| The Variety tallies for Shenandoah and The Wiz | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 10:03 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? - NewtonUK 03:32 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
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| I just read Barnes's review of Shenandoah, and I would characterize it as mixed leaning toward mildly enthusiastic. Here is Variety's tally of the reviews for Shenandoah: "six moderately approving notices (Collins, WCBS-TV; Godfrey, UPI; Howe, WNBC-TV; Lyons, WCBS; S. Klein, WNEW-TV; Probst, WNBC), two unfavorable (Gottfried, Post; Watt, News), and four mixed (Barnes, Times; Glover, AP; A. Klein, WNYC; Sanders, WABC-TV)." Here is the tally for The Wiz: "nine favorable reviews (Citron, WNYC-TV; Collins, WCBS-TV; Currie, UPI; Glover, AP; Howe, WNBC-TV; A. Klein, WNYC; Probst, WNBC; Sanders, WABC-TV; Watt, News), and three mixed (Barnes, Times; Gottfried, Post; Lyons, WCBS)." I should add that Variety's choices of how to characterize reviews have not always struck me as accurate. For instance, I would say, as I said before, that Barnes's Shenandoah was mixed but leaning toward favorable. On the other hand, I would say that his Wiz review was mixed leaning a bit on the negative side. To simply list them both as mixed, as Variety did, is misleading. But I think the Variety tallies do generally indicate that The Wiz overall received reviews that were probably at least as favorable as those received by Shenandoah. I've also just read Kerr's reviews of both, not included in the Variety tally because his reviews did not appear till the first or sometimes the second Sunday after a show's opening. He certainly did love Shenandoah. The headline given his Wiz review — "'The Wiz' Misses" — makes it sound worse than it was. I would say that it was actually more mixed than negative. I think most people who were already inclined to see the show would not have changed their minds reading his review. He said quite enough nice things that it ended up sounding like it was an entertaining show. Oddly, I think his review, if read through, would have encouraged more people to see The Wiz than Barnes's review did. But then Rex Reed once rightly wrote something like, "Walter Kerr can pan a show and make me want to rush out and see it." |
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