To the editors:
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In response to Mary Shen Barnidge’s overtly bitter review of Big Fun’s Howard Be Thy Name [March 16], I must speak out against reviews as low-brow as this. While she raised a few valid points (yes, there were too many gunshots, yes, there were too many TV parodies), Ms. Barnidge quickly lapsed into blasting the show without substantiating any accusations. Is having one scene about Rhett Butler really a fool-proof barometer of comedic quality, period? Are two scenes with a person breaking down and weeping so rigidly inexcusable? I wish she had told us what took place in those scenes, why someone was crying, instead of simply checking off a list of ingredients in her no-no book.
I feel compelled to print my own list. . . Warning signs for theater reviews, or you know there’s something fishy going on when the review contains: 1) not one mention of any acting, directing, or tech production in the slightest, 2) a critique of the show’s Playbill, 3) a critique of the invitation letter, 4) at least one gross factual inaccuracy (she wrote off a parody of the McLaughlin Group because it was based on a “daytime television program”; the McLaughlin Group airs on Saturday evenings at 6:30 pm), and 5) short-phrase synopses (such as the one depicting Jesus as a “personal servant, excuse me, savior”) placing more emphasis on being sardonic than on informing her readers of what she is supposed to be critiquing.
