Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#1Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 10:48pm
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
#2re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 10:53pmIncredible.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
educator06
Stand-by Joined: 11/21/06
#2re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 10:53pm
Does the Village Voice ever like anything? Their reviews are very mean spirited and unnecessarily harsh. IMO
#3re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 11:03pm
Not to mention - in this case anyway - quite inaccurate.
I haven't been a fan of Rebeck in the past, but this play is very good, and the fact that he didn't even like Camp is ample evidence that he went in with an agenda.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#4re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 11:45pm
"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.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#5re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/16/07 at 11:53pmSounds like something Munk would write.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#6re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 5:34am
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?
yr ronin,
joey
joey
#7re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 8:16am
Really, Ronin? I've always found Mr. Feingold's reviews to be rather one-dimensional and unstimulating. He reminds me a lot of Margo Jefferson, the former second-string critic for the Times, whose reviews were rather condescending, professorial and meaningless.
And yes, Yankee, this review goes far and beyond criticism. It does come off as if there's something personal here that he's exercising.
ETA: I was just reading a thread about this on All That Chat, were a poster made an astute observation: If someone like John Simon had written this review, people would be saying what a bastard he is. The review is incredibly cruel for no good reason.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Updated On: 1/17/07 at 08:16 AM
MasterLcZ
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/12/03
#8re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 9:37amEven 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.
"Christ, Bette Davis?!?!"
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#9re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 9:49amI basically like Feingold, the only problem I have with him is he sometimes turns reviews into theatre history lessons.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#10re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 9:51amRath, before reading the review, I definetly thought you meant he didn't like the film "Camp," hahaha.
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#11re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:06am
I love Feingold. The best theater critic in New York. I often learn at least one new thing by reading him every week, and the history lessons lay out clearly what an informed man he is. That actually undercuts the juvenile criticism of him and his profession, the likes of which is being thrown around in this thread.
He knows what he's talking about and he articulates it beautifully.
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#12re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 1:13pmWhile 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.
#13re: Village Voice's Scathing Review of The Scene
Posted: 1/17/07 at 3:40pmAw, the history lesson in each review is one of my favorite parts :P
yr ronin,
joey
joey
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