Theater Talk: 2015 Ultimate Broadway Critics Panel

[Actriz2]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 1:40am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJsqwXJSZ-U

John Simon...

[Fantod]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 1:59am

He is the Britta of critics

[onedaymore]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 5:17am

I always like watching these. Finally some intelligent critics talk enough to shut Michael Riedel up for 30 minutes.

Updated On: 6/22/15 at 05:17 AM

[HorseTears]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 6:35am

2 minutes in and I desperately want to send Benny some Crest White Strips. 

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 8:48am

John Simon isn't a "hoot". He is a disgusting, venal, homophobic racist.

While he is very theatrically savvy and knowledgeable, he often used his column to attack peoples looks and make openly homophobic and racist comments. For those who don't remember, in 1985 he was overheard complaining about "Gays in Theatre" and hoping that AIDS would kill all of them off. When confronted he admitted that he said it.

There is a reason why he was fired from both New York Magazine and Bloomberg.com (Granted the firing from New York Magazine was 20 years too late). John Simon is living proof that the good die young.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 8:53am

I agreed with a lot of what Vincentelli said in that earlier TT episode, including her comments about Nighy's tics in SKYLIGHT.  I don't think she was nasty, just truthful in stating her opinions. 

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 9:48am

John Simon is a hoot. At least when you disagree with him, he's not nasty about it like Vincentelli was in the predictions episode.

John Simon was an ass in this epsode. He said the fun home writers had no talent and that they were doing their worse. Vincentelli was nowhere near as rude as that. He's a nasty old man with no taste.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 10:38am

Time to put John Simon out to pasture with the cows. He now writes for a penny saver. Dean of drama critics? Really? And yes, he was fired from NY Magazine a little too late, but at least he's not there anymore. Or at Bloomberg.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 1:04pm

Simon - "He is not nasty"

Are you kidding me. In his prime he was one of the most nasty and vicious critics there was. Vincentelli looks like she is drugged. Green sometimes sounds like the bastard child of Simon

 

Updated On: 6/21/15 at 01:04 PM

[macnyc]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 2:21pm

John Simon had no business being on that panel. His malicious comments about Fun Home should have gotten him kicked off. I hope never again to see him on screen. After Eight, be gone!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 2:47pm

It is not everything and always all about Fun Home. Would it be OK for him to make like comments about other actors in other shows?If he makes nasty comments (personal attacks) on any performer in any show he should be taken to task. I believe he once uttered a comment on Stokes in Ragtime stating " he was not black  enough" or making vicious attacks on Liza Minnelli's personal appearence  years ago. At least Brantley confines his remarks to shows and never crosses the line the way Simon often does

He is an old and more bitter man than he was in his heyday . No one takes him seriously anymore.I remember one time Sylvia Miles dumped a plate of pasta on him in a restaurant for things he said about her.

Updated On: 6/21/15 at 02:47 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 3:18pm

it is disgraceful that Susan Haskins allowed him to be on the show. 

But once there, he was just embarrassing. Did you notice that while others discussed substantively why they liked or disliked given shows, Simon just spouted conclusory insults as if they were truths? At this point, he is not only loathsome because of his racist, homophobic, mysogynistic etc views, but also because he is no longer intellectually capable of participating in a serious discussion. The Westchester Pennysaver indeed. 

[snarkmachine]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 5:17pm

Has Fred Armisen played Brantley on SNL before, because he should.

[vfd88]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 7:04pm

John Simon thinks Fun Home is dishonest?! I feel like even the biggest critics of the show would never call it that. 

[Kad]

Posted: 6/21/15 at 9:43pm

John Simon operates in a different era that no one needs to revisit. He's best suited to being a regular at a dingy delicatessen.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/22/15 at 1:44pm

Roxy, I don't know how on earth you could compare Jesse Green to John Simon. Why? Because they've written for the same publication? John Simon is in a class of his own in terms of vileness. I wouldn't even put Clive Barnes or Vincentelli in there-- they were/are just stupid. 

Terry Teachout and I disagree politically (entirely) and artistically (at times-- Although I do think DEATH OF A SALESMAN, while a great play, is "pseudo-poetic"), but I think he knows how to review a theater score, and I think he's fair most of the time. At least when it comes to musicals.

 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/22/15 at 2:15pm

Green can me nasty & sarcastic when panning a show. I never see the need for twisting the knife once you have stuck it in from any critic be it media or BWW.

[mattporter17]

Posted: 6/22/15 at 7:59pm

"2 minutes in and I desperately want to send Benny some Crest White Strips. "

 wtf's with his teeth i couldn't even focus on what he was saying...

[Jay94]

Posted: 6/22/15 at 8:05pm

I thought it was interesting that a producer of Something Rotten was supposedly encouraging people to stand up after 'A Musical'.

[mattporter17]

Posted: 6/22/15 at 8:25pm

"I thought it was interesting that a producer of Something Rotten was supposedly encouraging people to stand up after 'A Musical'."

 Haven't seen the show, but I was not impressed with the Tony number. It was a poor man's "Turn It Off" honestly. I was also wondering about why the audiences kept on standing after that number. Makes sense now.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 12:34am

The two times I saw SOMETHING ROTTEN no one around me was encouraging anyone to stand in appreciation for "A Musical" or any other number---much of the audience did so out of pure enjoyment.  Riedel's and the others' elitist snobbery leaves a very sour taste.

[Jay94]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 1:30am

I think that once the word gets out that people have been giving the number a standing ovation, people then feel a sense that they need to also stand up at their performance or else they're missing out on something.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 10:01am

"Riedel's and the others' elitist snobbery leaves a very sour taste."

Finding Something Rotten sophomoric doesn't make someone a snob.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 10:25am

I usually find Riedel repellent, but this time I'll stick up for him. He's not being elitist, whatever that word means anymore. SOMETHING ROTTEN! is sophomoric. The critics panel bemoaned the fact that all musical comedies these days are self-referential meta pieces of trash, with SOMETHING ROTTEN! leading the pack. It's sad that no one can write a funny musical like ...FORUM, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS..., or GUYS AND DOLLS anymore without resorting to creating a bloated Hasty Pudding show. The one that comes closest to that in recent memory is AVENUE Q, and that was twelve years ago. 

 

 

 

[skies]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 10:40am

John Simon, just a little man.