Friday, January 02, 2009

Variety: Broadway critics leave Gotham

WILL THEATER SUFFER???....YES!

Broadway critics leave Gotham
Pundit departure has theater watchers wary
By GORDON COX
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In the Gotham legit world, critical mass keeps getting lighter.

A string of departures in the Broadway critics corps, several of them spurred by the attrition of print media in the struggling economy, has left old-school observers questioning the longevity of theater criticism as a journalistic institution.

With the power of print reviews already lessened by the rising prominence of the chorus of Internet voices, legit scribes find themselves in the same boat as film critics, also prey to the fall of print media.

Will theater suffer? The critics certainly think so. But others in the legit community are similarly concerned, fearing media coverage of theater will become increasingly marginalized and business will be hurt in the long run.

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