorkin’s writing and reading a review of the production while it starred Jeff Daniels. I wasn’t really able to find any kind of coverage for Ed Harris’s performance in the play, which made deciding to see it a little difficult. The concerns of producers do seem valid to me, however. Personally, I was intrigued by the revival of West Side Story but was deterred by many negative reviews instead of letting myself go and formulate an opinion for myself. It’s difficult because I definitely could’ve gone to the show and loved it or hated it, but when it comes to figuring out how to spend hard-earned money, having thoughtful reflections to read about seem important and transparent to me.
J.D. Hopper
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