How much hate mail do you think Ben Brantley gets?

I just got a hate email from someone I panned (constructively) in one of my reviews, and it got me to wondering...

How much hate mail does Brantley get? Tons, I bet. If I get angry email based on my constructive criticism, then he must be overloaded with angry mail.

Both. But I'm more thinking of artists? The guy who sent me the hate mail was a director, clearly upset I didn't give him a rave. Do theatre artists really respond like this? I'm often shocked by some people's inability to take criticism.

I have no first hand experience of this whatsoever, but I would guess he gets more hatemail from fans. As much as it would suck as an artist to get panned by him, I bet most people either just take it with a grain of salt or get internally pissed. I would assume most directors, actors, etc. are professional enough to take criticism, even if its terrible, but I am sure that there are always some.

Now for the fans, I bet he gets tons!

---

If some people really read the reviews, perhaps they would learn and become better artists. Reviews do serve a function, and I think they are an important thing for artists to read. I know there are some bitter critics, but some people really do want to provide honest and constructive criticism.

Yeah, though I admnit it's hard to chuckle after being called a "non-entity".

Odd that I've never received any negative feedback from any of the hundreds of artists I've reviewed over the years. Even when I've panned shows, I've gotten PMs from composers, playwrights, directors and actors thanking me for giving a fair and non-personal assessment of the show in question. Not sure why no one ever seems offended. Perhaps it's a tone thing, but I don't know.

Brantley probably rarely gets any hate mail (at least from artists). He's the most powerful critic in the American theatre, so it would not be in the best interest of anyone's career to piss him off or have him develop some personal vendetta against you. Perhaps he gets anonymous hate mail, but I doubt many people who want to get good reviews from him in the future are stupid enough to sign a poison pen letter against him.

---

I respect Ben Brantley, I think that he doesnt really really ever write horrible thigs about people that are not truth full. and BTW if your mom tells you that your proformance is amazing and Ben Brantley says its crap, who will you listen to? really?

What if your mom is Ben Brantley?

Your review seems fair. You explain and give detailed reasons behind your criticism of his direction, which is all any critic can do. He can feel free to disagree and think that you're wrong, but it serves no purpose to attack a reviewer who was not out of line or overly personal in his evaluation. He's apparently rather thin-skinned -- he needs to get over that if he wants to have a career and keep his sanity.

---

Ben receives NOT NEARLY ENOUGH hate mail, he is mean and evil, not
constructive AT ALL. All I can say is remember KARMA, Ben !

I think he reads them, shrugs it off and doesn't give it another thought. I wouldn't be so foolish to think people like Brantley don't "get off" on the power they wield but if he (or John Simon) cared what people thought or feared the repercussions, they'd have quit years ago.