Ben Brantley's Cruelest Theatre Reviews — Page 2

Of course it is cruel. If I treated my students on their report cards as Brantley treats Broadway shows, I would be shown the door. You can criticize fairly without being cruel. Well, at least I learned to do that very quickly. Too many critics, Brantley one, presume they are the target audience for a show. If Brantley doesn't like it, then it shouldn't be to anybody's taste. I disagree.

Possibly he is so cruel so that the producers cannot quote his review to advertise the show. Just try to find ONE pull quote to splatter across the marquee in his Mermaid review. Everyone wants to put "ASTONISHING!-NYT" on their posters.

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I have a random question. If Brantley were to say some random aspect of the show was "incredible" but he panned the rest of the show, could the producers just slap the pull quote "incredible!" all over town?

Does the NYT have to okay the pull-quotes they use to make sure they're not taken out of context or something along those lines? It may seem like a stupid question, and it probably is, but I've always wondered what a situation like this would entail.

Generally, it doesn't happen because most ad agencies and press offices know better than to distort a quote to that degree. I do remember that the flop Broadway musical, Marlowe, from the early '80s, took a quote from Frank Rich's scathing review and used it in their ads. Rich's quote about how giddily awful the show was went something like "A slap-happy feeling sets in, a feeling akin to when Laurel and Hardy push a piano down a flight of stairs". Marlowe ran just "A slap-happy feeling sets in" and I seem to recall that Rich and/or the Times cried foul and the quote was dropped.

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Updated On: 7/10/09 at 08:56 AM

I know it's a critic's job to be honest in what they see and write how they really feel about a show. And that's fine. But some of these guys are over the top. As some other posters have said, I think they try to be too cleaver and witty and it comes across as elitist and cruel (for lack of a better word.) And Brantley is not the only one by an stretch.

Any of you watch "Theater Talk" with that idiot Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins? Riedel is bad enough but throw in Michael Musto and Jesse Green and I want to throw something at my TV. Talk about theater elitists who basically hate everything on stage, except a straight play here or there and maybe Next to Normal. And what they bring to the table is not constructive or informational about shows. They just rip shows, actors, writers, and producers so they can all hear each other cackle and move on. The only one with any sort of class is Patrick Pacheo, which makes sense due to his background. He may not like something but he is always respectful.

Maybe I would give these critics more respect if they were more respectful. You can pan a show and not like it and still critique it, get your point across and do it with class. And when something is REALLY awful, then I can see going over the top. When you go over the top on almost every show you don't like, it loses it's effect and I think the writer loses credibility.

Regarding pulling quotes out of context, does anyone remember when the last Grease revival opened and they had an ad quoting a bunch of critics as saying the show was "The One That I Want"? Even though the show was almost universally panned, almost every review had mentioned the reality show 'You're The One That I Want' and so the producers used that little snippet for their ad. As I recall, it was quickly retracted as several critics called them on it.

As for Brantley, I don't think he's overly cruel in his reviews. His job is not only to inform but to also be witty and entertaining. I think some of Frank Rich's reviews are much worse than Brantley's.

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Updated On: 7/10/09 at 09:36 AM

In My Life got the most hilarious reviews ever. If the alleged-rapist producer/writer/director/composer/lyricist had any sense, he would have changed direction and marketed it as a comedy. Or an acid trip.

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Ben Brantley, John Simon and Michael Riedel are just horrible human beings!

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Yankeefan, you are right, they are columnists.

But in the context of Theater Talk, they do critique shows and discuss their thoughts on what shows are good and bad. And in that context, I can't stand their "analysis." Because there isn't an analysis...it's who can make a snide, oops sorry, "witty" comment about a show and laugh about how snide, oops, "witty" they are.

They bring nothing to the table, IMO.

I just thinks these critics, analysts, whatever you want to call them, take it too far sometimes. And instead of it being witty and entertaining, its obnoxious.

or this instant classic

Are there any pictures of the Merrick ad where he pulled one word from each review to create a good pull quote?

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I totally forgot about that GREASE ad! Were any of the publications quoted pissed about it?