Lempicka false advertising

I haven't seen the show yet, and I wish them a successful run, but I think the ads I'm seeing for the show are disgraceful. Show us the actual pull quote from the Brantley review and give an attribution that this is from a past regional production of the show. Show us the actual pull quote from the NYT review. There is something wrong here. Hey, just make it up!!! (which is what they are kind of doing.) Nothing matters anymore. Truth does not matter anymore. I guess it doesn't matter. Word of mouth is all that matters, and really was all that mattered.

"leading lady who called in sick after two days (and was not on her deathbed)."

Is the implication that Eden was well enough to perform? It's a very difficult score to sing. Even when well enough I suspect Eden finds it difficult - and I reflect on that Wicked understudy memoir book who described that singing "Wizard and I", "No Good Deed" and "Defying Gravity" each night she could feel the fire burning in her throat (guessing of course she probably didn't quite have the stamina of the full-time). I suspect singing "I Will Paint Her" and "Woman Is" among others is equally challenging. And Eden is using the full range of her voice low to high. I do believe if she was well enough to perform, she would. She doesn't want to be out of the show - especially not when they need her most and we are approaching Tony nominations.

TheatreFan4 said: "Impeach2017 said: "Can we just give these producers a break?They are fighting to keep their show afloat after years of struggle, bad reviews, and a leading lady who called in sick after two days (and was not on her deathbed). "

What? Eden sounded like complete ****! The crazy thing about this modern age of social media is we don't have to guess how sick someone is, they can just post it on Instagram. If she went on with her voice the way it was, people would have been completely up in arms."

I agree about giving everyone here a break, but if you're implying that Eden didn't need to call in sick because she wasn't "on her deathbed," I think you're wrong. I was at the show last night (her first back) and she was plainly ill. She made it through but had to mark a bit and adjust in several spots and I think anyone there last night would agree that she needed at least those 2 days of rest. Wouldn't have faulted her for one more, but she did push through (IMO successfully). And I agree with TheatreFan4 that going on in even slightly worse condition would've had everyone complaining and/or criticizing. In summation, give them *all* a break.

Wah, there's so much hate on this board. It's perfectly okay to criticize things, but the pure hate towards everything related to this show on this board is baffling (Eden should've performed sick? Really?). Calm down, move on.

Updated On: 4/20/24 at 10:39 AM

TheatreFan4 said: "But when words are cherry picked they are done in amore Truthful manner. There's trailing periods between words. Single word quotations. This is a complete misrepresentation and not quotes, they're marketing agency summation under the guise of a quote. I'd consider it more dishonest than a David Merrick Ad."

Ellipses are rarely used on Broadway for pull quotes. MANY shows do what Lempicka did, and nobody pays attention because nobody cares. It's a problem, but it's not exclusive to Lempicka.

Most critics don't care as long as the sentiment matches the tone of their review (which is true in the case of Lempicka).

The League has strict rules about how Tony noms/wins can be advertised, and I wish there was a way for some group to instill rules that are even half as strict as the Tony advertising rules...whether that's the League, or the NY Drama Critics Circle (which doesn't include Times critics), or someone else.

Updated On: 4/20/24 at 10:56 AM

TheatreFan4 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "There is a thread about this already if you do a simple search.

Their cherrypicking of words to form a quote is no different than any other show, which does this regularly. That doesn't make it right, but if you are complaining about Lempicka then yo should be complaining/fact-checking others, too."

But when words are cherry picked they are done in amore Truthful manner. There's trailing periods between words. Single word quotations. This is a complete misrepresentation and not quotes, they're marketing agency summation under the guise of a quote. I'd consider it more dishonest than a David Merrick Ad."

What David Merrick did for Subways are For Sleeping is legendary, and I suspect he got enough **** for it that I don't remember him doing it subsequently. In fact, his more common ads were a bold-faced grab quote, usually followed by several sentences more. Many times, his post-opening ads were 2 full pages in the Times, with many lengthy quotes.

What Lempicka is doing is pretty despicable, and we (and probably they) all know it is not going to work. There was no interest in previews and those reviews are not going to change anything.

I don't know about you but this is literally me when I see dishonest pull quotes:

Updated On: 4/20/24 at 10:10 PM

The deceptive quoting is definitely an issue and something I’ve only grown to despise more in this age of increased misinformation. And while Lempicka is far from the first show to do it, it’s not surprising it’s getting extra attention considering the discourse around the reviews. Plus the ad featuring the dishonest pull quotes is very obviously trying to play off of said discourse, so it just draws more attention to the fact that they’re deceptive. I really don’t think it’s that people have some grudge against this show like others here have suggested.

I'm a theater critic. Not for a publication on the magnitude of the NYT, but I've regularly had my reviews excerpted for ad copy. And often those excerpts have been misrepresentations of what I wrote. Either comments are taken out of context or invented from whole cloth by stitching words and phrases together. It's frustrating, and on several occasions, I've pointed it out to the press teams -- and their attitude is almost always a shrug and "that's just the way we do business."

What's annoying here too is that instead of quoting from some of the actually positive reviews the show received, they'd rather make up quotes from the NYT because they think that's the only newspaper that matters.

Despite what their signage may claim, not every cheap pizza place in midtown has New York's best pizza.

Even if it's deceptively quoted, it is quite striking how differently (and much more positively) Brantley did review the show back then. It was a critics pick!

Mickey3309 said: "Sorry to get stuck on semanticsbut, jeez…. Despicable??? Poor form, shady - sure…but given the prevalence of shifty cut & paste jobs and Lempicka’sappearing pretty inconsequential, as many have noted, I feel like the disdain folks already have for this show might be inflating some of the reactions here."

Point taken… I should have said ‘desperate’ or ‘a little sleazy ‘.