The Reviews....

Here is a selfie of me at 5:00am coming to the theater the morning after opening.  Several of us were “chosen” to be interviewed live on Australia’s Today Show from the theater and broadcast coast to coast.  It is the glamor of show business. We are trying to spread the word along with reviews.

I learned a long time ago not to read reviews of shows I am part of.  As they trickle in for the “Unbelievables”it becomes impossible to avoid them because everyone else is reading them and making comments backstage.  Even without reading them I can still tell you what the critics seem to like and what they didn’t like and why.  Unkind adjectives that reviewers have used get thrown around back stage in whispers and as the punchline of jokes.  As I told someone last night, “Reviews are not Directors notes, why do you care what they say?”  

I’m not saying this cast is any different from any other about trolling the reviews but as I am the oldest in the cast I know from experience that the opinion of some unknown writer absolutely does not matter. I believe my job and my responsibility is to the audience who paid to see the show, not a local writer who got a free ticket. And now we performers also have to endure the snipes of Facebook comments and illiterate opinions of bloggers. From personal experience of writing this blog for several years... just having a Word Press account or Blogger App doesn’t make me more qualified to have an opinion.  

It is for the same reason I don’t like America’s Got Talent.  Who cares what Howie Mandel thinks?  Why is it important to please Simon Cowel?  I was around when Howie was doing stand up in the clubs.  If I were his judge I would have Xed his act faster than a Japanese bullet train through a tunnel.   And I still don’t know what Simon Cowell does, what is his talent?  But obviously my opinion has not affected either one of them career wise. 

Most of the performers I know have a very fragile relationship with self esteem, myself included.  Getting up in front of people to speak much less to perform an act is a universal fear of most every person.  Some writer sitting in safety of a darken theater seat has no idea the courage it takes just to walk on a stage, not to mention the hours of practice it has taken to perfect their talent.  We do it basically because we want to please people.  We take their criticism harder than we let on.

By the same token we take their accolades which great joy.  The problem with reviews is  simple, if you love to hear the good ones, you have to also accept the bad ones, so why acknowledge them at all. Neither have any power nor control over the performer unless they are taken as anything other than an opinion.  It is impossible to please everyone every time but we performers try to do just that.  Pleasing the audience should be the goal, but sometimes we let the words of a single sniper change that goal. 

No one wants to get a tough review at the Sydney Opera house, But consider this.  When the Sydney Opera house itself was being designed and built the “critics” hated it. They thought it looked silly and did not have the dignity that an Opera House should display.  They thought it was a blight on Circular Quay. The architect and designer took a beating in the press.  He was so upset he walked away from the project and did not even come to the official opening. The Sydney Opera house is now an icon.  Everyday when I come to work there are literally thousands of people trying to pose a selfie with the Opera House in the back ground. Those critics who panned it are dead, gone and forgotten.  So ultimately the critics opinions don’t matter, it is the work that eventually speaks for itself.  

To the snipers who sit in the dark trolling our performances and to the sycophants who just want to hand out compliments so we will love what they have to write, Who cares.  Take your shot and go away.  We have work to do and thousands of people coming to see us who can make up their own opinions. And their opinions are more expressive than yours. 

I personally love this show and am proud to be a part of it no matter what a local news writes or some old lady with a twitter account posts.  To my cast from the old guy, it’s showtime. 

As you were,

Jay