What I find a bit shady is when a show trumpets elements that are no longer present. Like when a production calls a show Tony-winning when the only Tonys it won are for cast members who have departed or are not part of that particular production. Many regional productions do this.
Yup. A regional theatre using pull quotes from other former reviews to advertise their own production has always seemed to me to be more than a little Merrick-ish in design. I feel that they're secretly banking on the idea that many people won't really think about what they're reading.
Or a revival that quotes the original production's reviews, but you obviously know it happens all the time. On the continuum from transparent to "Merrick-ish," though, I'd scale this one somewhere in the middle. At least they can concoct a defense if they need to.
