I actually think this is an issue across the board in the industry and something I've wanted to chew on. Shows are very oftencoddled (this show is an outlier, IMO). Fandoms have teeth bared for anything even slightly negative. This whole situation with Sweaty Oracle (remember free speech and this is a free country etc...?). Even with hyperbole which veers on absurd, his takes are usually valid and directed at the powers that be, not the artists. Tamping down critical voices makesit is much easier for lackluster, commercial-heavy, heart-lacking productionsto slip into the season. Critique makes art better."
Yes, critique can make art better, but what the Theater “community” fails to understand is that this thing we all love, in the larger context of the world, is quite insular. It’s very expensive to mount and to see. Unlike like movies and TV, the accessibility and recoupment possibilities are much harder.
There’s a way for these “beloved” critics to hold shows accountable, while also acknowledging that though they didn’t love a show people around them might have. Two things can be true. Biting, catty reviews do not help theater business. Constructive criticism does. But we live in a clickbait world where nastiness earns more attention than true dissection.
The industry is eating itself and though pans maybe fun to gossip about now, 5 years from now producers won’t want to take the expensive risk to put up new shows and these critics may have no new art to review. Who wins then?
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