Riedel: From riches to 'Ragtime'- Page 2

[wonkit]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 10:51am

Unnecessary cruelty - these aren't amateurs he's dissing. Regional theater is sometimes where good, even great, new things come from. Look at Steppenwolf.

[MariusPontmercy]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 10:55am

Come on, people. Is he really any nastier than most of the posters here on BroadwayWorld?

Probably not, but isn't it reasonable to expect - or rather, hope for - a bit more than internet forum-style bitchery from a professional (as in paid) journalist?

I didn't find the article deeply offensive or anything (I've no interest in Ragtime either way), I just don't really see what the point of it is? There's plenty of that kind of stuff - often funnier and better-written - available to read on blogs and messageboards around the internet by people who don't claim to be professionals. Updated On: 1/8/10 at 10:55 AM

[MariusPontmercy]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 10:55am

OK... that post was far prissier than I intended. Updated On: 1/8/10 at 10:55 AM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 10:59am

I didn't find it that prissy but loved your typo.

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:09am

I enjoy his articles. Everyone just needs to calm down and get over it. Ragtime is closing, it sucks, but life goes on. I've read much nastier things on BWW.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:10am

If Michael Kaiser's hubris is responsible for all the money this production has lost then he deserves to be called out.

Do you know anything about Kaiser's career? The man has earned a bit of hubris. I'm sure he was not the only person behind the transfer, but since he runs the Kennedy Center, it ultimately fell to him to raise the money.

This is his last year at the Kennedy Center. I don't blame him for wanting to go out with a bang. Guess it was the wrong kind of bang.

[MariusPontmercy]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:14am

I didn't find it that prissy but loved your typo.

Oops. And I just had to read it through three times before I found it! I suppose that answers my own (implied) question about why Riedel gets paid to write this sort of stuff and I don't.

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:16am

Sounds like SOMEBODY'S got a crush on Bobby Steggart!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:20am

I've never heard of earned hubris before.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:30am

You collect hubris points and you can collect after you have 2000.

[AC126748]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:33am

Sounds like SOMEBODY'S got a crush on Bobby Steggart!

He was taking a jab at Patrick Healy, the chief theatre reporter at the Times, for his recent article on Steggert. Riedel is too much of a closet case to say anything remotely romantic about a man in print.

The article is pretty stupid, lots of facts wrong, and to continue to refer to a cast that includes many actors who regularly work in New York as regional theatre stars from Bethesda just shows how little he really knows. Noll, Petkoff, Steggert, Bohmer and Wise might not be household names, but they've all spent plenty of time on the stages of NYC.

[RoslynReynolds]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:49am

He dares speak the truth:

Ragtime is, in fact, a pretentious, didactic bore.

[D2]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 11:53am

To you Roslyn, to you.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 1:02pm

Get over it, people. You all are taking his articles way too personally. Don't waste your breath... No one cares and I doubt he'll ever notice.

It is a gossip columnist in the NY Post. He's not going to change. So just save your energy! xoxo

[gustof777]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 1:08pm

hahahah dammmn! come on people somewhere deep deep down you all enjoyed reading that a little bit. He's fun I can't deny it. It's his words but I swear every time I read his column I hear the "Gossip Girl" narrator in my head. :)

[hmpeterson]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 1:44pm

It's simple, he is an ass because it gets readership. If he wrote a nice article praising the cast or respectfully discussed the issues with the production, no one would have posted it on this site and we all wouldn't have hit the link to see the article nor would we be talking about it. That is why he is the way he is. It's his job. Some of us feel he is an unprofessional jackass (and he is) but that is what he gets paid to do. And it works because we are all talking about.

If you really want to hurt him (and chances are you won't) don't read his stuff and don't post his articles or even discuss him. The best insult to and egomaniac like Riedel....ignore him.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 3:04pm

So b/c he wanted to "go out with a bang" that gives him some magical right to make bad business decisions(and convince others to help him finance it)?

Or is that what this "earned hubris" is all about?

Either way, Riedel makes me laugh and every Wed. and Friday I log on to read his column. Just think of all the hits he's gotten from this one thread. He's probably greatful.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 3:09pm

Did you even read what I said? I'm sure he was not the only one who thought it would be a good idea. Some business decisions are good and some are bad and everyone strikes out.

But yes, Michael Kaiser being the President of the Kennedy Center means exactly that: he has the right to make business decisions and get others to help pay for it. This decision turned out to be a bad one.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 3:13pm

You'd think after such an illustrious career he'd know a bad choice when he sees it.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 3:46pm

Yes, well, I can't defend that. Only that he had the right to make it. :-P

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 3:55pm

Ragtime is, in fact, a pretentious, didactic bore.

Not a fact. An opinion. People on BWW still have immense trouble recognizing the difference between concrete fact and personal opinion...
Updated On: 1/8/10 at 03:55 PM

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:02pm

People on BWW also still have immense trouble dealing with snobbery. It's a f*cking gossip column. Grow some thick skin and laugh it off.

He's not going to stop making money (and doing his job) because a bunch of faceless internet users call him a name or whine & complain that he's being too "mean".. Knowing how you all react, I couldn't even imagine if one of you were actually the target of a Reidel article. You'd probably shrivel up into a corner and die.

People, get a grip!! xoxoxo

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:19pm

I don't care what Riedel says about the theatre. Yes, he's nasty; I always expect that. What I want to know is...

why is he picking on MARYLAND???? STFU already!!!!

[singingbackup]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:29pm

Put me in the "he's an a$$" column. PS, if (fill in your version of someone 'hot') would take to writing this kind of catty, trash talk for reasons I can only imagine are so that he can read how 'clever' he thinks he is in print, then he/she would be downright ugly.

And I have had the displeasure of meeting him at a private gathering. He's uglier in person.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:34pm

And I have had the displeasure of meeting him at a private gathering. He's uglier in person.

I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny.