Looking Out at the World

OK, not exactly globally, but at least the larger U.S. theater world. And there are some wacky shenanigans going on, indeed! The NY-based theater blogosphere (and I would be THRILLED if someone could point out some good theater blogosphere that isn't straight white men!) is all in a huff about some wacky things.

First of all, and understandably exciting, is Mother Courage and Her Children produced by the Public Theater at Shakespeare in the Park. It stars Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline (who was actually a last-minute replacement), was directed by George C. Wolfe, and the script was adapted by Tony Kushner with music by Jeanine Tesori. It's easy to see how Brecht could get lost in all that star power. The reviews are very mixed, but some of the big ones are mostly negative. One of the first reviews on the scene was the LA Times's very own Charles McNulty. Michael Feingold at the Villiage Voice may be the review everyone cares about most. Rob Kendt at The Wicked Stage, who used to be an LA reviewer, loved it. Here's his positive review, and here's his round-up of all the other reviews out there.

OK, I had to post that because Mother Courage is the big news right now, but in other, much more wacky news, American Idol comes to Broadway with an NBC reality TV show to cast the leads in a production of Grease. This is based on a current BBC TV show called "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria," casting the role of Maria for a production of The Sound of Music. Andrew Lloyd Webber is somehow involved. This concept sounds atrocious, but I might just watch it anyway, since Grease is retro-Fifties and thus dissertation-related.

In further news, there is some uproar about theater critics in Chicago and Philadelphia right now. I had a long round-up of each of the events, but then my browser quit and I lost them, so I'll just point you to LAist, which has a basic overview and which is where I first heard about all this (I've been lagging on reading the major theater blogs). For more info about the Chicago incident, check out Angry White Guy, The Steppenwolf Blog, and the Dramatists Guild. For the Philadelphia situation, read this summary in Philadelphia Magazine. We Love Toby!, the blog that decidedly does not love critic Toby Zinman, is here.

Now, for my two cents, referring to Toby Zinman in Philadelphia, a lot of this sounds suspiciously like a bunch of middle-class white guys getting all huffy because they've been rebuked by an uppity woman. I wonder if the response would be the same if she were a male reviewer? I haven't read enough of Zinman's reviews to really know whether she's inappropriately personal or vindictive, or if she's just an outspoken and opinionated critic with high standards. I do, however, know that she's highly qualified and writes for Variety, American Theater, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. That's a pretty good resume. For reference, she loved Mother Courage. My general, not necessarily qualified opinion, is that it's fine for people to disagree with Zinman's reviews, and I heartily encourage them to, as they plan to do, establish a blog where people can post their own theater reviews, confirming or rebutting Zinman as they see fit, but I'm very glad that her newspaper is standing behind Zinman. In general, I think this uproar and public debate about the role and responsiblities of critics is quite valuable, and anything that makes the conversation around theater more vibrant and heated is probably a good thing.