JasonC3 said: "Some of the negative comments at the NYT in response to Jesse Green's review are just ridiculous and make me question my remaining faith in humanity."
It’s really hard for Caroline in my opinion because it is genuinely a challenging, difficult show it will be attacked by all walks of life. If I recall the comments showed people complaining for the following reasons:
* woke people complaining that it was not written by a black writer (well at least the show was a collaboration with George C Wolfe and Tonya Pinkins is very vocal…plus it is Tony K’s somewhat actual life experience so it’s not like he is inventing everything out of thin air)
* subtle racist people complaining the show has to be praised because of wokeness (I don’t agree that critics wouldn’t criticise shows with black stories if the show is poor)
* people complaining the story presents Caroline’s character as too dark, too depressing and hopeless (I don’t doubt that most people would prefer ‘I’m here’ over ‘lot’s wife’ in terms of emotional comfort)
* people complaining it is racist towards Jews and Tony K hates Jews (really?)
* people complaining they hate the score (I understand because it really does take a few listens in my opinion to fully grasp the sounds and patterns for it to all click into place - until you break through this curve it did come across as noise to me but now I hear the beauty through most of it. The same kind of thing re: Sondheim scores. Once you ‘hear’ it it’s really hard to understand why others don’t but I remember clearly it takes a bit of time.)
I don’t think people have to be so mean but I kind of understand this is what happens when you don’t follow the grain - people don’t like it.
Also, the show of course is not selling well right now as it didn’t in the west end either but I don’t know why we need to get all surprised or hurt over this. We are in a pandemic, it flopped in 2003 and it’s a difficult show in a difficult market in a difficult industry. That doesn’t take away from the artistry in fact it probably does reflect high quality of the artistry. Hopefully the reviews mean things pick up a little.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.