| re: They do have a deep bench, | |
| Posted by: | Haberville (Haberville@aol.com) 03:51 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | They do have a deep bench, - Neilfrombrooklyn 03:03 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| I would say that the power of the NY Times was being diluted even back during Frank Rich's reign. When he wrote raves (even adding follow-up puff pieces as he did with SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE or his one-man campaigns for shows like Jules Feiffer's GROWN-UPS as just one example) he couldn't really put shows into the money making column. Yes, his pans could close shows that were wholly dependent on favorable Times reviews due to the high level of readers then that were theatre goers... but those days began waning before he left and mean far less now through the eighteen year run of Brantley (alongside help from Isherwood and others). I found it very interesting this morning that there was a SIDE SHOW rave in the Times from Isherwood, when it was Brantley's rave in 1997 that sent me to buy tickets immediately fearing I would be sold out. When I got to the theatre two weeks later, I was stunned to see all the empty seats. | |
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| Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 07:10 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: They do have a deep bench, - Haberville 03:51 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| Raves from Atkinson did not make hits out of The Grass Harp (the play) or Greenwillow. I suppose that his Greenwillow review could be regarded as favorable rather than a rave, but in the Drama Critics Circle voting in 1960, Atkinson chose it the best musical of the season over Fiorello!, Gypsy, The Sound of Music and Bye Bye Birdie. And, of course, Atkinson panned Bye Bye Birdie, yet it did not suffer too much from his lack of enthusiasm. (Suskin, by the way, lists no favorable reviews for Greenwillow. Valuable as those two books are, the tallies for some shows are not accurate.) Going back to the 1930s, a favorable Times for the first Broadway production of 3-Penny Opera did not make it a hit. More recently (but well before Rich), a very favorable review from Barnes and a rave from Kerr could not help Moonchildren run more than two weeks. It's hard for me to understand why Merrick did not give it at least a couple of more weeks under the circumstances. Conversely, I'd say that Rich's review and followup columns on Sunday in the Park With George had a pretty major effect. If the production still closed at a fairly big loss, it did surprisingly well for a long time given what the reviews were like overall. Although it won the New York Drama Critics Circle award with a majority (10 out of 19 critics) on the first ballot, my memory is that the Times was the only favorable review of the daily papers and the television reviews weren't too favorable overall. Despite its easy win in the Drama Critics Circle, there was never a feeling that the show had gotten mostly favorable reviews. | |
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| re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | toddlin 08:41 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - AlanScott 07:10 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| In an online forum last year I asked Ben Brantley what effect the new media had on newspapers and whether it had diluted the power of old school press. He replied that "everyone's a critic" and pointed out the case of ABIE'S IRISH ROSE, a 1920's musical that received terrible reviews but ran 5 years. I took from that that even he is skeptical about a critic's power . | |
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| re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | sandcastle 09:45 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - toddlin 08:41 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| "I took from that that even he is skeptical about a critic's power." He should be, since he probably realizes he has very little nowadays. | |
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| re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 09:46 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - sandcastle 09:45 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| who has more? | |
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| re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | sandcastle 09:47 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - enoch10 09:46 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| I really can't think of anyone, to be honest with you. Not in this age of "blogs." (And chat rooms.) | |
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| re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back | |
| Posted by: | Ann 11:16 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - sandcastle 09:47 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| I don't think there really are any chat rooms anymore, unless there are still some on those sites one would erase from their browser history. | |
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| As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 09:11 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Examples of the limits of the Times's power go way back - toddlin 08:41 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| Abie's Irish Rose was a play, not a musical. Did Brantley say it was a musical? In any case, I just looked up the Times review, which I had looked up once in the past. The truth is that while there's a legend that it did not get good reviews, the review in the Times was actually rather favorable, if in a sort of odd way. The anonymous critic mostly describes the play and to some degree seems to just assume it's going to be a hit. He says it has its dullish spots, but that the "highly sophisticated Summer audience" clearly took the play to its heart. And he concludes by predicting a long run, suggesting that an exceptionally long run is quite possible. Rather prescient. If anything, the critic seems to go out of his way to suggest that even though the show might be thought of as a middle-brow and essentially mediocre, hackneyed crowdpleaser, even a sophisticated audience responded to it very positively. The play was perhaps considered already almost critic-proof as it had been successfully produced in Los Angeles and San Francisco. And it had gotten publicity as the playwright, Anne Nichols, put together the New York production on her own, even directing it, despite the fact that a producer had an option on her script. But he kept not producing it in New York, so she went ahead on her own, he tried to stop her, and then they came to a truce. The Times critic discusses this. I think it's in Brantley's own interest for him to suggest that there had always been real limits to the power of the Times. That way it does not so much seem like the power of the Times's lead critic has reached its lowest point while he is in the position. But I do think it's true that there have always been limits to the power of the Times, although it did (and still does, if to a lesser degree) have power. | |
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| re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that | |
| Posted by: | toddlin 09:27 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that - AlanScott 09:11 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| No...my bad. Didn't do my research. Anyway...play or musical..he seems to think the reviews were bad...so ask him. As to the point of this whole thread I think it's fairly clear that The NYT review is still the one that counts. How much reviews matter overall is subject to debate. | |
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| re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 10:19 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that - toddlin 09:27 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| Yes, I agree. The Times still counts the most. It can't necessarily make or break a show on its own, but it never really could. I just remembered another example of the limits of the power of the Times in the past. Kerr was the daily critic when The Homecoming opened in 1967. He didn't like it, but it ran long enough to win the Tony and the Drama Critics awards and those surely helped it to have a good run. Maybe it never sold out, but it paid off. | |
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| re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 09:21 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that - AlanScott 09:11 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| >> That way it does not so much seem like the power of the Times's lead critic has reached its lowest point while he is in the position. i'm not sure that's the case. i think when there were more critics the opinion could get diluted. if, for example, the times hated something virtually everybody else loved the voice could get drowned out easier than today when there are far fewer critics with real clout. | |
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| re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 10:02 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: As it turns out, Brantley is wrong about that - enoch10 09:21 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| That's an interesting point. You certainly do see it in shows like some of those I mentioned above. Atkinson was the only major critic to go in big way for Greenwillow, and I think also for The Grass Harp, and his lonely enthusiasm could not counteract the lack of enthusiasm from the other major critics. And his lack of enthusiasm for Birdie did not hurt it much when all the other major reviews were favorable to raves. And Atkinson is often felt to have been the most influential of all the Times critics. On the other hand, in the 1960s and 1970s there were at least two examples of producers pulling the plug immediately — literally immediately, one performance — on two shows that got good reviews from other major sources. Those shows were Johnny No-Trump and Father's Day. Where Richard Barr seems to have felt he did make the right choice with the former (despite a rave from Kerr in the Sunday Times after the closing), Joe Kipness later said that he had probably made a mistake by closing Father's Day immediately, especially since (as the Times pointed out) he was the producer of Applause, still playing to packed houses at the time. So there was such a perception of the power of the Times that producers sometimes just gave up in the face of a negative Times review. I don't think there's any question that if the power of the Times is lower than ever in the past (or at least at any point in the last 80 years or so), it's a reflection of the lessening power of theatre critics generally. | |
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| re: They do have a deep bench, | |
| Posted by: | dottie20 04:54 pm EST 11/18/14 |
| In reply to: | re: They do have a deep bench, - Haberville 03:51 pm EST 11/18/14 |
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| I saw the original production on a Friday night a couple of weeks after the show officially opened, and, I too, was surprised at how empty the theatre was. I was 5th row center orchestra (TKTS). It felt like they were playing for a private audience. The only other time I had seen an audience that small, was a Wednesday matinee (2/14/79) of Eubie. I was a sophomore in high school, and that image of hardly anyone being there has always stuck with me. | |
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