I'm glad that implantations are being made, but the root issue was and is how they were being used. It's like... great, I'm glad you switched from using your fists to using a bat, but why are we hitting rocks, again?
The fact is there are no other options; All That Chat makes BWW look like a vision from the future and other places are defunct.
Creating and maintaining a message board is time consuming, and if it is unattached to a main site that can act as a resource, there is little way to attract new traffic.
The people that want to talk theatre shop can mostly all do so offline with peers. Diehard fans have places like Tumblr.
...I think the fact that moderators feel that a poster calling a director an "idiot" for their choices is something that needs to be taken care of is the issue here.
Particularly when, say, there are over a dozen spam messages in the Off-Topic board that have been there for over an hour.
HenryTDobson said: "Genuine question - during the "Golden Age" of musicals, was every musical produced truly a gem? Because I find it hard to believe that every single show to open was amazing. There had to be outliers. Or, perhaps, the shows that we so revere were the outliers."
Of course they weren't!
Since Teachout referenced Fiddler on the Roof, let's see what it was up against for Best Musical in 1965...
I would not put my money on Arden. Cromer is extremely well-respected and this is his first Broadway success after years of excellent, visionary work (and a MacArthur genius grant!).
I agree with Matt, but think SpongeBob is certainly the most imaginative of the offerings and I would be happy to see it win design awards and if Landau were to upset and take director, I would not be angry about it.
Though, incidentally, due to Dear Evan Hansen being both off-Broadway and on Broadway within one season, it ended up competing against The Band's Visit for numerous awards... and losing several of the most notable.
little_sally said: "I also don't get how Itamar Moses isn't a favorite for Best Book. Do people really think the Mean Girls book is superior to The Band's Visit's?"
It's not necessarily about it being superior- it's about Tina Fey.
I'm dubious that she'd actually win, but I can see voters wanting to give it to her.
Brantley is historically not very good at predicting the Tonys. Even last year, when most of the major categories had obvious frontrunners who all then won.
qolbinau said: "How would you distinguish between inflammatory and viewpoints that you don't agree with?"
Continuously hammering one viewpoint at every opportunity, knowing full well it derails conversation, and then not actually responding or engaging, or only very selectively so, and only repeating your point is very different than expressing and debating a viewpoint I disagree with.
I think this highlights a blindspot in the application of the rules: trolls that are inflammatory without otherwise breaking the rules (ie attacking people, etc) slide under the radar.
This was such an eye-roll of a read. Between Green's "stop having fun, guys!" self-importance and Brantley's sentiment and wispy attempts at being politically conscious, all I could think was: these two are the top of American theatre criticism? Really? That's the best we can do?
