I just listened to about the first 25 minutes of Murin's podcast with BroadwayRadio today and she now claims she never meant the whole board was awful- in fact she says twice that 99% of the posters are great and want to learn, share ideas and disagree in a mature way. It's the 1% of posters that are being nasty and need to change their ways. She claims she never mentioned the good 99% because she was trying to make a point and expose a problem, so why should have mentioned anything but the bad posters?
Well, the reason why, Patti, is because by only mentioning what you refer to as the 1%, it makes it seems as if you have a problem with the entire board and that everyone is horrible. You called the board a cesspool of negativity. That doesn't sound like you think 99% of the posters are great and only 1% are awful. A cesspool doesn't work like that. If you see the problem as only 1% of posters, that sounds like it should be a very fixable problem- certainly not a problem so severe that you would call for the boards being removed from BWW. If this was truly how you felt, why would you incite so many to turn against the board. Why have you not corrected a single person by letting them know you only meant a select few rotten apples and that 99% of us here are great?
Out of curiosity I went back and read the Lady Be Good Encores thread and there was overwhelming praise heaped on the production, including near universal praise for Patti's performance, from myself included. Since she pulled quotes from members in her blog post, I'm going to make my own pull quote list about her performance in Lady Be Good:
sing_dance_love said: Murin is such a gifted comedienne and sound lovely
mamleh said: Standouts...were Gardner's dead-on Astaire, Murin and the best scene stealer of the evening, Douglas Sills.
I, Whizzer, said: And then there was Patti Murin. Oh, boy. I'm just so obsessed right now. I could just gush on and on about her. Who knew she could dance like that? Perfection.
dave1606 said: Patti Murin is truly brilliant as Susie. Her bit as a mexican bride in the second act is absolutely hysterical.
On a personal note, I've spent my hard-earned money to see Murin in Lysistrata Jones (three times), Lady Be Good, Fly By Night and waited in line at the park to see Love's Labour's Lost. I also purchased, all from Sh-k-Boom/Ghostlight if I'm not mistaken, the cast recordings for Lysistrata Jones, Lady Be Good, Fly By Night and Love's Labour's Lost. I also had purchased a ticket to Nerds and was looking forward to seeing her and several of the other actors on stage again. It really does seem like a extra hard slap in the face to all on these boards who have supported and praised her work, as well as the work of many others, for her to not even acknowledge that a lot of good comes from this place.
I've been plenty critical of some shows, and sure that criticism can sometimes slip into cattiness or bitchiness, but most of the time I try to be fair and explain why I don't care for a play or performance in a civil way. I've certainly given my enthusiasm towards many a show; I was practically harassing everyone I came into contact with to see Bridges and raved about O'Hara, Pasquale and JRB's score to anyone who would listen.
At the end of the day I will still end up seeing the next shows that Murin, Pasquale, Will Chase and others will perform in and have to separate their thoughts on this matter with the art they're creating onstage. Maybe some of them will think better of what they said and offer an apology to the many wonderful people they have lumped together with the bad eggs. Maybe they won't. For the time being many of the comments have been disheartening, but unlike them I'm not ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Their words don't automatically negate everything I feel about them as performers. I don't know if any of them will read this, but I hope it gives some of them something to think about.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!