Zero Star Hall of Shame

One of the benefits of regularly reading The Guardian's theatre blog is the discovery of new theater blogs. Though they've seen to pop up like candy this past year, the best ones are still hard to find. Kudos to Kelly Nestruck for directing me to the West End Whingers. Specifically: they're zero star hall of "fame" which chronicles shows getting a zero star rating in the London press. As much as I will defend American theater, this type of thing simply couldn't exist in the states. For one, the little press theater gets in New York or Chicago rarely gives star ratings. And even if they do, most refuse to go lower than 1 star. It was even controversial years back when the New York post introduced the "half-star." Compared to the British press, U.S. critics remind me of the following exchange from The Critic:

Duke: Why the hell do you have to be so critical?
Jay: I'm a critic.
Duke: No, your job's to rate movies on a scale of good to excellent.
Jay: What if I don't like them?
Duke: That's what good's for.

That being said, it's still a rare entity, as even the particularly bitchy British press only had 5 inductees into the Zero Star Hall of Fame. See, we critics are not that bad, honest!