Brantley's Review of "Little Women"

I thought Brantley was a little harsh. I agree, Sutton is amazing, and I really like lots of the songs. I may be biased, but I think he was overly harsh.

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Just read Clive's review. Equally harsh, although, he really liked Sutton and Maureen. His was more positive than Ben's. Went to the USA Today site to get Elysa Gardener's review (not that I need it; everything's a rave with her), but couldn't find it.

Gordon Cox's review for Newsday is critical, but positive. The one thing that I love that is in every review is how they give credit to the synthesizer-less orchestra.

The review totally reflected his tastes and biases. We all know he'd go after Forster -- not his favorite. But to refer to Maureen McGovern as a pop diva best known for "Morning After" is rather silly and just lazy at this point. She's been in the theater for decades, played Luisa (replacement) in the original NINE, and was in THREE PENNY OPERA, and many, many workshops (including CARRIE and SMILE, by the way). He conveniently forgets that performers evolve, and are not always defined by their origins. And he naturally used this opportunity to further trash the style of broadway singing he loathes -- i.e. the Idina pop belter. He's entitled, and he's certainly allowed to trash Foster (I'm no fan either). But he is basically anti-adaptation. Ever notice? Whatever the merits of this show, outside of a mini-series, you could never fit a novel's breadth on the broadway stage with out shorthanding a plot. He always tisk-tisks such streamlining. Granted, some efforts are better than others, but he seems put off by any attempt. (You feel as if SOUTH PACIFIC opened, he'd stick up for Michner.)

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Brantley doesn't know his a** from McGovern's extensive list of theater credits. How did he get that job?? There are people here who would be MUCH better at it!!

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Apparently, The Daily News, USA Today and the Washington Post didn't print reviews today.

Brantley has raved for many many shows in the last five years. Of the current crop he loved The Producers, Hairspray, Democracy, Dame Edna, Movin Out, Avenue Q, Wonderful Town, 12 Angry Men, A Number, and Doubt.

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And at least 2 of those shows are adaptations, though not from novels.

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I was quite surprised myself with the way he fell all over himself over the Dame.

See I don't necessarily disagree with WHAT Brantley says about the shows he reviews - but instead HOW he says it.

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This in one of the few times that I've almost been on the exact same page as Brantley.

He was too harsh on McGovern, but for the most part his views agreed with mine.

His assertion that they lyrics were generic was dead on correct.

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Updated On: 1/24/05 at 03:25 PM

What I'm saying is that if you are going to review all of the prominent plays in New York City (and no, Brantley is not the Times' only critic), Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, then you will inevitably review more good plays than good musicals because there are rarely more than a handful of good musicals that open in any given season, but there are dozens of good straight plays. This is true for Brantley, and it was true for Vincent Canby, Frank Rich, Walter Kerr, Clive Barnes and every Times critic going back to Brooks Atkinson.

In the Appendix of the book "Hot Seat" which is a collection of notable Frank Rich reviews from his tenure as critic from 1980 to 1993, Rich lists some of his favorite shows from his time as reviewer. He lists 11 new plays and only 4 new musicals. FOUR. In 13 years, only four musicals stood out in his mind: March of the Falsettos (the original off-Broadway version in 1981), Dreamgirls (1981), Sunday In The Park With George (1984) and City Angels (1989). He also singles out actors and of the "Twenty Indelible Performances" he names, 14 of them were in nonmusical straight plays (and on his list of his favorite performances by on stage couples, 8 of the 10 were in non musical sttaight plays).

I'm sure the "best of" lists for Brantley and most other critics would break down similarly. In a given season, hundreds (maybe thousands) of new shows open in New York and only a very tiny percentage of them are first-rate musicals.

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Rich. The best, in my opinion.
And Atkinson for the most part.
(Although his not mentioning Sondheim's lyrics in his WSS review is a mark against him)

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Updated On: 1/24/05 at 04:03 PM