Riedel: From riches to 'Ragtime'- Page 3

[singingbackup]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:49pm

He made the snarkiest, most unnecessary comments to a friend from Disney that almost came to blows. Not funny, nor cute or sexy.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 5:00pm

Suck it up.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 5:10pm

It's his JOB to be snarky. That's what they pay him the big bucks for. The fact that we post threads about him means that he's doing his job.

It's the rest of us who have no reason to be bitchy or snarky.

We simply do it because we're sociopaths.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 5:43pm

A very bitchy and nasty article.

But a swell plug for YANK!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 6:06pm

"I like the flops, because in my perspective, they give me all of the materials to write juicy columns. I love a big flop...I love a fiasco, and I love to watch it all fall apart because I can get months of columns out of it."

"My natural bent in life is that I look for the more unpleasant aspects of things, because that's just where the drama is."

"My job is to write a lively column. If you want sort of a 'this is happening here, and this person is going there into that,' read the Friday column of the New York Times."

He also said that he likes MAMMA MIA.
2005 BWW Interview with Riedel

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 6:33pm

"It's his JOB to be snarky. That's what they pay him the big bucks for. The fact that we post threads about him means that he's doing his job.

It's the rest of us who have no reason to be bitchy or snarky.

We simply do it because we're sociopaths."

Agreed, and I do ADORE Mr. Riedel (as does everyone else on this board...why else would you read his articles?) but this particular entry is pretty salt in wound. That said: it certainly put a halt to the "will they extend again????" rumors/comments/threads.



Updated On: 1/8/10 at 06:33 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 8:16pm

"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.."


Just wondering, do you offer the same sort of reprimand to those posters who make categorical statements like "Ragtime is brilliant," "Ragtime is a work of genius," and the like? If not, why not?

Personally, I am in wholehearted agreement with Roslyn's opinion of this show.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 8:18pm

All I can say to people who don't like Ragtime is this:

Your loss!

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/8/10 at 8:24pm

"All I can say to people who don't like Ragtime is this:

Your loss!"


You're right.

A loss of time and money.

[Dagobert]

Posted: 1/9/10 at 10:22pm

The odd thing is that Riedel never even saw this production of Ragtime. Never went. So he calls it a bore without ever actually having seen it. and doing so based on prior productions is sort of dishonest, or at least misleading. Odd that he has taken three shots at a show he never saw.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

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

Riedel needs to watch out how much he says about things he knows little about. He's really ticking off the wrong people... People who know a whole lot about his personal comings and goings.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 1:58am

He may be snarky and he may be an ass, but no one can fault that he's often spot-on when it comes to the point of his stories. I love Ragtime and saw this production twice, but did anyone here to think this show had a chance of making it? (Especially with that godawful poster and marketing campaign?) This production was one of love, not profit, and at least one producer had to sense to smack some into the other producers and give let it go on a high note.

Really, the only thing I see wrong is saying Bobby Steggert was going back to Maryland.

By the way, I've seen Riedel on many occasions, and I do think he's cute.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 3:46am

I don't get at all those who excuse Riedel's bile by saying they've seen worse - as if that excuses it?

" I do ADORE Mr. Riedel (as does everyone else on this board...why else would you read his articles?)"

Please speak for yourself, Play Esq. I despise the man and read his columns only when linked to here or ATC, and because for good or ill, his column is a source of theatrical information (albeit he is very often in error or outright lying). Also, because it's good to know your enemy. He is no friend to the theater.

I doubt very seriously singbackup adores him either. I have more than once personally witnessed him verbally abusing people in the most disgusting ways, on one occasion simply because he saw someone wearing a show jacket in a popular theater bar. The show had closed long ago, but apparently MR didn't like it. He then proceeded to mock this person unmercifully and in the vilest terms, and this was someone who he didn't know and who had never spoken a word to him. The person first ignored him, bur MR wouldn't stop. The person tried to move away, but MR followed, with increasingly insulting invective. The party in question eventually was forced to leave due to his harassment of them, with MR shouting at them as they left.

And like the other poster's story, the situation nearly came to blows, which I am quite certain was exactly what MR wanted. As I've said, I've personally witnessed similar scenes many times. I don't believe he's an emotionally healthy man.

A few days after witnessing that incident, I was waiting with a friend for a train after a show, recounting the situation, and suddenly there he was, having heard every word. He was smiling. He seems to enjoy being hated. I think he's a twisted, screwed-up disgusting creature, and how anyone can find him charming, funny or witty is beyond my understanding. I was not the least bit ashamed he'd overheard me, but rather wished he hadn't only because it obviously gave him so much pleasure.

I suppose he could be cute in a David Hyde Pierce sort of way, but his inner ugliness and utter glee with which he savages others undercuts that for me. Someone said he can be charming, and I suppose that he can be when it serves his purpose, but I surely have never seen him be so - only obnoxious.

eta:

"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.."

"Just wondering, do you offer the same sort of reprimand to those posters who make categorical statements like "Ragtime is brilliant," "Ragtime is a work of genius," and the like? If not, why not?"

That's an extremely simple question to answer - none of the examples you've offered use the words "in fact".


Updated On: 1/10/10 at 03:46 AM

[Dagobert]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 12:11pm

Maybe the best thing is for someone to post a video of Mr Riedel pulling one of his "go ahead and punch me" performances and post it on the web for all to see...

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 1:07pm

"You're right.

A loss of time and money."

Wouldn't it be a gain of time and money?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 1:39pm

Riedel' articles are the very definition of snarky. He only comes off a little better on Theater Talk because he asks such interesting questions but every now and again, he'll make some kind of snarky comment. Of course, nothing will compare to his performance (for lack of a better word) on ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway.

[Fanb]

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

It is weird that he claims to be interested in the theater, on one hand, and that he does not mind being completely hated by all of the people who work in the theater on the other. Some day hopefully he will do something good for the theater community - the people who work to keep the theater alive - and the theater community, being the good people they generally are, will embrace him.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 1:57pm

Well, he clearly thinks he can write a better show than all the shows he trashes that are on Broadway...maybe he should give that a go.

[binau]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 4:06pm

"Well, he clearly thinks he can write a better show than all the shows he trashes that are on Broadway...maybe he should give that a go.
"

Judging something harshly doesn't necessarily mean the 'judger' thinks they can do better (especially if they have a different profession).

I doubt 90% of BW world think they can write a better show than WICKED, or direct WSS better than Arthur â?? and I doubt Riedel thinks he is more appropriate than Bernadette Peters to play Rose in GYPSY.

Updated On: 1/10/10 at 04:06 PM

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 1/10/10 at 4:20pm

I loved the show at the Kennedy Center and I don't get why "regional" is such a dirty word for Reidel. A lot of the work I see in DC far surpasses a lot of the stuff I see in NYC. As others have said, a very small percentage of the cast was from DC, but whatever...

I thought the show lost some of its punch and emotion when it transferred and a few of the new casting choices did not live up to their predecessors though Noll still remained brilliant. The cuts also annoyed me, but it was nowhere near the Broadway trainwreck he makes it out to be.

Updated On: 1/10/10 at 04:20 PM