Jesse Green “assigned to a new role” at the Times

[Kad]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:14pm

Per Variety:

 

The New York Times is revamping its lineup of arts and entertainment critics — replacing four of the paper’s TV, music and theater critics, who will be assigned to “new roles,” according to an internal memo obtained by Variety.

The quartet of Times critics — television critic Margaret Lyons, music critic Jon Pareles, theater critic Jesse Green and classical music critic Zach Woolfe — will “be taking on new roles, and we will be conducting a search for critics on their beats in the weeks to come,” New York Times culture editor Sia Michel wrote in a memo to staffers on Tuesday afternoon.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:18pm

I'd love to see new blood in the field of criticism, but given the track record of The Times in... pretty much everything over the past decade or so part of me is worried what their idea of a good new critic might look like.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:26pm

That was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it engagement for Green, just five years in the role by himself compared to 13 for Frank Rich and almost 20 for Brantley. 

Updated On: 7/15/25 at 04:26 PM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:27pm

about time (no pun intended)

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:32pm

It's strange that the Times, even in an internal memo, announced these changes before locking down the four's new roles or if they'd accept them. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:32pm

Thank god.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:40pm

Redwood, Critic’s Pick.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:51pm

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:51pm

Thank GOD.

It's time for new blood, BUT....I wouldn't be mad at Brantley coming back. 

His tweets about theater have been far more insightful and better-written than most of Green's entire reviews.

Updated On: 7/15/25 at 04:51 PM

[ElephantLoveMedley]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:53pm

This has reaffirmed my faith in a higher power.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:53pm

Anyone who gave Smash a Critics Pick needs to be reassigned to literally any other job.

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:59pm

Y'all don't celebrate too soon. 

“Our readers are hungry for trusted guides to help them make sense of this complicated landscape, not only through traditional reviews but also with essays, new story forms, videos and experimentation with other platforms,” she wrote in the memo. “Our mission is to be those guides,” she continued. “As we do so, I am making some changes in assignments in the department.”

Jesse Greene isn't getting replaced because he liked Smash more than Boop. He, and the rest of the principle critic bench at the NYTimes, are getting replaced because the Paper is going to replace them with more social-media friendly personalities. They don't want new critical voices - they want increased engagement. They want influencers. This is incredibly disheartening.

 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 4:59pm

TotallyEffed said: "Redwood, Critic’s Pick."

COMPANY, not a Critic’s Pick. 

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:14pm

ChairinMain said: "Y'all don't celebrate too soon.

“Our readers are hungry for trusted guides to help them make sense of this complicated landscape, not only through traditional reviews but also with essays, new story forms, videos and experimentation with other platforms,” she wrote in the memo. “Our mission is to be those guides,” she continued. “As we do so, I am making some changes in assignments in the department.”

Jesse Greene isn't getting replaced because he liked Smash more than Boop.He, and the rest of the principle critic bench at the NYTimes, are getting replaced because the Paper is going to replace them with more social-media friendly personalities. They don't want new critical voices - they want increased engagement. They want influencers. This is incredibly disheartening.

I hear what you're saying and ALSO the old guard is very specific in what they deem great. Jesse's views don't necessarily represent mass opinion. Redwood and Smash's picks are prime examples. I'm down for a new critical voice that understands theater within a larger cultural context rather than the bubble that is stuffy Broadway. We surely don't want influencers, but we also don't need a bunch of white men above 50 telling us what quality theater looks like. That can't be the standard forever. 

 

 

[BCfitasafiddle]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:21pm

After Sunset didn't receive a critics pick from him, but Redwood did... I stopped reading him.

[Sauja]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:21pm

I'm down for a new critical voice, but I'm genuinely concerned that this might be part of a larger cutting back of culture content (not just theater, given the other three). We might be left with reviews coming from a hodgepodge of critics whose takes are impossible to pin down because they won't have the space to even build a solid lead-critic footprint. I'm not worried about Jesse losing the role. I'm worried about whether the role itself will be lost.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:24pm

As it is the NYT barely even covers Off-Broadway now and they used to review almost every off-broadway show of a certain caliber 

[KrupYou]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:28pm

Times are looking for younger more diverse group of freelance critics. It's too expensive to have critics on staff anymore with so few people reading reviews. 

[Kad]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:38pm

I’ve heard gossip about general discontent with Green at the Times- it’s not a great look for the paper of record to be regularly putting out outlier Critic’s Picks- but yes this is clearly a shift that reflects the Times generally shifting what it’s doing in a bid for relevance (see its embrace of video, even for its OpEd columnists). 

But it’s been years since I looked forward to reading a Times review. Sara Holdren and Helen Shaw are compelling, thoughtful reads, criticism in the best sense. But nobody at the Times right now is able to match that sort of critique. 

[Wick3]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 5:51pm

Is the "NYT Critic's Pick" still influential? If not, then I can see NYT getting rid of the position all together.

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 6:33pm

ChairinMain said: ”Jesse Greene isn't getting replaced because he liked Smash more than Boop.He, and the rest of the principle critic bench at the NYTimes, are getting replaced because the Paper is going to replace them with more social-media friendly personalities. They don't want new critical voices - they want increased engagement. They want influencers. This is incredibly disheartening.

Your argument would hold up if they were going to replace all their writers.  They are choosing the writers they want to replace.  They are choosing to replace Green.  If they wanted him to stay they could assign him a summer intern to teach him how to use tik tok.  They are choosing to replace him.

 

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 6:35pm

RUkiddingme said: "ChairinMain said: ”Jesse Greene isn't getting replaced because he liked Smash more than Boop.He, and the rest of the principle critic bench at the NYTimes, are getting replaced because the Paper is going to replace them with more social-media friendly personalities. They don't want new critical voices - they want increased engagement. They want influencers. This is incredibly disheartening.

Your argument would hold up if they were going to replace all their writers. They are choosing the writers they want to replace. They are choosing to replace Green. If they wanted him to stay they could assign him a summer intern to teach him how to use tik tok. They are choosing to replace him.

"

Green and the three other regular critics. This isn't just about Green. 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 6:44pm

Wick3 said: "Is the "NYT Critic's Pick" still influential? If not, then I can see NYT getting rid of the position all together."

the biggest newspaper in New York City isn't going to get rid of their theater reviews all together, are you ill?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 7:45pm

Something that didn’t get any traction last week; The Chicago Tribune assigned a freelance journalist to review the Beauty and the Beast tour in place of their chief theatre critic, Chris Jones. The show was given a much more positive review than what Jones would’ve given it. 

[bear88]

Posted: 7/15/25 at 8:49pm

The New York Times isn't firing - or, uh, reassigning - all of its critics. None of the film critics are gone, for example. They're making choices about who is staying and who isn't. I'm as curious as anyone about the rationale, but it's probably less about quality of criticism than we would like to think. It's probably about whatever media strategy they have in mind, and whether they think their incumbent critics are well-suited for that. (Answer for today's unlucky four: No.)

My biggest concern is that I just don't trust the New York Times to make the right decisions for the right reasons.

The Times isn't going to give up on theater criticism. They still cover plenty of cultural stuff, even if some of their choices - assign theater reporter to write a profile of Jordan Roth - make my eyes roll. I don't think they are going without theater criticism. My fondest hope is that they find someone whose stuff is worth reading. I don't care whether I agree with it or not; I just want thought-provoking criticism. It's all well and good to experiment with videos and other platforms, but I fear that the new vision will downplay a good, thought-provoking written review.