Help! School Project on the influence of theater critics

[Brywal88]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 1:07am

I am a journalism student doing a research project for a history of journalism course. I have to submit a pitch for my topic this week and I think I am going to write the influence of theater critics before 1989 vs. today. I am trying to choose some shows (prior to 1989) that were helped immensely by positive reviews and perhaps make the case that critics are somewhat irrelevant today and use a few modern examples. I also need a bunch of sources so if anyone can point me in the right direction of books or sites that have info specifically about how influential theater critics were back in the day I would greatly appreciate it.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 1:17am

Frank Rich's review of Sunday in the Park.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 1:25am

I'm not sure you're supposed to know the findings/conclusion of your article before you know the sources.

Frank Rich was known as the "Butcher of Broadway" for his reviews, so despite it not fitting in your thesis, something to look into.

Considering ticket sales are often immediately affected by the reviews after a show opens, I guess I'm not sure how you are proving that they don't currently matter, either. I thought I read something about a recent show that did amazing business the day after getting positive reviews (Beautiful, perhaps?), but I can't remember where I read it.

The problem with social media, and online reviews in general (just look at Amazon) is the two most passionate groups that share their views are people who LOVE something or HATE something.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 1:41am

As far as modern examples of critics perhaps not having as much influence as they once had, I would certainly cite the glowing reviews of the Broadway production of The Scottsboro Boys (which closed after something like 6 weeks), as well as the...not-so-glowing reviews of The Addams Family, which played to full houses for quite a while.

[Brywal88]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 2:02am

I should not have used the word irrelevant as my current life goal is to be a theater critic. To boil it down my paper will really be about comparing and contrasting theater critics and their influence then (before '89) vs. today. I think it is clear that people certainly paid attention more to reviews before the internet, message boards, social media, etc. but I don't think they are unimportant or irrelevant it was just the easiest way to say how different things are now than in the '70s and '80s. I just need to pitch the topic and sources and i can make better arguments after i begin writing the actual paper. The idea isn't set in stone.

I also had another idea maybe about how the media has covered controversial broadway shows but I don't think that I could mine enough material to write a lengthy paper.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 11:51am

You might check out Chris Jones’ new book (lead theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune), “Bigger, Brighter, Louder”. It has a bunch of theatre reviews dating back at least a hundred or so more years (up to the present) and Jones comments on each one (and talks about the significance of the show/review). There was a woman critic that held the lead position on the Trib that was known to tear everything up and I know her reviews (and just the fact that tours knew she would be reviewing their shows) had a big impact on the Chicago theatre scene at the time.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 8:41pm

Whizzer, were you at the opening night of SUNDAY, too? I was and people were snoring loudly through the audience during Act II.

Then Frank Rich's review came out the next morning...

To the OP: read William Goldman's chapter on critics in THE SEASON. It's from the late 1960s, but it remains the best essay on Broadway critics "in the old days" that I've seen.