I don't get at all those who excuse Riedel's bile by saying they've seen worse - as if that excuses it?
" I do ADORE Mr. Riedel (as does everyone else on this board...why else would you read his articles?)" Please speak for yourself, Play Esq. I despise the man and read his columns only when linked to here or ATC, and because for good or ill, his column is a source of theatrical information (albeit he is very often in error or outright lying). Also, because it's good to know your enemy. He is no friend to the theater.
I doubt very seriously singbackup adores him either. I have more than once personally witnessed him verbally abusing people in the most disgusting ways, on one occasion simply because he saw someone wearing a show jacket in a popular theater bar. The show had closed long ago, but apparently MR didn't like it. He then proceeded to mock this person unmercifully and in the vilest terms,
and this was someone who he didn't know and who had never spoken a word to him. The person first ignored him, bur MR wouldn't stop. The person tried to move away, but MR followed, with increasingly insulting invective. The party in question eventually was forced to leave due to his harassment of them, with MR shouting at them as they left.
And like the other poster's story, the situation nearly came to blows, which I am quite certain was exactly what MR wanted. As I've said, I've personally witnessed similar scenes many times. I don't believe he's an emotionally healthy man.
A few days after witnessing that incident, I was waiting with a friend for a train after a show, recounting the situation, and suddenly there he was, having heard every word. He was smiling. He seems to enjoy being hated. I think he's a twisted, screwed-up disgusting creature, and how anyone can find him charming, funny or witty is beyond my understanding. I was not the least bit ashamed he'd overheard me, but rather wished he hadn't only because it obviously gave him so much pleasure.
I suppose he could be cute in a David Hyde Pierce sort of way, but his inner ugliness and utter glee with which he savages others undercuts that for me. Someone said he can be charming, and I suppose that he can be when it serves his purpose, but I surely have never seen him be so - only obnoxious.
eta:
"Ragtime is, in fact, a pretentious, didactic bore."
"Not a fact. An opinion. People on BWW still have immense trouble recognizing the difference between concrete fact and personal opinion.."
"Just wondering, do you offer the same sort of reprimand to those posters who make categorical statements like "Ragtime is brilliant," "Ragtime is a work of genius," and the like? If not, why not?" That's an extremely simple question to answer - none of the examples you've offered use the words "in fact".
Updated On: 1/10/10 at 03:46 AM