Theatre Critics & Reviews

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'When I first started I read [every review]. Now I skim or ask to be told. Reviewers don't have time or space to do anything very meaningful so I've stopped looking for that. Frankly, it's only about good or bad business. . . . If reviews are good, they're never quite good enough, because they're not complex enough. If they're bad, they're just discouraging.'

-- David Rabe

David Rabe is standing in a very long line of American playwrights who've learned the hard way not to pay much attention to Theatre Critics. Basically, all they can do is make a noticable dent in the potential size of your wallet. And there's nothing you can do about that anymore. In the good old days of the 19th Century, theatre producers occasionally had critics on their own private dole. That helped.

The problem is not that critics are ignorant about the craft of this business -- though a depressing number are -- it's just that they're not writing for you.

They're writing for the folks who are thinking about plunking down $30 a ticket to see your play at a major rep company or $50 if you've made it to Broadway.

And they want to know if they'll have an interesting time: if the baby-sitter, and the drive back to town, and the dinner out, and the tab at the parking garage will all be worth it when the curtain goes up on your play. That's a lot different from the craft issues you're dealing with.

Don't blame the audience for wanting this assessment. You generally get complimentary tickets whenever you want to see your own play. Besides, you may have a far more serious problem . . .

Self-Criticism

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