Ben Brantley is the top gun in the NYTimes review team that covers Broadway. His talk about a show can help make a show a hit and it can be the kiss of death that makes a show close quickly.
His first review of Spiderman, which came out shortly after I saw it myself, was pretty tough. But I agreed with every word. It was mixed up, the music was forgettable, the actors sang in voices that couldn't be distinguished from one another, the flying overhead was nifty the first couple of times and--after that--lost its appeal, and anyway looked pretty fake with all the wires and strapping and other obvious effort to keep the guys in the air. And we know that even that didn't always work. Some people said they were buying tickets just to see if anyone fell (must be the same kind of people who like car racing for the crashes).
Well, Julie Traymor was dismissed and the show was reworked--again--and it has finally opened for real, after 183 previews (a record in Broadway history). So today Ben Brantley delivered his second review.
I'm sure the producers were holding their breath.
It is not good. Perhaps the worst news of all for them is Brantley's four word sentence early in the review: "It's just a bore."
Ouch! $75 million dollars later and we have a boring night on Broadway. Argh. Brantley says that his only reason for going to see it now would be "If I knew a less-than-precocious child of 10 or so, and had several hundred dollars to throw away, I would consider taking him or her to...Spiderman."
Yikes. Now, the question is, will audience word of mouth somehow trump Ben Brantley? Will the out of towners who have already bought tickets talk themselves into loving it so they don't have to feel bad about shelling out hundreds of dollars for what the critics are calling a big loser?
Word of mouth can on occasion propel a show forward in spite of critical panning. But if you were to engage me in a conversation about it, you'd know I'm on Brantley's side. Here is his review.
Read the comic book. It's better than the show.
Author of I is for Intercourse: The ABC's of Conversation, Susan Bird is the visionary behind Wf360, and a sought-after speaker around the world for her views on leadership, the strategic importance of conversation, entrepreneurship, and the role of women business leaders.
I'd actually love to review these boxes on my shopping/lifestyle blog. i wonder if they'd send me a sample box to talk about?
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