The Official "I HATE BROADWAY.COM's WORD OF MOUTH" Thread

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 12:30pm

Discuss.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 12:31pm

They make me wretch.

I understand Broadway.com's reasoning and all, but couldn't they at least attempt to find a few people with a little theater literacy?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 12:38pm

Their purpose is to make the shows appealing to people who are idiot enough to drop $22 per ticket in service charges by buying their tickets on Broadway.com. So I'd say the Word of Mouth folks fit the bill to a T.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 12:40pm

The GG one is laughable.

As is the Inherit the Wind one.


Really all of them are hilarious (and not in a good way).

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 12:44pm

What bothers me is that they only have on teenage person on there. The majority of the people seeing shows are middle-aged women.
Updated On: 4/14/07 at 12:44 PM

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 1:06pm

"What bothers me is that they only have on teenage person on there. The majority of the people seeing shows are middle-aged women."

Because they represent the biggest chunk of the ticket buying audience.

[Julian2]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 1:52pm

There are NO male teen types. I'm guessing its beacause those of us who do like theatre don't buy our tickets from Broadway.com.

I see the logic in the Word of Mouth Reveiws, but I hate that they've ELIMINATED not only critical reveiw, but now their reveiws are EXCLUSIVELY Broadway! Critic aren't always right, and people should decide for themselves, HOWEVER, they are an important component in an artform. They help keep the quality of what the artform produces up and in many ways, keep it an artform. I wouldn't be so against it if they still had professional critics to supplement the Word of Mouth people.

It says . . .

Q: Why did you do this, Broadway.com?
A: For years we have watched as professional theater critics (ours included!) slam shows that audiences love and swoon over pieces that bore audiences to tears. We think that by showing real people's opinions, we're providing the most useful information possible to help you decide how to spend your hard-earned money when choosing a show.

Read . . .
We are going to indulge in the age old joke that isn't really as true as people think about how critics don't know anything and completely eliminate them, and as such, eliminate a crucial step in the system.

Not to mention, again, they don't reveiw Off-Broadway. Seeing as they are a big ticket broker amoung tourists, I would hope they would continue to reveiw (which is in many ways promotion) the several EXCELLENT Off-Broadway shows which could NEVER DREAM of moving to Broadway, for one reason or another.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 2:01pm

Critic aren't always right, and people should decide for themselves, HOWEVER, they are an important component in an artform. They help keep the quality of what the artform produces up and in many ways, keep it an artform.

Broadway.com could care less about the artform. They want to cheat tourists out of their vacation money. That is the sole purpose of their site. It is not to be informative or insightful about shows on Broadway.

[Julian2]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 2:22pm

Oh I agree, but it saddens me. I used to really like that site,(Before I found BWW I went there everyday) but now its just a mess.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 2:58pm

I can't stand them. I was writing an article for my Journalism class on theater critics and I mentioned them and how much I don't like them. Though, more eloquently than saying "I hate Word of Mouth." But no, I do not approve.

[ashbash1990]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 3:06pm

I feel that they are too easily impressed by, for lack of better word, theatrics...

[MungoGypsy8232]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 3:09pm

Ditto Ashbash1990, I'm waiting for the "Wicked is the best show I've ever seen" review!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 4:57pm

Wasn't it Randy who said that HIGH FIDELITY was the best show she had ever seen on Broadway?

Damn the critics. Real folks know what they're talkin' about!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 5:06pm

Their Inherit the Wind "reviews" were quite disturbing.

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 5:13pm

In the whole sceme of things it sounds very good on paper. Normal people talking about shows...but what seems to be the problem is that they found very random people. I really don't care that the boy who looks like young tarzan thought the beast was scary or the grandma had to close her eyes because of the nudity in spring awakening or the lawyer did not like the law jargon in ITW.....I just feel it did not work the way they planned it.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 5:32pm

I think the idea is just fine. I don't think it works on a Broadway website as the only source for reviews. In my opinion, the people that these reviews should be directed at do not go to these websites like we do. I do think that their reviews are very good for the casual theatregoer. And I just watched the one for "Grey Gardens" and did not find it "laughable". They said the same things a lot of people on this site have said and even what some reviews said. Just not in the exact words. This feature on Broadway.com would be fine if they still included professional reviews, including reviews by someone at Broadway.com. And I say that if you "HATE" something so much, stay away from it! JMHO

[jv92]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:15pm

If all of us put on a show that was basically a plate of dog crap on the stage of a Broadway house with a singing chorus the flies into the rafters doing a kick line, I bet they all would love it. I really hate their reviews, but their idiotic coments really make me laugh.
Oh, and remember how we all laughed at that guy that was a morticiner. Well, they've changed that and have re-written his job title to make it seem unlaughable.
And to respond to Broadway.com's reasoning, the people that saw shows that would make moronish idiots like Cat bored to tears, shows such as Doubt, The Light in the Piazza and Grey Gardens love them. They're intelligent people. Intelligent theatre audiences. They don't see touristy pieces of junk like The Pirate Queen and Wicked.
Updated On: 4/14/07 at 06:15 PM

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:36pm

Audrey- "Raul is tasty"

-I believe that is all that needs to be said on the merit of these reviews.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:41pm

I like the idea of the Word of Mouth section, but it's not fair to have it appear on a news site that doubles as a ticket provider.

Broadway.com is never going to have any of these people give any negative opinions on the shows they see because then their customers won't buy tickets to them (the guy that they had consistently bash "The Pirate Queen" went and recommended it at the end anyway.) You're always going to get a spinned perspective and that defeats the purpose. At least the critics are straight forward.

Perhaps this feature would work better on an unbiased site like Broadway World.

Updated On: 4/14/07 at 06:41 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:45pm

Plus, all of those people on there were selected because he had, in the past, purchased tickets through Broadway.com.

So already, their intelligence factor goes WAY down.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:48pm

Are these people getting comps?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:49pm

I HATE WORD OF MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I speak for all of us when I say that we could dance circles around these people if it was us on that panel. And no six-year-olds, dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:50pm

Of course they're comped.

[Papa_Burgundy_NY]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 7:33pm

this thread is hilarious. yeah, those reviews are pretty basic and not very appealing. i don't know who would actually take time to watch them. they're not very valuable.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 9:00pm

bump