Profile for Plum

I was coming to see the play, at least in part, since it formed the basis of His Girl Friday. But I find I'm in accord with the last few posts here - I don't like criticizing during previews, since there's still time for adjustments to be made, but the beginning of the first act was indeed slow, and the shambling machinery of the show didn't really start spinning until Lane was physically present. And that didn't happen until the end of Act II, which isn't great value for a show people are pa...

They tolerate a lot of crap in their television criticism, so this isn't without precedent, but lordy this is disgraceful.

On a slight side note: It's not that the opinions or critiques of people who have a background in theater are of no interest - quite the contrary. But you asked specifically about prerequisite qualifications for reviewers, OP. I think it's possible for reviewers to make idiot statements that arise from an ignorance of the thing they're reviewing - the TV reviewer who talked about Avatar: the Last Airbender "inventing" dramatic cartoons as if anime never existed comes to mind. But that reviewe...

You asked about "reviewers," specifically, so I'll say that I agree with the posts above - no, reviewers don't need to have a background doing the thing they're reviewing. They're writing for a general audience who wants a mixture of a summary and a thumbs up/thumbs down in order to know whether a show is worth watching. Having a deep background for this kind of work means watching a lot of shows, not making them. A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis never made movies, Todd Vanderweff and Alan Sepin...

Speaking as someone who's been trying to do that, it's difficult to pull off when the date you want is significantly sooner than the date you have. The tickets are more expensive the sooner the performance is, and Ticketmaster's massive cut of every transaction doesn't help. That said, the Hamilton resale situation is so rife with fraud that the Ticketmaster option should definitely be the first one you look at.

Rosscoe, I have to disagree about that quote - the fact that adult Alison is reaching the age when her dad killed himself is exactly what gives her digging into the past such weight and stakes from the beginning. All adults compare themselves to their parents - for Alison it also means at least momentarily wondering if she has that seed of self-destruction in herself, too. That succinct statement at the beginning ("and he was gay, and I was gay, and he killed himself, and I...became a lesbian...

That photo doesn't show the doorway that sometimes pops up at the very front of the stage. I was sitting in the 100s on Saturday and my view was slightly blocked while it was up, but it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the show, which was just tremendous. And Circle in the Square is pretty small, no? But the staging never felt cramped to me; it was all done very fluidly.

For me, a glimpse of wires is more in the spirit of watching a filmed live performance than all the CGI.

BA in Political Science and English Lit, then a JD, and now I work in immigration law. I worked box office and as a stagehand throughout college and law school, but now I'm strictly an audience member. Also, seconding all the advice about taking diverse classes in college. I took classes in 13 departments and still wish I could have done more.

I've been foiled every time I've tried to see this show, so I'm really happy to be getting another chance. And previews are around Passover, which gives me the holiday excuse to go to NYC!

Joviedamian, I can't say I've kept up with arts news as well as I used to, but I had no idea this show existed either until I saw subway ads (complete with a truly terrifying depiction of the Central Park Alice statue) when I was in the city a couple of weeks ago. What an utterly bizarre cancellation. They must have really thought they had no chance of success if they decided to give up on the sunk costs and move on.

I've had to turn over Emma Thompson's take on Lovett in my mind because it's not what I'm used to - she has her gleefully amoral moments, yes, but it's a...softer? sadder? interpretation than I've seen before. The abusive aspects of the Sweeney/Lovett relationship stood out more than usual. (Which isn't to say she wasn't funny. She was hilarious, and I'm pretty sure the only thing that kept her from being even funnier is that Terfel didn't give her much to bounce off of in that respect.)

It's 3am, I came down from Vermont to watch this, and I'm exhausted. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not up to writing a full review right now.

Reporting from waaaay up in the third tier here - I was kind of left scratching my head by the concept, myself. Was it supposed to be a punk thing, knocking over the obviously artificial trappings of a "traditional" concert hall performance, ripping off the performers' sleeves, and revealing the graffitied wall in the back? Sweeney Todd is an awesome show, and certainly a political and angry one in the right hands, but it never struck me as particularly punk. That said, I had a ton of fun, an...

I liked Ned and Chuck, but honestly the TV show was pretty much the Olive and Emerson show to me anyway. And this isn't exactly an instance of a musical hanging off the popularity of its pre-existing source - about 11 people watched Pushing Daisies.

Depends on the 16-year-old, their upbringing, etc., but generally I'd say yes. If it's your 16-year-old, go ahead. If it's someone else's, think about their background.

I'm doing this combo tomorrow - two-show days are very doable, especially when one of them is a comedy.

As Reidel has discussed, Oskar wanted to move INTO THE WOODS, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, and HERE LIES LOVE as of late I can't speak to the latter, but Into the Woods a) already had a recent revival, b) wasn't exactly a great production, while Love's Labours Lost was okay but not great. Fun Home sounds like a whole different story. That said, I'm being totally self-centered here: I don't care where it's playing so long as it sticks around long enough for me to trek to NYC to see it. I wasn't quite...

My understanding is that "Christmas cheer" starts on approximately October 20th these days, so no, it doesn't seem terribly shocking that there would be enough Christmas-loving tourists in the area in November to fill up a few performances a day.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't have bought my Richard III tickets if I'd just showed up at the Belasco last month asking for them, but hey, I'm one of those weirdos who lives 300 miles from the city. I could be wrong.