On crotch-splits

Has everyone seen the debate about the new Broadway musical Come Fly Away over on the New York Times’ blog ArtsBeat? Times theater critic Charles Isherwood lurved it, while dance critic Alastair Macaulay was not amused, writing, “How many times are women hoisted aloft in crotch-spreading lifts
directly addressed at us? The duets keep saying not ‘You and I are in
love/having an affair/going through problems’ but something closer to
pornography: ‘Take a look at what we two do together!'” Yikes! Both reviews were posted, and I assume printed, on the same day, which is some good PR work.  I don’t know if it was the publicity team’s idea or the Times‘ idea, but someone suggested the two critics have it out for all to read. The debate is here.

In his first post, Macaulay clarifies where both critics are coming from, and mentions that they do enjoy a professional friendship, which I think is useful to know.

Macaulay: Charles, Let’s establish a few things first in case readers
misunderstand us. You go to a great deal of dance, perhaps more than
any theater critic of the present day; and I go to a great deal of
theater. (I’m writing this in London, where, between dance
performances, I’m catching up with many of the same theater
performances you saw here two week ago. And we’ve given each other
recommendations by email about this.) You’re not just a connoisseur of
what works on Broadway, and I’m not just a highbrow balletomane. So I
imagine you can answer the question you’re asking perfectly well.

Then they talk about porn some more!!

Macaulay: I don’t mean to sound prudish. Some element of porn is part of what’s
going on in some Balanchine ballets, with their striking exposure of
the woman’s groin. Porn is an element in the more psychosexual ballets
of Kenneth MacMillan, notably “Mayerling.” I admire it with both
choreographers, as I do in Ms Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs” (a ballet
controversial enough when it was new to prompt Mark Morris,
not yet famous, to yell from the audience “No more rape!”). But the
nightclub where people need to keep carrying on like the pathetically
exhibitionistic creeps in “Come Fly Away” is not a nightclub in which I
want to stay; they’re bores.

Isherwood: “Pathetically exhibitionistic creeps?” But also “bores?” I myself
find the occasional exhibitionistic creep I encounter to be anything
but boring. Far better than the mousy, introverted kind who resolutely
refuse to scamper around doing jetes and arabesques.
But really, that’s pretty harsh, Alastair, and very uncharitable to
a group of talented dancers – although since you take issue with the
casting, perhaps you do not believe they are talented dancers at all. I
would assume you are referring to the characters, not the performers,
except that at various points you more or less dismiss the idea that
Tharp has really created characters at all, and you also take the
performers to task for what you perceive as their excesses. (I fondly
hope that they, at least, are not reading this exchange.)

OK, well obviously everyone’s reading the exchange! What performer/publicist/producer wouldn’t love to read a Great Debate about themselves on the interweb? In the most recent post, from yesterday morning, Isherwood concludes:

Isherwood: Anyway, I’ve enjoyed our exchange and hope you are enjoying London.
We’ll meet when you return, I hope, (somewhere wholly devoid of
exhibitionistic creeps) and have drinks. Or toss them in each other’s
faces, as the case may be. (Note to readers: blatant joke, that.) At
least nobody will come flying away from this exchange with the
impression that we are anything but passionate about what we see
onstage.

I like many things about this debate. I like that we’re reminded that critics, while experts, are essentially just one (or ten) members of an audience of hundreds of people with vastly different opinions. I like that the Times sent critics from different sections of the paper to cover the same show (I wrote one of my very first blog posts on this topic) and printed both reviews on the same day. What I like best, though, is what Isherwood writes about caring about what they do. I would love for a debate like this to ensue after a classical concert or opera performance, so presenters – pitch it to your papers! Everyone loves a good throw-down.