Hot Seat

"I consult this book often, for work reasons, and find myself getting lost in it. It still has the immediacy of daily journalism. You get a real sense of Rich’s excitement at doing his job. It used to be common for theatre critics’ work to be anthologised, but since Rich stopped writing in 1993 the blogosphere and newspapers’ troubles devalued the voice of the critic. The Rich era was a fabled one at The New York Times . He earned the sobriquet “the Butcher of Broadway”, which shows that when you write as strongly as he did you can have a real impact. In an essay at the end of this anthology, Rich notes that the power of The [New York] Times to make or break a show is a bit of a myth. Some of the shows he didn’t like, such as 42nd Street , ran for a long time. That’s the way it’s always been. But it is true that theatre and restaurant criticism are areas where critics may have more sway relative to movie critics these days. Movies can market themselves around critics. But because theatre takes a time commitment and costs a lot of money, people look to critics to help them choose among shows. A critic is aware of their responsibility to be fair, but we can’t be swayed by the fact that if the show closes people will be out of work. If we let that influence us, every review would be a rave. You have to shut out that fact and even the reaction of the audience. Previews are packed with people friendly to the production. They might be laughing uproariously or jumping to their feet at the end, but you learn to tune that out too. You need to write as honestly as you can. A referee is impartial. You’re not in the game, you’re calling the shots as you see them. Personal taste is always an important factor in critical work, but if you’ve written for a while you establish a rapport with your readers. They know what your taste is, and they can gauge whether their taste lines up with yours. But part of the job is reporting. A critic wants to give a sense of what the show is about and what it’s trying to do. Then comes the question of whether or not it succeeds in its aims. There was a bit of brouhaha about that piece. A critic can’t pick and choose who he wants to review on a regular basis – that’s not how the job works. But in the case of this one writer, he writes so many plays. I thought that at this point reviewing more of his work would be like flogging a dead horse, or rather a horse that won’t die. I thought it was only fair to allow another critic at The Times to assess his work. I was surprised by a lot of the reaction. Some people applauded what they saw as bravery, others condemned me for bias. Well, it’s not a bias. I’ve seen a dozen of Adam Rapp’s plays. I’ve hardly liked any of them, and I can’t say that I’ve loved one of them. But that doesn’t mean my judgment of his work is unfair. The fact is, when I pan a play, the next time that writer’s work comes up I’m disposed to find things to like. Critics are human; if you prick us we will bleed. So every time that I saw an Adam Rapp play, over 10 years, I was hoping that I might like it, I tried to like it, but I just couldn’t fake it. So it’s time to give someone else a shot at appreciating his work. There is nothing like sitting in a theatre and witnessing a performance. There is something about the ephemeral nature of theatre that lends it its own magic. A great performance only lasts until the curtains close, and for that reason people always treasure it. Broadway, strictly speaking, is less relevant than theatre in general. There aren’t a lot of artistic strides being made on Broadway – it’s off-Broadway where that is being done. Broadway is a huge commercial marketplace that caters largely to tourists. But Broadway nourishes the development of theatre more broadly. Work that makes it there can make it anywhere."