Archives for August 21, 2007

Howard Sherman, who interviewed me day before yesterday for the American Theatre Wing’s weekly radio broadcast, has blogged about the experience:

I haven’t done p.r. for some 14 years now, my personal knowledge of those who populate the critical field is rather less current, and while I remain an avid reader of all theatre journalism, I don’t know the writers themselves as I once did.
Of course, the public rarely gets to know any of these folks personally, and only the astute readers who check bylines really develop a sense of the author’s voice–and personality–through their reviews.
So when I had the opportunity to meet Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal yesterday, while taping a Downstage Center program, it was my first opportunity in years to meet a critic after knowing him only through his writing. In the course of the conversation, we spoke about this issue, and Terry commented that he feels people can get to know him from his reviews alone (although he blogs constantly), because he writes the same way he talks. And after an hour with him, I can say that his self-assessment is correct: the man I met is the man I’ve been reading for four years.
But even more striking, after years of knowing and reading dozens of theatre critics: he’s the exception more than the rule. The personal conversations I have with critics about shows and issues often seem quite different than when I read about those same shows and topics in print.
I am too close to this issue to have any genuine perspective, but I do wonder which is more useful to those who read and follow reviews: do they want “the critical voice” or “the personal voice,” or are they always one and the same?

I wonder, too.

The original author of my Wikipedia entry wrote today to warn me that some nameless clod had vandalized it over the weekend (he kindly fixed it for me). I guess I asked for it, but I’m still impressed–if that’s the word–by the way in which the Internet facilitates idiocy. Or, in the words of an unknown commenter quoted in Daniel J. Solove’s forthcoming book The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, “The Internet makes fools into stars and stars into fools.”
Needless to say, the latter isn’t always a bad thing….

• Luciana Souza is singing at the Jazz Standard on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The band consists of Edward Simon, Larry Koonse, Scott Colley, and Antonio Sanchez–the same group heard on her new album, The New Bossa Nova–with tenor saxophonist Chris Potter sitting in on Friday. Two sets each night, at 7:30 and 9:30. Reserve early–this one will sell out. (I’m going on Friday, so look for me at the first set.)
For more information, go here and scroll down.
• I’m the guest on this week’s episode of Downstage Center, the satellite radio program of the American Theatre Wing, the organization that (among other things) runs the Tony Awards. Howard Sherman and John von Soosten, the hosts, interviewed me about my work as the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, as well as about The Letter, the opera I’m writing with Paul Moravec. The hour-long conversation, which was taped on Monday afternoon, was unusually detailed and wide-ranging, and I think it will make for good listening.
XM Satellite Radio’s Channel 28, On Broadway, airs Downstage Center on Fridays at six p.m., Saturdays at noon, and Sundays at seven p.m. (all times are EDT). Next Monday my interview will be archived on the American Theatre Wing’s Web site, where you can listen to it in streaming audio or download it to your mp3 player by going here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Downstage Center by going to iTunes and searching for “American Theatre Wing.”
Happy listening!

“One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.”
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (courtesy of The Rat)