I love how CreLo theater critic Mark Leib speaks for everyone. I’ve always taken offense to his statements like “You won’t find XXXXXX funny” or “no one will like XXXXX,” when he has no real way to make statements like that for other people.
The review of Gorey Stories this week is one of those awesome illustrations of this.
He uses the words “we” and “us” in regards to how the show holds the audience’s attention only for the first 20 minutes. That Gorey’s world view is too grim. That it’s “… boring.” I left a comment (edit: ok, apparently I left two when my first draft posted in a browser crash where I though it was lost) at the story asking about the mouse in his pocket when he throws around “we” “us” and “you” as if he’s omniscient and as if everyone in the theater agreed with him.
He completely neglects to mention the capacity opening night crowd seated around him who hooted, clapped, laughed, howled, gasped and eventually rose to their feet with a rousing ovation at the end of the show. He has said to me though that his job isn’t to report what an audience thinks. I’m still waiting for him to formulate his thoughts more like opinion and less like fact.
So here we go again – the widest of wide reports from area critics. From the Trib’s glowing endorsement to CreLo’s bogus claims. And again – they were both sitting in the same theater on the same night. Read one review and then read the other. Could you guess that from reading?
Why does CreLo’s review bother me? Well, I think he gave the show one of the worst insults you can give. He called it boring. That’s right up there with him calling me “not in the least convincing” in regards to an acting role. It really doesn’t get any worse, does it?
It also bothers me because I can imagine a lot of people reading that story and then taking a pass on seeing it due to his irresponsible writing. Say you don’t like something, say you got bored, say the subject matter of something was too this or that – but also report how the other 97 people sitting around you reacted. Help point people to product who may be interested in it. We’ve certainly had enough interest to extend the show – and we’re looking to extend it again.
In any event, I hope people continue to seek out information on what’s out there and make their own decisions. I’m always saying it’s hard enough to get people in the theater. Arrogant writing certainly doesn’t help us out any.
