Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene

http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0703,feingold,75557,11.html


Anyone know what happy pills he took the morning he filed that?

Now I understand that my enthusiasm for this show rivals enthusiasm for Spring Awakening (which I moderately enjoyed), Grey Gardens (which I loved), etc, etc. But am I wrong in saying that this review was unnecssarily angry? Like Feingold had a vendetta against everyone?

He's the reason why most critics get bad reputations.

Updated On: 1/16/07 at 10:48 PM

Does the Village Voice ever like anything? Their reviews are very mean spirited and unnecessarily harsh. IMO

"And Anna Camp, as the girl who apparently conquers all straight male hearts by talking like a bad cartoon of Kristin Chenoweth, makes a technical triumph of this unsavory task; I look forward to seeing her meet the challenge of playing a human being in a real play sometime soon."

I read that as he liked Camp, but didn't like her character.

I don't know. While my own reaction to the play wasn't quite as negative as his, I also had major problems with the writing and also wasn't crazy about Heaton (but liked the rest of the cast). I don't see this review as being entirely out of step with about half dozen others that were rather mixed or even negative.

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Actually, Village Voice is consistently fairly positive... Feingold's opinions, in my opinion, are hard to boil down to "I liked it-I didn't like it" and he's rarely as gratuitously mean as, say, Simon or Brantley. He always has something really smart and constructive to say, and no different here. I think he brought up a lot of good points (saying things about the play that I think other people on here alone have said).

I enjoyed it much more than he did though. I agree some of his problems were nitpicky (I thought it was purposeful to have the play seemingly take place in a vacuum) but I also thought when I saw it that the things the characters did and said and what happened all felt a little arbitrary rather than genuine, and I think maybe the things that happen in the play and to the character of Charlie are at odds with her theme and whatever it is she's trying to say about "the scene" and the people who want to be a part of it.

Either way he's still my favorite critic! I would never describe him as inaccurate. Maybe too accurate?

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Even when I disagree with him, I find Feingold's criticism to be uncommonly nuanced and illuminating, and often quite thrilling to read. Anyone who can describe Ebersole in GREY GARDENS as a 'caryatid' earns my applause.

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Rath, before reading the review, I definetly thought you meant he didn't like the film "Camp," hahaha.

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While I have yet to see the show reviewed, I can understand Feingold's ire--I felt the same way when we saw DURANGO. It actually made me angry that anyone would produce or write or even read that play. Sometimes people just react strongly for one reason or another.