I'm reading a selection of Peggy Ramsay's letters. She was a playwrights' agent in London in the post WWII period, representing many people who turned out to be the essential writers for the stage of that era. This quote, from a 1973 letter to David Hare, caught me:
"The theatre is a terrible bore as a diet. It can only be taken in short concentrated doses -- you've had FAR too much. I hardly ever think about the theatre. If I wasn't 'in' it, I'd go about four times a year (if that). People who go every night are punch drunk with its mediocrity."
That's what I think NY theatre reviewers often are, punch drunk with the theater's mediocrity. I've almost never gone to a show that was generally disliked by reviewers and found a hidden gem. On the other hand, I've seen a great number of shows lauded to the skies by the press, only to think, "Where are the Emperor's clothes?" |
