Once upon a time, a negative review in a major newspaper was the death knell for a new theatre production. Today, it’s an invitation for the offended party to strike back.
Michael Maso, managing director of Boston’s Huntington Theatre Co., did just that yesterday with this snub of the Boston Globe, and he cited comments from playgoers on the Globe‘s own website as justification for his position. Here’s an edited version of his message:
After a full week of laughing, cheering, and deeply appreciative audiences for Pirates! – including many families with small children – I was astonished to read the Boston Globe’s aggressively negative review of Pirates! last Friday. I was further dismayed to hear that some of our subscribers did not attend their scheduled performance this past weekend due to that one review.
In over three decades of producing plays, I have never felt such a disconnect between the audience’s experience in the theatre and the reflection of a critic. From the very first line of the review, the Globe critic makes it clear that she is angry at the audience for responding with cheers and laughter throughout the evening.
Every other Pirates! review has been overwhelmingly positive. The Boston Herald praised it as “a treasure to behold” and “the kind of pure, giddy entertainment springtime stages are made for,” and The Patriot Ledger, BroadwayWorld.com, Berkshire Fine Arts, Cape Cod Times, Examiner.com, The Boston Guide, and BostonMan.com all agree.
Don’t take my word for it; just ask anyone who has seen it, or read the 65-plus comments on the Boston.com website written by audience members themselves.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 9:11 am and is filed under Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Well the theater reporting here was not one whit worse than typical MSM war correspondence.
Which is what launched Micheal Yon and Bill Roggio into their current careers.