| Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| I was watching Youngblood Hawke recently and after his play opening, he and the rest of the crowd were at Sardis awaiting the reviews from all the papers. A guy rushed in with copies for everyone.. Did this really happen in the "old days"? When did the newspapers all go to print? What time would this be in Sardi's?? I've seen this before in old movies By the way the reviews were bad so the lead actress says "we'll play out the term and then close" ahhh...the golden age | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 07:53 am EDT 03/18/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Well, back then the custom was that on opening night the curtain time would be 6:30 instead of the usual 8:30. So the show would come down somewhere around 9 pm. The overnight critics could pound out a review in not much more than an hour, and the presses were held until the review was filed; essentially the important Broadway review was the last significant news of the "previous" day. Meanwhile, the leading lady had to meet and greet some opening-nighters in her dressing room, then get out of her wig and makeup, get her hair done quickly, slip into an evening dress and travel to the party where presumably she'd be one of the last arrivals. That had to take something close to an hour after the curtain came down, so I would put her arrival at something around 10 PM. From that time, the wait for the first reviews wouldn't be long, no more than an hour or so. Does anyone know when the changeover to reviewers' seeing the show the final week of previews happened? I know how in Chapin's book about Follies he talks about how Hal Prince doesn't want to tell the cast "which critics are coming when," so by the early 1970s it seems opening night was more or less a formality. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | makemlaff 05:32 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Yes, fairly certain it did happen that way. There is a nice bit about it in William Goldman's book THE SEASON. That was written in 1969, I believe, and he talks about reading reviews and the ad meetings the next morning. That book is fascinating for so many reasons, definitely worth the read. Theatre in so many ways, is still like toe "old days" but for the way tickets are sold and where people get their news. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | jgerard 11:31 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| While researching Saroyan's The Time of Your Life for a Variety review many years ago, I found something like 20 overnight reviews (20!) from opening night in 1939. And most of them missed the play's shocking ending -- because the critics had had to leave early to meet their deadlines. A Golden Age indeed. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | Ncassidine 10:16 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| My husband remembers a time that the next day's New York Times would be delivered to newstands around 10 at night. He and his friends would wait in their apartment and then run down the street to see the reviews. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | dbg 10:13 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| While now the reviewers attend previews and have a lot of time to write their reviews, years ago they attended opening night performances, which usually started around 6:30 PM, and then they would rush back to their newspaper's office, write the review, which would then go off to be printed. Not sure what time the editions with the reviews would come out, maybe around 1:00 or 2:00 A.M. Someone will know the answer to that. I remember going to an opening night of a play while I was in college in the 60's and seeing reviewers going up the aisles the minute the curtain came down. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 02:57 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Waiting for Reviews - dbg 10:13 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| also, long ago the times was printed in the times building and for something like this issues could be handed out at the trucks. | |
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| re: Waiting for Reviews | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayLouBlaze 06:30 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Waiting for Reviews - enoch10 02:57 pm EDT 03/17/14 |
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| Yes and it was great fun. Really dramatic and exciting but gut wrenching if it was your show. Opening Night:about 9:30 in the lobby of the Times you could find the press agent, often a producer or two and the General or Company Manager. Producers were easy to spot. The look on their face. Can't describe. they were excited, nervous beyond belief. That one paper often held your fate. All the work was coming down to this one moment. Everyone pacing back and forth. Usually nobody said a word. Often there would be one or two vultures there just to watch the scene play out. You could not see the elevator doors but you could hear them open. The doors would open and everyone would wait to see who turned the corner. A lot of Staff would exit the building through the lobby. Eventually the elevator doors would open and you would here the wheels on the cart. That was when you knew. If you heard the wheels on the cart you knew the guy was coming with the new edition. Sometimes you would here the wheels and they would stop. This would almost be too much to handle. Why had the man with the cart stopped? what is he doing? What..what what is going on. Either it was the cart with the papers or , I have no idea, something else. That was just the worst. At any rate when you heard the wheels of the cart you knew it was about to happen. Actually I am not sure anyone ever knew if the cart was actually coming from the elevator or not. You were just listening to anything that was going around the corner from the security desk. Behind the security desk is where the man with the cart would come from. Everyone would have there exact change ready. The press agent would get a copy and the producer would get his copy. Then each would scurry to a corner of the lobby to get the news in their own little corner of the room. If there were vultures, they would just stand there and watch. Sometimes the producers and press agents would shoot them a look such disgust and the vultures would act like they were there for some other reason and would pretend not to notice the producers and agents at all. It was a whole subtle two second dance. If the news was good everyone would start screaming out quotes really loud. Sometimes people would cry. The press agent would then rush the cart buy big stacks of papers and to take to the party. Oh and the vultures would slink away. Maybe casually pickup a copy and read or maybe not. As if they could not care less. If it was bad and the press agent knew it first, he would get the producer out of the lobby and take him into the street to give him the news. Maybe a quiet shake of the head and motion to the producer to leave the building. The producers that did not leave right away, just stood there in a stupor. Often they would just go into a catatonic freeze. Usually people left the producers alone in these cases. The weight in the room would just be so heavy. The Vultures? They are not going anywhere. One them might pick up a copy and start saying really loudly how unfair this was and feign such deep concern and dismay. Mixed review....people just sort of lingered and looked puzzled as if the whole thing were printed in Chinese. That was how I remember it. Truly exciting and nerve racking. Oh,if you were at the party and nobody was reading the Times by 11. You knew the review was not what they were looking for. At that point, the party would quietly and quickly end. If it was mixed people would still hang for a while but the energy would shift from expectant to just kinda laid back. Sorry if there a tons of typos here...running late, can't spend any more time on this now. | |
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| I saw that the other day too .... | |
| Posted by: | jdm 10:11 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | Waiting for Reviews - hitbycab 10:00 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| don't you just love TCM channel?? :-) Jim | |
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| re: I saw that the other day too .... | |
| Posted by: | hitbycab 10:34 am EDT 03/17/14 |
| In reply to: | I saw that the other day too .... - jdm 10:11 am EDT 03/17/14 |
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| I really really do!! They have movies I grew up plus fascinating backgrounds... My morning routine includes checking out what's on and coming up during the week..... I had to get a package that included TCM...worth every penny... | |
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