Columnist (Riedel) Has 'Em Roiling In The Aisles

[Craig]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 2:32pm

https://www.broadwayworld.com/l.cfm?id=69235

His final quote is exceptional.

Updated On: 4/19/05 at 02:32 PM

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 2:52pm

His final quote may be "exceptional," but it is not accurate. Bad business, poor preplanning, not knowing how to book theater parties in advance, lack of marketing; many other things can happen to make a show fail at the box office. Even some shows that have received excellent reviews and had all the elements Reidel mentioned in his final "quote," have gone on to "fail." Sad but true.
""If the show is well-written, well-produced, well- directed and well-cast, it will succeed." "" -----IF THIS WERE "all it took" our theater would have lots and lots more "hits." Many of us can start compiling lists of shows that met all of the "requirements" Reidel mentioned, and yet they still failed to find an audience. It was actually a very silly and naieve and easily disproven remark for Reidel to make.

Updated On: 4/19/05 at 02:52 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 2:57pm

I love Reidel. I forward his writings to all my staff.

[Craig]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 3:04pm

Perhaps I should qualify my comment. In regards to one person or a reviewer having the power to "close" a show, which I believe was the context of the quote, his comment is valid. He's saying that he, nor any review is going to kill a production if the material is strong and works.

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 3:52pm

His final quote simply proves once again that the man is a ruthless, idiotic asshole. I wouldn't want to be standing within a hundred feet of him when his karma catches up.

[442namffug]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:02pm

I had never really heard of or read anything about this guy before. Now I know that he is a royal ass. He obviously is a disgruntled and failed performer who gets perverted pleasure out of bashing perfectly good shows.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:03pm

Such a shame that such a petty, mean spirited man can rise in prominence by printing horrible gossip in the biggest rag in NYC, The Post.

[Craig]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:09pm

https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=113

Rob Diamond did this interview (which ironically, the folks at Phantom of the Opera used for a skit at a BC/EFA fundraiser after it was posted)

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:37pm

OK, I skimmed the interview and my suspicions were confirmed. Michael Riedel isn't very knowledgable about the theatre, yet he imagines himself a modern Addison DeWitt.

[Craig]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:46pm

Not to defend MR, but these two quotes are very telling
--

I want to be able to pick up the phone and to be able to call the producers, and the agents, and the actors, and the box office treasurers, and the stage hands that I know and to find out what’s going on. I’m not a critic, and I wouldn’t be good as a critic. I’m not a good enough writer to be a critic either and I don’t have the intellect to be a critic. I like Chekov yes, but I couldn’t write incisive essays on the production of The Three Sisters that I saw at the National Theatre, the way Frank Rich could write incisive pieces on musical theater. It’s just not where my strengths or my talents are. I don’t have any talents or strengths of course, but if I did, they certainly wouldn’t be in being a critic.

and


I think that people make more of it in their minds, and get caught up in it and make more of it than it is. I’m guilty of the same thing – I’ll go online and I’ll read what they are saying about my column and I’ll think oh my God, everyone’s reading it but it’s just two people that are reading you – that’s it. I’m realistic, no one’s picking up the New York Post to read me; they pick up the Post to see how the Yankees did last night.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:49pm

Craig, many productions that have strong material and "work," may not be killed, but still do ultimately fail. It is of course still a Business, as heaven knows you know, and most of us here know. Often times, we have seen "strong material at work" and poor management has "killed" shows that would have succeeded with different production teams. Amazing and unforeseen things happen on the production end, often with very little or nothing to do with what is happening onstage. Off the top of my head
THE GOLDEN APPLE
and the 1980s revival of MAME were certainly shows that were greater than strong and "more than worked." The stuff that "went on in the offices on the road, poor publicity and bookings and things to that effect," killed those shows. Tis a shame. The theater is a strange world. Sometimes great and entertaining things do not succeed. Usually the production team is blamed. In Susskind's next to most recent book, he wrote how "the audience failed THE GOLDEN APPLE." You do not hear that often. I am not sure if he is correct. As a theaterlover, I obviously wish more shows had an opportunity to run longer and give more of us a chance to fall in love with them. :) That would be so very nice.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 7:56pm

It was Ken Mandelbaum in his book NOT SINCE CARRIE who wrote that "it was the audience that failed THE GOLDEN APPLE." (p.345)

You have to put Michael Riedel in perspective: All he wasnt sto do is make a name for himself, and through his muckracking he has gotten the attention he needs. He's like a John Simon for this decade. In the end he is lttle more than a backstage gossip.

[QueenS]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 9:46pm

The 80's revival of MAME was never meant to run. It was a tax write off from the get go. Sad, really, that no one told Angela...

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 10:00pm

I think I can put Riedel into perspective: He is to the New York theatrical community what Ann Coulter is to non-right wing extremists and good fashion sense.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 10:17pm

Michael Reidel is sexy!

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 10:31pm

maybe you guys would feel better if they just started burning everything Riedel writes. while we're at it, I hear that HUCK FINN book is pretty evil too. better burn that too in case the public ever loses the ability to think for itself. oops too late.

Anne Coulter should probably be burned at the stake, but her writing shouldn't. she has just as much freedom to show off what a heinous witch she is as does Riedel to write theatre columns more interesting than Brantley's "phone-it-in" style of journalism. I don't agree with a lot of what he writes, but I love Riedel's work for the way it makes some people react so violently. It's not just entertaining, it's also a great way to tell who lacks credibility.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 11:23pm

and He Has been known to steal my Stool at Angus!

[KindnessofStrangers]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 11:55am

BroadwayMatt writes "maybe you guys would feel better if they just started burning everything Riedel writes. while we're at it, I hear that HUCK FINN book is pretty evil too. better burn that too in case the public ever loses the ability to think for itself."

Are you seriously attempting to draw an anology between a recognized masterpiece of American fiction and the vitriol written in a tabloid by a bitter queen? Meh.