I'm very inspired by what Whizzer said and very grateful he said it. I've been thinking about this for days now. The whole thing has made me a bit upset and sad because I think this little board community is pretty great. I'm so sad to see it get this undeserved negative publicity.
Most of what Ms. Murin points out is not bullying, but harsh criticism. I do agree there is some bullying on this chat board. We all see it, it's annoying and we move past it by either ignoring or blocking the offending users. No big deal.That said, we're discussing a creative medium in a space where most of the posters are more than just "fans", as Patti states, but who are also actors, directors, designers, producers...you name it. I come to this board to hear their opinions - both good and bad. I read the NY Times and the Voice and so forth, but I actually come here first to read about what shows I should see and which ones I shouldn't.
I think we all felt that "Nerds" was dead upon arrival. Everyone in town could spot that a mile away. A co-worker of mine randomly told me he had seen "Nerds" in Philly (or somewhere) and thought it was amateurish at best and he was shocked to hear it was coming to Broadway. We had all heard similar things. Even the title was a poor choice - we all assumed it was "Revenge of the Nerds" or other things, but definitely not a Gates/Jobs story. The rollout of the advertising campaign was not smooth and showed signs off struggle from early on. Many people on this board called it out. The NYTimes article about casting the show even sounded like the piece was dreadfully behind schedule and doing all it could to catch up. Finally, the show closed before it even opened so...it's not like we were all wrong, right?
People here aren't trying to be unsupportive, but most of the people on this board, in this town, in this world want to be on Broadway and doing these shows. Because of this, most people are hyper-critical when they see a major mistake in the form of a bad show, bad performance, etc. There is such a wealth of talent who are unable to be up on these stages due to bad luck, bad timing and so forth, so to see someone screw up...well...it makes people wonder why that person got that opportunity. I'm just curious as to why Ms. Murin doesn't understand this on a base level. Heck, Megan Hilty made an entire TV show about this. No one is being hateful, but people can and will have strong dissenting opinions - a lot of it derived from passion.
I remember when Adam Pascal was dragged through the mud for flubbing a line and then responded in a Facebook post stating that we, the posters on this board, "could never in a million years do what it is we do 8 times a week. [We] would step out on stage and piss [our] pants." That was offensive. Furthermore, in an earlier Playbill interview, Mr. Pascal had talked about how his job was actually quite easy in that he only had to really "work" for a few hours a week. (Point being: if it's so easy, Adam, then memorize your lines and don't point the finger at us for calling you out.) Mr. Pascal is also the same person who was very vocal in criticizing Spider-Man when that was popular. This all goes back to this idea that Pascal/Murin believe we can't understand or relate to them when a lot of us are actors and actually do what they do. We are allowed to be critical and hold our colleagues to certain standards.
Additionally, if Ms. Murin is going to delve into political correctness, why all the talk about needing to get drunk? She references alcohol as a coping mechanism at least twice and then some of her friends on Twitter continue to support the idea of going out to deal with this over drinks. If she wants to be the role model she's attempting to be, then I'd like to say I'm really offended by these alcohol references especially in an industry that has a long history of addiction issues. She's also now saying we should all just die in a fire, so...I mean...what's the point.
As previously stated, I'm a big fan of this board. I've liked it for a very long time and it's been actually useful in my life. If Ms. Murin and her friends don't like it, then I ask for all of them to keep off of it. You don't have to stay. We barely talk about you that much anyway. I can say total honesty that I did not know who Ms. Murin was until this all came out. Maybe that was the point. So it's not like you're Taylor Swift or the next hot teen idol and we're a bunch of unleashed 12 year old fans losing their minds. We share opinions - some are snarky, some are ignorant and yet some are insightful and wonderful and have value.
Finally, I now feel like Ms. Murin is the troll here. I'm not sorry "Nerds" closed. I don't care and I never gave it a lot of thought. I didn't want to see the show from the minute I heard about it and I expected it to close within a few months at best. I also don't feel bad for you or the cast. I imagine it's a hard blow, but I also imagine this is something you've faced before and will face again. I know I have. So please don't drag us down with your show. I don't think anyone on this site attacked or bullied you or your team. I think we said what we were feeling about this piece you were creating and you didn't like what we said. If the piece is actually great, it will survived this and more and will go on to have a great life here or elsewhere.
In the meantime...please leave us alone. I'll be sure to do the same next time I see your name attached to something.
