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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Politics / Theater "To gratuitously impugn the motives of those with whom you disagree is the height of vulgarity."

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 11:35 AM

Terry Teachout (theater critic for the WSJ) and a "New York drama critic who shall remain nameless" are having a scrap over Obama's trip to Broadway to see Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Partial back story: Teachout has been arguing that New York and its theater critics are too provincial and not even all that special, and that American regional theater is just as good as Broadway's. What he said:

You don't have to go to New York to see first-rate shows. You can see them in the place where you live, or in a city not too far from your home town—but save on the rarest of occasions, you can't read about them in Time or Newsweek or the New York Times.

You can, however, read about them in the WSJ—Teachout is the only New York-based critic who travels the country to see what kind of theater America is making.

Teachout and the NYC gang already have a little bad blood going. So when Teachout wished Obama had gone to see something in DC instead of Joe Turner on Broadway, it set tempers aflame.

Teachout's wrong, of course, to ignore the symbolic significance of Obama's choice. It's all about race—a classic play by August Wilson (who famously argued for a separation of black and white theater) directed by a whitey (Intiman's Bart Sher), which set off a little race-relations shitstorm. Plus, the Obama administration just nominated a Broadway producer to helm the NEA. (Plus, every critic who's seen this Joe Turner loves it. Plus, Joe Turner is a great American play. Plus, etc., etc.)

Team Obama is too sensitive to racial and political hermeneutics to not know that Joe Turner on Broadway is the perfect play—the only play—for Obama to attend.

Still, Teachout's rebuke to the NYC critic (the title of this post) is delicious/ridiculous.

Comments (8) RSS

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I notice the people criticizing Obama for this little jaunt in a smaller aircraft didn't say a word about the countless Texas trips taken by Bush in Air Force One.

Posted by Rob in Baltimore

on June 3, 2009 at 11:50 AM

Brendan, I'm a bit perplexed by your love affair with Teachout. While he indeed is a constant champion of regional theater, he's just not that good of a critic. I think he's much more interested in drawing attention to how much of a champion of regional theater he is and picking petty fights with other critics (such as the one your fawning over) than actually being a theater critic.

Why aren't you championing regional theater critics as well as regional theater? Aren't you simply installing Teachout as the same New York-based authority that you supposedly deplore?

You might be better served by either getting over this very tired obsession with "New York" theater critics and how it's all about New York. A little hint: critics who live and work in New York tend to focus on the theater in front of them, like... New York.

Otherwise, get over yourself and your envy thinly veiled as criticism, or just move to NY and start reviewing theater there.

Posted by tired of hearing about NY on June 3, 2009 at 11:54 AM

One of the problems Obama faces is that everybody thinks they own him. In a way, he's still a slave. Everybody thinks, "well, clearly, the man should be following MY agenda; I got him elected, after all".

Teachout thinks Obama's purpose in life is to validate his own opinions. He's wrong.

Posted by Fnarf

on June 3, 2009 at 11:55 AM

@3,

He's a victim of his own success. So many people identify with him, they wind up tragically disappointed when he fails to be everything they want, even when it's something as petty as where he takes his wife on date night.

Posted by keshmeshi on June 3, 2009 at 11:57 AM

@ 2. I liked Teachout long before this fight—he's more intelligent, articulate, and level-headed than most American critics. Unlike other writers (self included), he rarely works himself up into irrational exuberance and never writes with contempt, even about the bad stuff. And I like his pluck.

But, like Fnarf says, he's wrong in this case.

Posted by Brendan Kiley on June 3, 2009 at 12:04 PM

I think a lot of people forget that Obama took his wife to a show on broadway because he promised her he would. The wife just wanted to see a real-live broadway show. Think about how many people come to New York specifically for that particular experience.
I am sure they will see plenty of perfectly fantastic and quality pieces of theater in DC and do their public duty to the critics. But let the man take his wife out for a special date.

Posted by au_gout on June 3, 2009 at 12:12 PM

To say that two pissy drama queens fighting with one another can ever approach "the height" of vulgarity suggests that at least one of them ( has an inflated ego and has lived a rather sheltered life. I lived in both Nebraska and North Georgia, and you can see far more vulgar things just walking down the street -- assuming anyone walked anywhere in either place. Even better, just go to an Olive Garden on a weekend night. You don't know from vulgarity, Mary(s).

Posted by JeffInBoston on June 3, 2009 at 2:23 PM

Obama can have Sher.

Posted by tacomaactorsguild&theemptyspace on July 12, 2009 at 9:04 PM