Tynan's Anger

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So Tony Kushner a world-class playwright, wants the chance to develop a play like any workshop theater playwright can. He wants to do it at a major regional theater, in order to build up for the Broadway debut it deserves. The Guthrie mishandles its press release to critics. Some critics are already so pissed at the Guthrie that they will take it inevitably out on Kushner and everyone working on the show (they won't ever claim to if they do). Why are they doing that? Because the critics' jobs may be on the line if they don't cover it at the Guthrie.

This is how things work in 2009. Even in theater, the one medium where you can't hide behind a computer screen.

Kushner to critics: Please don't review my new play; Critics to Guthrie: Thanks for mishandling this [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

Labels: Drama, guthrie theater, new media, Playwright, public relations, theater criticism, Tony Kushner

It never ceases to amaze me how theater companies across the nation, even those as prominent as the Tony Award-winning Guthrie Theater, simply cannot take their lickings from the press. I understand that theater, which is more limited in appeal than movies or television, has a harder time recovering from negative reviews than other media. But that still doesn't mean that they're not in a position of public exposure, and subject to the exact same criticism as anything else in public exposure.

In the latest case of critical reactionary drama queenery, a full page ad by the Guthrie was placed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune after the paper gave their most recent production a negative review. While the ad had been "planned for months," the content, decided upon after the reviews came in, feature a near-exact copy of the positive review from the alternative weekly CityPages. The Guthrie's former Broadway marketing guru Trisha Santini had this to say:

"There was something about the way [CityPages critic] Quinton talked about" the show, Santini continued, "that I think spoke to audiences trying to make a determination. There was a way in which he framed it which was in sync with what we hoped for."

Yes, because it was the lone good review after all the other major papers' reception to the play could politely be described as sub-par?

Santini denied that the ad was out of sour grapes: "This is not getback; it's not a retaliatory strike of some sort. We don't have the luxury of doing that. And even if we did, we wouldn't do it." This is what we in the media biz call "horseshit," especially after you talked about how the CityPages critic "spoke to what you were trying to do." Ultimately, this is a black eye for the otherwise respectable Guthrie. They've turned a mild slump—one that every theater goes through—into a credibility issue. That's Broadway-level marketing right there.

Labels: critics, drama queenery, guthrie theater