Show-Score Cuts Critics — Page 2

VintageSnarker said: "I think the idea of a site that aggregates audience reviews is a good one. I approach it the same way as reviews on clothing sites or amazon.com or yelp. The score matters less to me except as a way to organize the responses (lowest to highest, etc.). With a big enough sample size and a criticaleye for hyperbole and that sort of tell, even a random sampling of users I don't know can yield useful results. Also, apart from looking for a consensus you can learn random little details like seeing the show means sitting on benches for 4 hours with one intermission. Or that something possiblytriggering happens in act 2. I find that audience reviews tend to mention these little details more though it could just be that everyone notices different things and if you have a larger sample size, it'll include more details. That said, could there be better sites hosting these opinions? Sure."

That's all well and good, but Have you looked at what's written there? It's shorter than a tweet, and generally structured like a telegram from the 1930s. And there is no check on honesty etc.

Look, if people want it, fine. I don't think many do, and I don't have a use for what remains of what once was.

I use the show-score website fairly often in planning my New York trips, but not for the reviews, from critics, audience, or otherwise. It is the only site that i have found that gives running times for all of the shows listed there, which include Off-Broadway as well as Broadway (maybe other categories also). I find that useful in figuring out, for example, which show to schedule at 7 or 8 if i want to go see a concert at 9:30 at 54 Below afterward on one of the evenings, or to see if i can fit a Sat 5pm show in before an 8pm show elsewhere, etc. But as with reading preview and review threads here, i never want to know what others think until after i have seen the show in question, unless i have decided not to see it, in which case those things could convince me to go after all.