Arts and Craft
A new chat show that dives into the lives of musicians, filmmakers, performers, and artists from all walks of life, revealing the untold stories and hidden secrets that drive their creativity. Hosted by Nancy Magarill and Peter Michael Marino.
Arts and Craft
Adam Feldman - Editor and Chief Theater critic
Adam Feldman is the National Theater and Dance Editor and chief theater critic at TimeOut New York. He is also President of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle - and sometimes graces the stage himself. On this episode we “review” the star system, tips on reaching a journalist, and unravel the mind of one of NYC’s most beloved critics.
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Adam Feldman is the Theater and Dance Editor and chief theater critic at Time Out New York, where he has been a staff writer since 2003. He has served as President of the New York Drama Critics' Circle since 2005. He has written for Canada's Globe and Mail and National Post as well as for Out, Time Out London and Broadway.com, among other publications, and was the contributing Broadway editor for the Theatre World book series. He has been a regular panelist on the public-television shows Theater Talk and Theater: All the Moving Parts; in 2024, he received the Friend of Off Broadway Award from the Off Broadway Alliance. A graduate of Harvard University, he lives in Greenwich Village.
Website: https://www.timeout.com/profile/adam-feldman
Broadway listings: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/broadway-shows-and-tickets-listings-a-z-broadway
Off Broadway listings: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/off-broadway-shows-new-york-theater-reviews-tickets-and-listings
Off-Off Broadway listings: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/off-off-broadway-shows-new-york-theater-reviews-tickets-and-listings
Dance listings: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/dance/the-best-dance-shows-in-nyc-this-month
Cabaret listings: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/nightlife/the-best-cabaret-shows-in-nyc-this-week
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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.
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<v Adam Feldman>When you're in theater, when you're, especially if you're a performer, you have to get up every night and do the thing.
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<v Adam Feldman>You have to believe in it.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that means you have to believe that someone who has disliked it is wrong, either because they made a mistake or because they're an idiot.
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<v Adam Feldman>And maybe sometime later, you can look back on it and maybe you'll still think that they're wrong and they're an idiot, or maybe you won't, especially if you've had something successful since then.
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<v Adam Feldman>But in the moment, you're gonna be hurt and angry, and I'm not gonna impose on that.
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<v Adam Feldman>I'm not gonna demand that you like me.
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<v Nancy Magarill>He is the National Theater and Dance Editor and Chief Theater Critic at Time Out New York.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>He is also President of the New York Drama Critics' Circle and sometimes graces the stage himself.
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<v Nancy Magarill>New York City Treasure Adam Feldman is our critically acclaimed guest on today's episode.
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<v Nancy Magarill>My name is Nancy Magarill.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I'm a singer, songwriter, composer, performer, graphic and web designer.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm Peter Michael Marino, and I'm a writer, producer, creator, performer and educator.
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<v Nancy Magarill>We are New York-based artists you may or may not have heard of.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And we are here to introduce you to other artists you may or may not have heard of.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>I was trying to remember, Adam, I think you once did one of my Desperately Seeking the Exit.
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<v Adam Feldman>I did.
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<v Adam Feldman>It was a great success.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Right.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And then you did that thing during during lockdown.
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<v Nancy Magarill>What do you mean he did one of?
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<v Nancy Magarill>What does that mean?
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<v Peter Michael Marino>So I got so bored doing my show that I would have other people do it, but I would break it up into five parts and then different people would take a different section.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>I believe Adam had the critics section of the show.
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<v Adam Feldman>No, I had the first part where I was.
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<v Adam Feldman>I was playing you and I was very ingenuous and excited.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>But you were also in that lockdown thing.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>I wrote a big essay called, I'm not watching your online theater show.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Oh my God.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>That like it was total satire and people of course thought it was real and of course attacked me and I loved it.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>So then I decided to do a reading of Adam and Adam and several others came on this thing called Zoom at the time and read that.
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<v Adam Feldman>The dark times.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, yeah.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>We never hang out in real life.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>I barely see you at shows.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Sometimes you post like, hey, I have tickets for a show in Chelsea tonight.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Let me know if you're available.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm the kind of person that's like, I need to know everything about the show before I can say, yes, I'm going to the show.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>So I never respond to those.
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<v Adam Feldman>Well, you're welcome to respond in the future or just I can put you on my list of people that I ask when I need to go to shows.
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<v Adam Feldman>There's going to be a lot coming up this March and April are brutal this year as always.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Why is it?
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<v Nancy Magarill>Cause a lot of things are opening?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yes.
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<v Adam Feldman>So the theater season basically peaks in two places, in late fall and then again in late March and April.
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<v Adam Feldman>It's really packed and the Broadway season is really packed into April.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that's because the Tony Awards cutoff date is at the end of April and everyone wants to open right at the end of that and stay fresh in mind.
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<v Adam Feldman>The result of that is you get sometimes as much as a third of the season packed into the last three or four weeks or more.
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<v Adam Feldman>So this year is a little less crazy than last year.
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<v Adam Feldman>Last year was the worst it's ever been.
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<v Adam Feldman>We had 12 shows opening in the last nine days of the season.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Oh my goodness.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that was crazy and impossible.
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<v Adam Feldman>This year, they've learned from that a little bit and it's stretched out a bit more through the month and through the end of March, but still not great.
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<v Adam Feldman>So it's going to be a busy time.
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<v Adam Feldman>And then, of course, the off-Broadway shows all know that that's happening in April.
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<v Adam Feldman>So they all open at the end of February and the beginning of March.
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<v Adam Feldman>So it ends up extending the super busy season for a few months in this.
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<v Adam Feldman>And then it drops out and there's nothing happening in the summer.
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<v Nancy Magarill>And everybody wants you there.
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<v Adam Feldman>Well, not me personally necessarily, but they want critics there.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I would think they would want you.
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<v Adam Feldman>Well, of course, they want me.
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<v Adam Feldman>But I mean, they want the first-string critics there.
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<v Adam Feldman>And sometimes there aren't enough of us to go around for the number of shows that are opening.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Do you ever have time to see stuff that you're not working for?
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<v Adam Feldman>Sure, I end up seeing a lot of shows that I don't review just for time reasons.
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<v Adam Feldman>Sometimes I just can't swing it in my schedule, but I've seen them and I've enjoyed them and I can consider them for prizes and I can use them to track the artists' progress through the years and the rest of it.
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<v Adam Feldman>And yeah, sometimes I'll go to encore shows or concerts or cabaret shows that I know I'm not going to be writing about because their runs aren't long enough.
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<v Adam Feldman>But yeah, did I just want to see what's up.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Can you actually relax and enjoy yourself and just enjoy a show?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yes.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Or is that critic always there?
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<v Adam Feldman>I enjoy it much more if I know that I'm not going to be writing about it, because I don't have to have my hackles out.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
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<v Adam Feldman>And also, to be fair, the things that I choose to go to are probably ones that are already more likely to be things that I'll enjoy because they're self-selected.
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<v Adam Feldman>They're not a total selection.
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<v Adam Feldman>As I've often said, being a theater critic is a great job in many ways, but it is a double-edged sword.
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<v Adam Feldman>I get to see everything that I want to see, and I get to see them for free and from great seats.
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<v Adam Feldman>And also, I have to see a lot of things that I would never otherwise see.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that can be a challenge because when you're seeing 150, 200, 250 shows a year, and you want to keep excited and enthusiastic and engaged, that can be a bit of a burnout challenge.
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<v Adam Feldman>No question.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Do you take notes during...
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Are you one of those people who takes notes or you just remember everything?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yes, yes, yes, I take notes.
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<v Adam Feldman>I take notes.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, how could you remember?
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<v Nancy Magarill>That would be impossible.
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<v Adam Feldman>Well, you know, they give us scripts for most shows, and that is a huge advance in reviewing technology because in the olden days, people had to really sort of be stenographers a lot of the time.
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<v Adam Feldman>And while you're busy trying to remember exactly the wording of the line you just heard, you're missing what's happening on stage.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that's always a bad thing.
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<v Adam Feldman>So I take notes.
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<v Adam Feldman>Luckily, I don't have to take verbatim dialogue notes.
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<v Adam Feldman>But I do take, I track my response to the show as is happening, whether I'm engaged, what's exciting, what seems to be catching fire, what audience response is like, whether the applause for a musical number seems like polite applause, you know, to mark the end of a number, or whether it seems like a genuine expression of enthusiasm, and you know, the enthusiasm bubbling over.
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<v Adam Feldman>Those are two different things, and you do get a sense of that when you're in the audience, and you do want to be part of an audience to let that happen.
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<v Adam Feldman>But you also sort of have to distance yourself a little bit from the audience reaction, in part because it's a press preview, the audiences are a little sweetened, they will have friends of the show there to lead standing innovations and the rest of it.
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<v Adam Feldman>And also because just because something is catching on with an audience at that moment, doesn't necessarily mean that it's great.
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<v Adam Feldman>And just because it's not doesn't mean it's bad.
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<v Adam Feldman>Sometimes, so you do have to retain a certain editorial independence, but you also don't want to forget that the live audience experience is part of what makes theater great.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Have you guys noticed that over the last, I'm going to say probably five plus years, that every show gets a standing ovation now?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, a lot of shows do.
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<v Adam Feldman>You know, what's funny is a lot of the best shows don't.
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<v Adam Feldman>You know, when a show has been really effective and interesting and intellectually stimulating and provocative and dark especially, you don't necessarily feel like leaping to your feet and going, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you're still in a bit of a stunned silence.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that, you know, it's, but yes, standing ovations have become much more common.
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<v Adam Feldman>You see this on television, you know, you see this in live audiences for events.
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<v Adam Feldman>People just stand up when the hosts come on, they stand up when every guest comes on.
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<v Adam Feldman>That's just the cultures changing a little bit.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Mick Jagger got one at the Oscars last night.
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<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Did you guys watch the Oscars?
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<v Adam Feldman>No.
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<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
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<v Nancy Magarill>It was wild.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I'm like, oh, Mick Jagger comes out and everybody just goes nuts.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Right.
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<v Adam Feldman>But anytime you're enthusiastic about anything, you stand up.
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<v Adam Feldman>I'm seeing more mid-show standing ovations recently, which was extremely rare until recently.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>They would hate that in the UK.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>They would hate that on the West End so much.
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<v Adam Feldman>Absolutely hate it.
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<v Adam Feldman>I saw it at Sunset Boulevard.
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<v Adam Feldman>I saw it at Color Purple.
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<v Adam Feldman>I saw it at Gypsy.
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<v Adam Feldman>It's happening, and it really was extremely rare.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I have to say, watching her in Sunset Boulevard sing for me was such an experience because I've never seen a singer pull in an audience so beautifully as she does with her voice without belting it out.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I mean, occasionally she does, but the control that she had and the way that she worked, every single song was so special for me to watch.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I thought that was beautiful.
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<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, I think she's terrific in it and also that particular part and in this particular production really plays to her strengths.
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<v Adam Feldman>It doesn't, she gets to use her stage performance as a singer, her experience as a concert singer in ways that actors don't usually get to do on stage because they have to be beholden to the character.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>I think she's actually also drawing from her experience as a pussycat doll and knowing how to work the audience.
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<v Adam Feldman>That's what I mean.
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<v Adam Feldman>Her experience as a concert singer, as a pop singer comes in really handy in this because the character in the production is kind of inside and outside of reality.
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<v Adam Feldman>And so she can relate to the audience in a different way.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>It was so sad to see the closing notice because in my mind I was like, how can Sunset Boulevard close?
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<v Peter Michael Marino>It just put someone else in it.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And some insider just told me recently like, no, it's her show and they're not doing it without her.
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<v Adam Feldman>It's her show and also it's not, it's never been a huge success of a show.
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<v Adam Feldman>It didn't make money in its first run, even though it ran for a couple of years.
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<v Adam Feldman>It didn't make money when Glenn brought it back for a few months for that concert version that they did at the Palace.
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<v Adam Feldman>And it's just not a beloved show really.
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<v Adam Feldman>It's not that great a show.
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<v Adam Feldman>I mean, it's a good show.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>So people are going to this one because it's an event, is that right?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yes.
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<v Adam Feldman>And Nicole is great in it.
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<v Adam Feldman>And I think the production is really smart, really interesting, a really good way to approach the limits of this material.
00:10:09.020 --> 00:10:12.260
<v Adam Feldman>But the material remains to some extent limited.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
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<v Nancy Magarill>You know, it's funny, we talk about this a lot about not wanting to criticize a show.
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<v Nancy Magarill>I don't have a problem with it.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Pete doesn't love to criticize.
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<v Nancy Magarill>Do you ever feel like guilty or weird about panning a show or do you ever pan a show?
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<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, I pan shows fairly often.
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<v Adam Feldman>I try to, you know, there's different ways of panning a show.
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<v Adam Feldman>You know, and I try to save my fire because there are certain kinds of reviews that people like to read that are sort of big slash and burn funny negative reviews.
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<v Adam Feldman>Everyone likes those.
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<v Adam Feldman>And you have to be careful with those because the temptation is to write them for everything that you don't like.
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<v Adam Feldman>And that's not fair.
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<v Adam Feldman>It's not fair to the artist and it's not really appropriate.
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<v Adam Feldman>Sometimes, you just, you know, bad theater is so boring and frustrating that you go out sometimes just feeling very angry that you've been through that experience, but you don't necessarily want to take that out.
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<v Adam Feldman>If you're a critic, you don't want to take that out on the production just because it didn't happen to work.
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<v Adam Feldman>If it's trying for something good and something new and something original, then, you know, you write about it in a different way.
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<v Adam Feldman>And if it just seems like a cash grab, you know, an IP cash grab, no offense, to Peter, you know, shows that use existing IP or shows that use existing catalogs of music or both, that is a higher, you know, if they work, then great.
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<v Adam Feldman>And I'm happy to say that they work.
00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:51.480
<v Adam Feldman>And if they don't work, then you can sort of feel free as a writer to be a little looser with your meanness because the goals are a little lower.
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<v Adam Feldman>So, you know, that's not to say that a lot of work hasn't gone into it.
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<v Adam Feldman>And everyone who's going, who's doing that show is trying, no one's trying to make a bad show.
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<v Adam Feldman>They're all trying to do their best, but it's just that, you know, you want to encourage people, you know, you want to encourage originality and interest and intellectual ambition as much as you can.
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<v Adam Feldman>And so you try to be a little nicer when those are concerned.
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<v Adam Feldman>Do I feel bad?
00:12:11.660 --> 00:12:14.120
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, I feel bad all the time, but also it's my job.
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<v Adam Feldman>So it's my job to absorb that feeling.
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<v Adam Feldman>Bad is the price I pay for doing my job, because I think if I didn't feel bad, I would be a sociopath and I would be, you know, more likely to be unfair, I think, to the ecology in general.
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<v Adam Feldman>And also, I think the type of person who could be just completely ruthless all the time is not necessarily the kind of person who can respond to theater in the humanity that it requires.
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<v Peter Michael Marino>And talk a little bit about, and I don't know if this, actually, this probably ties in to the meanness or non meanness, that Time Out, you know, changed the parameters of the Star system, right?
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<v Peter Michael Marino>So, and I believe Time Out is, is Time Out the only American publication that still uses the Star system?
00:13:03.040 --> 00:13:05.200
<v Adam Feldman>I think The Post still does.
00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:05.760
<v Adam Feldman>Oh.
00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:06.560
<v Adam Feldman>And they're-
00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:07.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>Do they review theater?
00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:08.180
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:13:08.180 --> 00:13:11.500
<v Adam Feldman>I think Johnny Olksynski still writes reviews for them.
00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:15.920
<v Adam Feldman>He's their general entertainment reporter, but he does write theater reviews.
00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:18.180
<v Adam Feldman>He's very opinionated, sharply opinionated.
00:13:18.180 --> 00:13:18.480
<v Adam Feldman>Yes.
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.260
<v Adam Feldman>The Star system is helpful in some ways.
00:13:21.260 --> 00:13:26.680
<v Adam Feldman>It's a sort of, it lets readers know immediately what they're in for in the review.
00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:32.220
<v Adam Feldman>It's also limiting in some ways, especially since we don't have half stars, and so that's always been a bit frustrating.
00:13:32.280 --> 00:13:33.100
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:39.980
<v Adam Feldman>The history of stars at Time Out is a very particular one, and it would be too long and boring to go into right now.
00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:47.480
<v Adam Feldman>I'm going to write something about it, I think this week, explaining how it's changed and why and what the ratings mean now.
00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:57.560
<v Adam Feldman>But the short version is, until fairly recently, we had a five-star system and the four or five-star reviews would get a recommendation check.
00:13:57.560 --> 00:14:03.000
<v Adam Feldman>Now, we still have a five-star system, but the three-star reviews also get a recommendation check.
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:08.740
<v Adam Feldman>But what that looks like on paper is that we have just made our standards easier for recommendation.
00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:10.580
<v Adam Feldman>That's not actually what it means.
00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:19.340
<v Adam Feldman>What it means is that what used to be a four-star review, what used to have to be four stars if we were recommending it, now can be either three or four stars and still recommending it.
00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:25.320
<v Adam Feldman>Anything that we don't recommend, we simply don't assign what would formerly have been one, two, or three stars to, and we have more.
00:14:25.400 --> 00:14:26.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>One, two, or three.
00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:28.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>So if you want to give a show a three-star review.
00:14:28.780 --> 00:14:30.400
<v Adam Feldman>What used to be a three-star review.
00:14:30.400 --> 00:14:32.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>You don't see those three stars anymore.
00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:33.640
<v Adam Feldman>No, you see three stars now.
00:14:33.640 --> 00:14:34.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, you do?
00:14:34.140 --> 00:14:35.560
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, but it's a recommended review.
00:14:35.780 --> 00:14:38.300
<v Adam Feldman>What it really is doing is it's...
00:14:38.300 --> 00:14:39.720
<v Adam Feldman>The problem with the five-star...
00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:41.560
<v Adam Feldman>Okay, I'll just give you what happened.
00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:46.460
<v Adam Feldman>You know, when TimeOut introduced the system and the Aughts, it was a six-star system.
00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:49.580
<v Adam Feldman>They decided, you know, someone decided, oh, we'll be our own thing.
00:14:49.580 --> 00:14:50.500
<v Adam Feldman>We'll have six stars.
00:14:50.900 --> 00:14:53.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>And this is also because it was based in the UK originally.
00:14:54.540 --> 00:14:56.020
<v Adam Feldman>No, it was unusual in the UK too.
00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:57.480
<v Adam Feldman>No one has six stars.
00:14:57.880 --> 00:15:02.460
<v Adam Feldman>They decided that to distinguish themselves, they would have six stars.
00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:04.280
<v Adam Feldman>And there were no half stars.
00:15:04.280 --> 00:15:10.620
<v Adam Feldman>And so if it was above the median point, which was, you know, four, five or six, it would be recommended.
00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:13.060
<v Adam Feldman>And if it was below that, it would be not recommended.
00:15:13.060 --> 00:15:16.960
<v Adam Feldman>But then they got a lot of criticism for the sixth star.
00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:20.680
<v Adam Feldman>And so they eliminated the sixth star, but the threshold for recommendation remained four.
00:15:22.400 --> 00:15:23.880
<v Adam Feldman>You know, it was now always out of five.
00:15:23.880 --> 00:15:27.480
<v Adam Feldman>Now, if you give something five stars, what you mean is it's one of the best things of the year.
00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:36.140
<v Adam Feldman>So then there was this vast territory covered by things that you recommend, whether you recommend them very enthusiastically or just sort of slightly.
00:15:36.140 --> 00:15:38.300
<v Adam Feldman>And that was all, that all looked like four stars.
00:15:38.300 --> 00:15:40.840
<v Adam Feldman>And so we ended up getting a lot of four star reviews.
00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:43.120
<v Adam Feldman>That wasn't particularly, I think, great.
00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:55.220
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, it was great for advertisers who could use four, you know, four stars for a wide assortment of shows, but it was frustrating for, you know, for those of us who wanted to indicate some level of difference in enthusiasm.
00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:57.640
<v Adam Feldman>And so now that's been modified.
00:15:57.640 --> 00:16:01.900
<v Adam Feldman>And basically the three and four stars cover what used to be only covered by four stars.
00:16:01.900 --> 00:16:08.460
<v Adam Feldman>And the difference is that we don't say, when it's not recommended, we don't say one or two or two and a half stars, whatever.
00:16:08.460 --> 00:16:10.000
<v Adam Feldman>We just don't put stars on it.
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:11.520
<v Adam Feldman>It's like the Michelin Guide or whatever.
00:16:11.520 --> 00:16:13.860
<v Adam Feldman>It's like either you get stars or you don't.
00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:21.740
<v Adam Feldman>Except that the star system starts at three through five, instead of being one through three, because it just looks wrong to have, three stars doesn't look like the top rating.
00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:22.340
<v Adam Feldman>That's all.
00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:27.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>There's a theory in the Edinburgh Fringe, which is very big on stars.
00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:33.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>A lot of the Scottish papers still use stars, and independent writers use stars.
00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>Every year, let's get rid of the star system.
00:16:36.020 --> 00:16:37.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>The star system's terrible.
00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:38.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>Let's get rid of the star system.
00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:42.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then like that August, the whole festival is full of stars everywhere.
00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:46.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, you don't like the star system until you get five.
00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:48.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>I see how this argument works.
00:16:48.780 --> 00:16:59.980
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, it's frustrating for me as a writer, because often, because we're one of the only people using stars, often my review will be reduced to four stars, says Adam Feldman of Time Out.
00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:12.540
<v Adam Feldman>And in fact, I've worked really hard to craft a clever and, I hope, insightful review, and it ends up just getting reduced to these little icons.
00:17:12.540 --> 00:17:15.340
<v Nancy Magarill>But for the show and for the ad company, it's great.
00:17:15.340 --> 00:17:17.100
<v Adam Feldman>Yep, it's easy at shorthand.
00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:19.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>Sometimes it's hard to get a pull quote, even from a good review.
00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:25.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>I have a client now who has a great review, and I'm like, I have looked over this thing 25 times.
00:17:25.320 --> 00:17:26.700
<v Peter Michael Marino>There is no pull quote.
00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:28.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>There's nothing you can use.
00:17:28.520 --> 00:17:31.440
<v Adam Feldman>And I know that sometimes my review, my language, but you know what?
00:17:31.560 --> 00:17:33.940
<v Adam Feldman>On the times when I've written something and I've said, oh, you know what?
00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:37.240
<v Adam Feldman>This is going to be 100% what they pull, they never pull.
00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:38.380
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, really?
00:17:38.380 --> 00:17:41.000
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, like I love SpongeBob SquarePants.
00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:47.100
<v Adam Feldman>I gave them 20 things to quote from me, and they quoted something I couldn't believe that they pulled from me.
00:17:47.100 --> 00:17:49.680
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you're going to go to your deathbed remembering what that was.
00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:53.920
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, I mean, it was just, I was like, come on, guys.
00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:57.700
<v Adam Feldman>I just said the thing right out loud.
00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:18.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think, I mean, we talked about this with another guest, but again, going back to Edinburgh, you know, the thing you really want is to get a one star review and a five star review or a series of twos and fours or ones and fives, because that suddenly makes your show, I guess they call it Marmite shows over there, right?
00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:21.360
<v Peter Michael Marino>Suddenly it's like, well, I'm either going to love it or hate it.
00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:23.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>I look forward to both.
00:18:23.540 --> 00:18:32.760
<v Adam Feldman>They don't call it Marmite shows here, but yeah, I think a niche show, an acquired taste, whatever you want to call it.
00:18:32.760 --> 00:18:42.760
<v Adam Feldman>There are certain shows that really play very well with a small group of audience members, sometimes for reasons that I share, sometimes for reasons that I don't.
00:18:42.760 --> 00:18:53.140
<v Adam Feldman>But a lot of the best work, for example, that goes on a lot of the most inventive, most interesting and innovative work is in these very small off-off houses.
00:18:53.140 --> 00:18:58.220
<v Adam Feldman>That's partly because they work mainly from grant money and not from ticket sales.
00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:04.160
<v Adam Feldman>But also the audience for that kind of work is fairly small.
00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:12.620
<v Adam Feldman>You can't really put that on stage at the Imperial and expect 1,700 people to show up for it.
00:19:12.620 --> 00:19:13.420
<v Adam Feldman>They won't like it.
00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:15.400
<v Adam Feldman>It's not meant for that kind of audience.
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:16.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>Unless you're O'Mary.
00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:17.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think they broke them all.
00:19:17.420 --> 00:19:18.540
<v Adam Feldman>O'Mary is not experimental.
00:19:18.540 --> 00:19:20.920
<v Adam Feldman>O'Mary is extremely accessible.
00:19:20.940 --> 00:19:25.260
<v Nancy Magarill>Do you think they thought it was when they were developing it though?
00:19:25.700 --> 00:19:26.580
<v Adam Feldman>I don't think that.
00:19:26.580 --> 00:19:27.620
<v Adam Feldman>I think they hoped it was.
00:19:28.220 --> 00:19:30.380
<v Adam Feldman>But I don't think anyone really knew.
00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:36.200
<v Adam Feldman>That said, when it was at the Lucio Lortel, it had some mighty big producer names already attached to it.
00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:38.580
<v Adam Feldman>So they knew that it had potential.
00:19:38.580 --> 00:19:41.320
<v Adam Feldman>And they just sort of had to see if it actually went over the way they hoped.
00:19:41.320 --> 00:19:41.920
<v Adam Feldman>And it did.
00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:45.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>I guess I'm always wondering what was it before the Lortel?
00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:46.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>Where was that?
00:19:46.220 --> 00:19:47.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Was it just a workshop?
00:19:47.520 --> 00:19:53.260
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, I've been following Cole's career for 15 years.
00:19:53.260 --> 00:19:54.100
<v Adam Feldman>Cole has always been...
00:19:54.940 --> 00:19:59.140
<v Adam Feldman>Everyone knows that Cole is brilliant and hilarious.
00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:03.240
<v Adam Feldman>And it was just a matter of the right vehicle capturing that.
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:05.520
<v Adam Feldman>And Cole had to write it himself.
00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:11.560
<v Adam Feldman>But it went bigger than anyone, I think, imagined including Cole.
00:20:11.600 --> 00:20:17.800
<v Adam Feldman>Like, it just caught a wave, and it's wildly successful.
00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:22.320
<v Adam Feldman>Because it's very funny, and it's silly, and it works.
00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:31.320
<v Adam Feldman>And I just saw it with Betty Gilpin, and she's very different from Cole, and she's hilarious in it, and strange and interesting, and still very funny.
00:20:31.320 --> 00:20:38.540
<v Nancy Magarill>And you know, it's so great that they did that, because friends of mine and I who had seen it together, we were like, how is this gonna move past him?
00:20:38.540 --> 00:20:41.220
<v Nancy Magarill>And doing that casting choice was brilliant.
00:20:41.420 --> 00:20:46.780
<v Adam Feldman>Yes, and then Titus, you know, this show is gonna go like gangbusters in colleges and regional theater.
00:20:46.780 --> 00:20:52.420
<v Adam Feldman>Every like local meeting lady in America is gonna wanna play this part.
00:20:52.420 --> 00:20:53.920
<v Adam Feldman>It's, you know.
00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.800
<v Nancy Magarill>I mean, there are a lot of parts in that show that are really fun.
00:20:56.800 --> 00:21:03.120
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, and it's stageable, because it's deliberately set up on this kind of community theater looking set.
00:21:03.120 --> 00:21:06.380
<v Adam Feldman>So it's gonna be great for community theaters.
00:21:06.380 --> 00:21:07.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>I can't wait.
00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:07.900
<v Nancy Magarill>I hope so.
00:21:08.020 --> 00:21:09.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>The audiences are gonna flip out.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, good for them.
00:21:12.120 --> 00:21:16.120
<v Nancy Magarill>It's a very unusual show to play in community theaters, but it'll be fun to see it.
00:21:16.120 --> 00:21:17.940
<v Adam Feldman>It is, but it's just so funny and silly.
00:21:17.940 --> 00:21:20.760
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, you need people who are really good.
00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:21.920
<v Adam Feldman>This is the problem.
00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:27.340
<v Adam Feldman>If it's not produced and directed and acted very well, maybe it won't work at all.
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:29.720
<v Adam Feldman>But you know, it'll be an opportunity.
00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:32.060
<v Adam Feldman>I'm very curious to see how this will go over.
00:21:32.060 --> 00:21:33.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>Adam, you're a kid in Canada.
00:21:33.660 --> 00:21:34.740
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're growing up.
00:21:34.740 --> 00:21:37.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm imagining you're liking the arts and stuff.
00:21:37.760 --> 00:21:39.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then somehow you become amazing.
00:21:39.600 --> 00:21:41.620
<v Adam Feldman>You can just say gay.
00:21:41.620 --> 00:21:44.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're a big old gay.
00:21:44.040 --> 00:21:45.260
<v Peter Michael Marino>Canadian gay.
00:21:45.260 --> 00:21:47.120
<v Nancy Magarill>Wait, gay and Jewish.
00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:52.020
<v Nancy Magarill>I love that we both glommed on to the things we identify with.
00:21:52.040 --> 00:21:58.580
<v Adam Feldman>I was a gay Jewish kid in Montreal, in the Anglo minority in Montreal.
00:21:58.580 --> 00:22:03.840
<v Adam Feldman>So I have this weird, you know, inside-outside relationship to a lot of things.
00:22:03.840 --> 00:22:05.980
<v Adam Feldman>And I think that's been useful as a critic.
00:22:06.860 --> 00:22:17.560
<v Adam Feldman>You know, I think probably people look at me and say, oh, that's a cis, white, middle-aged now, you know, guy.
00:22:17.560 --> 00:22:19.200
<v Adam Feldman>That seems pretty establishment-y.
00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:27.280
<v Adam Feldman>And yet, also sort of gay Jewish and immigrant, you know.
00:22:27.280 --> 00:22:40.080
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, and of course, being an immigrant from Canada, you know, who came here, you know, through Harvard is not the same as being a refugee from third world.
00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:40.660
<v Nancy Magarill>Absolutely.
00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:44.740
<v Adam Feldman>But it is also not the same as being a natural born American citizen.
00:22:45.120 --> 00:22:49.380
<v Adam Feldman>It has shaped a lot of decisions that I've made in my life in very significant ways.
00:22:49.380 --> 00:22:52.280
<v Nancy Magarill>And you have an out that we don't have.
00:22:52.280 --> 00:22:52.840
<v Adam Feldman>That's true.
00:22:52.840 --> 00:22:54.460
<v Adam Feldman>I can always run home to my parents.
00:22:54.460 --> 00:22:56.120
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:22:56.120 --> 00:22:59.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>But how did you, did you go to Harvard to study writing?
00:22:59.760 --> 00:23:01.680
<v Adam Feldman>No, I went, I went as an undergraduate.
00:23:01.800 --> 00:23:05.440
<v Adam Feldman>So I was, I thought that I was going to be in government.
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:06.340
<v Adam Feldman>That's what I thought I was going to be.
00:23:06.340 --> 00:23:07.860
<v Adam Feldman>I was a big debater in high school.
00:23:07.860 --> 00:23:12.200
<v Adam Feldman>And I thought, well, that's seems like it's going to be, you know, I'll go, I'll be a lawyer and I'll go into politics.
00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:13.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, wow.
00:23:13.820 --> 00:23:17.380
<v Adam Feldman>And then I spent a couple of years there doing that track basically.
00:23:17.380 --> 00:23:18.600
<v Adam Feldman>And I didn't like it.
00:23:18.600 --> 00:23:19.760
<v Adam Feldman>I didn't like the people in it.
00:23:19.760 --> 00:23:21.260
<v Adam Feldman>I didn't like the material.
00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:24.540
<v Adam Feldman>I liked my English electives.
00:23:24.540 --> 00:23:28.340
<v Adam Feldman>And I liked the theater that I was doing on the side extracurricularly.
00:23:28.340 --> 00:23:31.240
<v Adam Feldman>And I thought, well, maybe I can do a double concentration.
00:23:31.760 --> 00:23:37.360
<v Adam Feldman>And write something about the language of constitutional law or something like that.
00:23:37.360 --> 00:23:40.340
<v Adam Feldman>But the government department was very difficult about it.
00:23:40.340 --> 00:23:44.100
<v Adam Feldman>And so eventually I just ended up switching my major to English in my junior year.
00:23:44.100 --> 00:23:48.260
<v Adam Feldman>So then I had to really cram in a lot of courses in the last couple of years that I was there.
00:23:48.260 --> 00:23:55.420
<v Adam Feldman>But oddly enough, or not oddly, a lot of the coursework that I ended up doing was in dramatic literature because that was something I was interested in.
00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:59.380
<v Adam Feldman>And I wrote my junior and senior thesis on theater stuff.
00:23:59.580 --> 00:24:09.640
<v Adam Feldman>And so I'm one of the people, one of the rare people in the world who actually actively uses their English degree from college in everyday life.
00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:11.860
<v Adam Feldman>But it worked out, so that worked out nicely.
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.540
<v Adam Feldman>I didn't plan to be a critic, but it just sort of wound up that way.
00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:20.520
<v Adam Feldman>And now I'm grateful to have had some of the classes that I had.
00:24:20.520 --> 00:24:22.900
<v Peter Michael Marino>How many years have you been reviewing for Time Out?
00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:24.820
<v Adam Feldman>For Time Out since 2003.
00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:30.180
<v Adam Feldman>So, that's 20 years, coming up on 22 years.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:33.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>And the before times, before 2003?
00:24:33.280 --> 00:24:42.440
<v Adam Feldman>Well, I started writing on the side for a place called Show Business Weekly, which was sort of a backstage-like publication in the late 90s.
00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:46.120
<v Adam Feldman>And I started doing that for free, and then on the side of this job that I had.
00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:52.360
<v Adam Feldman>And then I started writing for broadway.com, which at that point still had reviews.
00:24:52.360 --> 00:24:53.820
<v Adam Feldman>And then I moved to Time Out.
00:24:54.420 --> 00:25:01.120
<v Adam Feldman>At this point, I'm the longest-tenured critic in New York, at a major publication in New York.
00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:02.640
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:05.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is the first time someone has gotten an applause on our podcast.
00:25:05.780 --> 00:25:06.520
<v Adam Feldman>It's exciting.
00:25:06.520 --> 00:25:07.080
<v Adam Feldman>Thank you.
00:25:07.080 --> 00:25:07.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm not standing.
00:25:07.860 --> 00:25:08.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm not standing, Adam.
00:25:08.600 --> 00:25:09.100
<v Adam Feldman>No, no.
00:25:09.100 --> 00:25:14.260
<v Nancy Magarill>Have you thought about moving into podcasting and doing reviews online in that way?
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:16.500
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:19.720
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, it might be interesting.
00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:22.060
<v Adam Feldman>But podcasting isn't the same as reviewing.
00:25:22.380 --> 00:25:25.720
<v Adam Feldman>Reviewing is very compressed and careful.
00:25:26.460 --> 00:25:39.800
<v Adam Feldman>You're writing something that you want to, there's something a bit lapidary about, you're carving in stone your opinion and you want that to be, you want to be careful with that stuff.
00:25:39.800 --> 00:25:46.360
<v Adam Feldman>Podcasting or even to some extent, talking on the Internet is a little looser and you can be a little freer with your opinions.
00:25:46.360 --> 00:25:50.900
<v Adam Feldman>Also, you can range a little outside the limits of the particular project that you're looking at.
00:25:51.360 --> 00:26:00.660
<v Adam Feldman>If I did a podcast and I think it might be fun, I would like to just do it with someone else who was interested in theater and we can go in any direction it took us and have guests and whatnot.
00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:05.240
<v Adam Feldman>But I wouldn't necessarily want it to be an hour of us reviewing things.
00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:08.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>That also seems like it goes at odds with your regular job.
00:26:08.540 --> 00:26:16.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like you might write a great article or a great review about a show, and then you're going to talk about it and then, I don't know, that just seems slippery-sloppy.
00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:17.060
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:26:17.280 --> 00:26:18.200
<v Adam Feldman>I'd rather that my review-
00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:20.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>More of a chance for spoilers, more of a chance for-
00:26:20.760 --> 00:26:21.320
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:26:21.320 --> 00:26:22.240
<v Adam Feldman>I hate spoilers.
00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:25.540
<v Adam Feldman>I really avoid them, I hope, like vague.
00:26:26.520 --> 00:26:29.560
<v Adam Feldman>I get mad at them when I see them in other people's writing.
00:26:29.560 --> 00:26:32.580
<v Adam Feldman>People sometimes will put them in inadvertently.
00:26:32.760 --> 00:26:36.740
<v Adam Feldman>They'll put it in the form of raising a question that you would never have raised before.
00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:40.040
<v Adam Feldman>They'll be like, or they'll say, you know, this heartbreaking new play.
00:26:40.040 --> 00:26:44.460
<v Adam Feldman>If you say it's heartbreaking, then you know the ending.
00:26:44.460 --> 00:26:45.220
<v Adam Feldman>Don't say that.
00:26:45.560 --> 00:26:46.560
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.
00:26:46.560 --> 00:26:51.700
<v Nancy Magarill>I hate knowing anything about a show actually before I go to see it, or a movie or anything like that.
00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:53.520
<v Nancy Magarill>I really love surprise.
00:26:53.520 --> 00:26:56.020
<v Nancy Magarill>I love not knowing anything I'm going to see.
00:26:56.020 --> 00:26:57.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>When does that happen for you?
00:26:57.940 --> 00:26:59.860
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, Nancy, I know that happens for you.
00:27:00.300 --> 00:27:01.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>You embrace that.
00:27:01.420 --> 00:27:02.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're open to that.
00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:03.120
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, I totally embrace that.
00:27:03.120 --> 00:27:05.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like I said earlier, I need to know.
00:27:05.080 --> 00:27:06.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>When does it happen for you, Adam?
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:10.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or when's the last time you just walked into something not knowing much?
00:27:10.060 --> 00:27:12.140
<v Adam Feldman>I walk into things not knowing much all the time.
00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:25.000
<v Adam Feldman>I write the listings, so I know a little bit, because I don't want to just reproduce the press release, so I paraphrase and in doing so, I'll end up reading the press release closely, maybe doing a little side research on some of the artists involved.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:33.900
<v Adam Feldman>But I really try not to know very much at all about new works, and I try to know quite a lot about revivals.
00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:50.660
<v Adam Feldman>It's helpful that part of my academic study and also part of my personal interests have focused on the history of dramatic literature, and especially things that get revived a lot like Shakespeare, and Tennessee Williams, and certain musicals.
00:27:51.740 --> 00:27:53.760
<v Adam Feldman>I know those things pretty well.
00:27:54.020 --> 00:28:06.840
<v Adam Feldman>I think that part of your job when you're writing a review of a revival is to place it in historical context and to talk about how it's in conversation with productions before them, including ones that you've seen.
00:28:06.840 --> 00:28:17.020
<v Adam Feldman>As you get older as a critic, that's one advantage to getting older, is that you have more personal experience with previous productions and you can make those comparisons with a bit more personal credibility.
00:28:17.020 --> 00:28:29.780
<v Adam Feldman>But yeah, I mean, when I'm reviewing a revival, it will tend to be more about the performances and direction that make that revival different from previous ones and less on whether I think that Macbeth is a good play.
00:28:29.780 --> 00:28:33.520
<v Nancy Magarill>What is the criteria for you to go review something?
00:28:33.520 --> 00:28:37.920
<v Adam Feldman>I review everything on Broadway and I review, or I try to review.
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:41.460
<v Adam Feldman>I go to pretty much everything that's big off Broadway.
00:28:41.460 --> 00:28:47.860
<v Adam Feldman>I don't have very much time to see things that are off off, but I do when I can or when there's some particular project that's interesting to me.
00:28:47.860 --> 00:28:51.300
<v Adam Feldman>I just saw the Barbarians last week at La Mama, which I thought was great.
00:28:51.300 --> 00:28:52.540
<v Adam Feldman>Unfortunately, it's already closed.
00:28:52.540 --> 00:28:59.220
<v Adam Feldman>So that's the problem with the off off is that by the time you see it, there's only a week left and there's only so much you can do for it.
00:28:59.220 --> 00:29:00.140
<v Adam Feldman>But I'm glad that I saw it.
00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:02.060
<v Adam Feldman>I'm glad I saw those artists and I enjoyed it.
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:04.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>You see stuff at BAM and St.
00:29:04.220 --> 00:29:04.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>Anne's Warehouse.
00:29:04.980 --> 00:29:07.300
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:09.560
<v Adam Feldman>I don't write about all of it.
00:29:09.900 --> 00:29:10.840
<v Adam Feldman>I'm changing.
00:29:10.840 --> 00:29:13.500
<v Adam Feldman>This is something I'll be writing about again in the week ahead.
00:29:13.500 --> 00:29:21.080
<v Adam Feldman>As I, when I write this thing about the star system, I'm also going to be laying out some new approaches for myself in the way I do this.
00:29:21.080 --> 00:29:30.620
<v Adam Feldman>Because I think that what I'm going to be doing this year going forward is writing short reviews of everything that I see off Broadway, positive or negative, and they will just simply be short, they'll be shorter reviews.
00:29:30.620 --> 00:29:34.000
<v Adam Feldman>That there's a long history and reasons for that as well.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:45.980
<v Adam Feldman>But the short version of that is there isn't time for me to do all the listings and all of the articles and still also write long reviews for every show I see.
00:29:45.980 --> 00:29:46.920
<v Adam Feldman>It's not possible.
00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:51.900
<v Adam Feldman>And when we started Time Out, most of our reviews were very short because we were writing for print.
00:29:51.900 --> 00:29:54.480
<v Adam Feldman>And we had specific limits.
00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:57.560
<v Adam Feldman>So we would write two paragraph reviews for huge shows all the time.
00:29:57.560 --> 00:30:10.840
<v Adam Feldman>And now we've sort of drifted because of the internet and other things we've sort of drifted into, I've sort of drifted into writing much longer reviews, which I like doing, but is not sustainable when it comes to these, the number of shows that I'm writing and the other things that I'm doing.
00:30:10.840 --> 00:30:24.920
<v Adam Feldman>Because every listing that you see on the website is a separate page that I have created with the full schedule and with the photographs and with blurbs and, you know, takes an enormous amount of time to assign.
00:30:25.040 --> 00:30:27.420
<v Nancy Magarill>I was going to ask you, how long does that take?
00:30:27.420 --> 00:30:29.660
<v Adam Feldman>It takes an enormous amount of time to assemble.
00:30:31.020 --> 00:30:36.040
<v Adam Feldman>And it's invisible and I'm glad to do it, but it does bite into it.
00:30:36.040 --> 00:30:41.000
<v Adam Feldman>And I've been really pushing recently to have bigger, fuller listings pages again.
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:49.200
<v Adam Feldman>And I hope that people do go, you know, just bookmark these pages for Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, Dance, and go visit those pages every week and see what's playing.
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:53.020
<v Adam Feldman>And that will help traffic because ultimately I'm going to, you know, they can see what the traffic is.
00:30:53.140 --> 00:30:58.620
<v Adam Feldman>And if there isn't any traffic, then at some point they're going to come to me and say, why are you doing this?
00:30:58.620 --> 00:31:13.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm so glad you said that, Adam, because when I teach my little press release workshops and I use you as an example, because you're someone I know and someone everybody knows, but I say, look, Adam's publisher needs to say, good job, a lot of people clicked on this thing today.
00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:22.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>So if you're giving him shit images, bad descriptions, incorrect information, that's not going to, that's not helping anybody.
00:31:22.460 --> 00:31:23.660
<v Nancy Magarill>It doesn't help anyone, right?
00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:35.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, you know, and I also, Adam, tell folks, I mean, look, most of the folks I'm talking to are not off-Broadway, you know, they're not Broadway or off-Broadway, so it's very not likely they're going to be reaching out to you, although some of them might have.
00:31:35.320 --> 00:31:38.460
<v Peter Michael Marino>So, you know, I say, Adam is an artist.
00:31:38.460 --> 00:31:39.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's just like you.
00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:40.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's just like us.
00:31:40.600 --> 00:31:46.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I don't think, as artists, we are so used to banging on the door and hoping someone will listen.
00:31:46.620 --> 00:31:52.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>I say, try to approach press people and media people with the idea that you're giving them a gift.
00:31:52.940 --> 00:31:54.900
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're giving them great content.
00:31:54.900 --> 00:31:57.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're giving them clear information.
00:31:57.320 --> 00:32:01.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're providing them with an awesome photo with the name of the photographer.
00:32:01.100 --> 00:32:01.460
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:04.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Just think of it as a gift and be a good gift giver.
00:32:04.320 --> 00:32:05.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Do you think that's?
00:32:05.140 --> 00:32:06.020
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, I think that is.
00:32:06.020 --> 00:32:07.100
<v Adam Feldman>I think that is true.
00:32:07.100 --> 00:32:15.360
<v Adam Feldman>You know, obviously, everyone who's working on something, you know, wants to have press about it.
00:32:15.900 --> 00:32:16.880
<v Adam Feldman>And I understand that.
00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:19.120
<v Adam Feldman>I also, you know, it's a volume issue.
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:23.780
<v Adam Feldman>And I can't cover everything even if I even if I wanted to.
00:32:23.780 --> 00:32:24.880
<v Adam Feldman>And I don't want to.
00:32:25.040 --> 00:32:31.060
<v Adam Feldman>And there would be no point in my doing so because it's not of great interest to everyone.
00:32:31.060 --> 00:32:32.820
<v Adam Feldman>So I do have to make some calls.
00:32:32.820 --> 00:32:39.780
<v Adam Feldman>And I, you know, but I am trying to be much more, you know, last year, I wasn't listening as many off off shows.
00:32:39.780 --> 00:32:43.340
<v Adam Feldman>I really I'm trying this year to to get that back.
00:32:43.340 --> 00:32:46.340
<v Adam Feldman>But I need to be helped by the productions.
00:32:46.380 --> 00:32:55.880
<v Adam Feldman>People don't have, I'm not expecting people to have beautiful, expensive production photographs, but they should at least have head shots and they should send them to me.
00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:02.340
<v Adam Feldman>A lot of the time that goes into these pages is not even creating the pages, which, you know, for each event, which again, takes a lot of time.
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:05.860
<v Adam Feldman>It's getting in touch with people hunting back and forth.
00:33:05.860 --> 00:33:07.020
<v Adam Feldman>You know, can you send me this photo?
00:33:07.020 --> 00:33:08.240
<v Adam Feldman>Can it be a better photo?
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:09.700
<v Adam Feldman>Can you send me the photographer credit?
00:33:09.780 --> 00:33:10.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh boy, that's a big one.
00:33:10.820 --> 00:33:13.280
<v Adam Feldman>And it's just so many things.
00:33:13.280 --> 00:33:24.420
<v Nancy Magarill>So what are all the items, if we could tell our listeners what the items are that you want them to give you besides a great photo, the photographer, what are all the things that you wish people would give you right off the bat?
00:33:24.420 --> 00:33:26.360
<v Adam Feldman>Send me the dates that it's performing.
00:33:26.360 --> 00:33:28.720
<v Adam Feldman>You know, send me where it's performing.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:30.720
<v Adam Feldman>Send me the website to buy tickets.
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:32.640
<v Adam Feldman>Send me how much the tickets cost.
00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:34.640
<v Adam Feldman>Send me who the major artists are in it.
00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:44.400
<v Adam Feldman>You know, ideally with some indication, you know, if you're sending me, if you are sending me, sometimes people will send me a page full of all the headshots of the cast, that's great and I appreciate it.
00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:52.400
<v Adam Feldman>If they don't have a different photo, but sometimes I just, you know, when I'm looking at 10 photos, I don't know who is, which photo to use.
00:33:52.840 --> 00:34:04.040
<v Adam Feldman>So if you're, if this is a show about a woman who goes home to rediscover a thing, they tell me who's playing that woman, you know, which is who are the actors that I should be, you know, focusing on.
00:34:04.040 --> 00:34:07.380
<v Adam Feldman>So I'm not using a photo of someone who's playing a waiter in one scene.
00:34:07.420 --> 00:34:12.660
<v Adam Feldman>I don't have to dig that up through looking through their like, I seriously, cause I want to do that, right?
00:34:12.660 --> 00:34:16.340
<v Adam Feldman>So I will end up going to people's Facebook pages and looking if they said that they were, they're playing.
00:34:16.340 --> 00:34:18.500
<v Adam Feldman>Like I shouldn't have to do that.
00:34:18.500 --> 00:34:19.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's so true.
00:34:19.520 --> 00:34:20.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's true.
00:34:20.640 --> 00:34:25.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, it's just said, I've done it on my end before sending stuff to folks like you.
00:34:25.100 --> 00:34:26.460
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm, I'm doing that.
00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:29.460
<v Peter Michael Marino>And it's, it's, it's just like, it's really exhausting.
00:34:29.460 --> 00:34:33.000
<v Adam Feldman>Send me that information and give me, give me a reason.
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:34.880
<v Adam Feldman>Oh, give me something to run with.
00:34:35.020 --> 00:34:39.600
<v Adam Feldman>You know, sometimes people will be so coy in the press release.
00:34:39.600 --> 00:34:50.180
<v Adam Feldman>They don't want to give away what the play is about, but they'll just be like a journey into language and the process of home discovery.
00:34:50.180 --> 00:34:52.260
<v Adam Feldman>And you're just like, well, I don't know what that is.
00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:54.180
<v Adam Feldman>And I'm not going to just copy and paste your language.
00:34:54.180 --> 00:34:57.540
<v Adam Feldman>So I'm going to have to paraphrase it in some way that will probably be wrong.
00:34:57.540 --> 00:34:58.760
<v Adam Feldman>And I don't want to do that.
00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:00.240
<v Adam Feldman>Give me something to work with.
00:35:00.240 --> 00:35:02.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>When have people given you a hard time?
00:35:02.580 --> 00:35:03.720
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like in what instances?
00:35:04.180 --> 00:35:04.840
<v Nancy Magarill>Have they?
00:35:04.840 --> 00:35:07.000
<v Adam Feldman>No, usually they don't.
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:12.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, I mean, like you're a social guy, you review people's shows, those people go to club clubbing.
00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:13.320
<v Adam Feldman>For that, yeah.
00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:13.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, yeah.
00:35:14.020 --> 00:35:15.640
<v Adam Feldman>Sometimes I get, I find them for listings.
00:35:15.640 --> 00:35:30.000
<v Adam Feldman>No, for listings, sometimes I'll get something, where I've made an error or sometimes there'll be someone, sometimes there'll be a press person who will be getting back to me clearly because someone in the production has asked them to and they're doing their duty.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:41.160
<v Adam Feldman>And they'll be like, could you please mention that the theater is technically named this after this donor or that the show is a co-production of these two companies.
00:35:41.160 --> 00:35:42.760
<v Adam Feldman>And I understand why they're asking it.
00:35:42.760 --> 00:35:47.700
<v Adam Feldman>And also that information is not necessarily the information that I want to put into a two-sentence listing.
00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:51.820
<v Adam Feldman>I don't think it's what the reader wants to know.
00:35:51.820 --> 00:35:53.120
<v Adam Feldman>And so I will say thank you.
00:35:53.120 --> 00:35:56.260
<v Adam Feldman>I can't do that, but I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.
00:35:56.260 --> 00:35:58.760
<v Adam Feldman>And then if it's a mistake, then I will correct it, always.
00:35:58.760 --> 00:36:01.280
<v Adam Feldman>I love to be told when I've made a mistake.
00:36:01.380 --> 00:36:07.160
<v Adam Feldman>Ideally, please contact me privately, send me a DM, send me an email.
00:36:07.160 --> 00:36:07.920
<v Adam Feldman>It's nicer.
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:14.220
<v Adam Feldman>It's a nicer way to do it than to just say, oh my god, this asshole and copy me on it.
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:18.300
<v Adam Feldman>But either way, I would still prefer to know that I've made a mistake.
00:36:18.300 --> 00:36:23.160
<v Adam Feldman>And I would like to correct that as soon as possible because I hate making mistakes.
00:36:23.160 --> 00:36:25.200
<v Adam Feldman>Sometimes you get blowback for bad reviews.
00:36:25.200 --> 00:36:34.480
<v Adam Feldman>It's usually not from the artists themselves because that's just a terrible look and everyone knows that there's no way to win the optics of that.
00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:44.740
<v Adam Feldman>But sometimes they'll have surrogates or sometimes they'll have just people who are really genuinely fans of the show or the artist and they'll think that you did them wrong.
00:36:44.740 --> 00:36:47.800
<v Adam Feldman>And they'll disagree with you.
00:36:47.800 --> 00:36:48.800
<v Adam Feldman>And I think that's fine.
00:36:49.580 --> 00:36:52.800
<v Adam Feldman>I prefer when they're not mean about it or really, really aggressive.
00:36:53.380 --> 00:37:00.480
<v Adam Feldman>Or I also prefer when people don't impute motives to me that are often not accurate.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:02.300
<v Adam Feldman>But I like to engage with people.
00:37:02.300 --> 00:37:03.320
<v Adam Feldman>I truly do.
00:37:03.320 --> 00:37:03.900
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, you do.
00:37:03.900 --> 00:37:04.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>You always have.
00:37:04.600 --> 00:37:07.140
<v Adam Feldman>I do engage with people on socials.
00:37:07.140 --> 00:37:10.120
<v Adam Feldman>And I respect that other people have different opinions of mine.
00:37:10.120 --> 00:37:11.760
<v Adam Feldman>And I think that's what makes the world go round.
00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:14.700
<v Adam Feldman>And I don't want my opinion to be the only opinion out there.
00:37:14.700 --> 00:37:19.780
<v Adam Feldman>That said, it's exhausting at a certain point when there's like a coordinated campaign.
00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:20.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.
00:37:20.220 --> 00:37:25.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>But you've never been threatened in public at an event because someone at that event got a bad review from you?
00:37:25.620 --> 00:37:26.260
<v Adam Feldman>No.
00:37:26.260 --> 00:37:26.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>Good.
00:37:26.580 --> 00:37:28.000
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, I've been berated.
00:37:28.340 --> 00:37:30.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>As the ambulance goes by.
00:37:30.740 --> 00:37:33.000
<v Adam Feldman>I've been berated on occasion.
00:37:34.060 --> 00:37:36.920
<v Adam Feldman>I've been iced out a couple of times.
00:37:37.040 --> 00:37:41.740
<v Adam Feldman>But I mean, the truth is I am social with a lot of people who are in the arts.
00:37:41.740 --> 00:37:43.620
<v Adam Feldman>I think more than most critics.
00:37:43.620 --> 00:37:44.060
<v Peter Michael Marino>Absolutely.
00:37:44.060 --> 00:37:49.920
<v Adam Feldman>I think that that is helpful for me as a critic in understanding where people are coming from and in remembering that they are people.
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:56.180
<v Adam Feldman>As a general rule, I do not impose myself socially on people that I've written bad reviews on recently.
00:37:56.180 --> 00:37:59.600
<v Adam Feldman>And if they want to come up to me or interact with me on social, great.
00:37:59.600 --> 00:38:01.540
<v Adam Feldman>And more power to them.
00:38:01.540 --> 00:38:06.360
<v Adam Feldman>And I applaud their ability to shake off or pretend to shake off criticism.
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:15.500
<v Adam Feldman>I know that criticism can be very hurtful to people, and I don't expect them to like me after I've said something negative about them, especially in theater.
00:38:15.500 --> 00:38:17.420
<v Adam Feldman>In film or television, at least it's all behind you.
00:38:17.800 --> 00:38:22.620
<v Adam Feldman>When you're in theater, when you're especially for a performer, you have to get up every night and do the thing.
00:38:22.620 --> 00:38:23.620
<v Adam Feldman>You have to believe in it.
00:38:24.560 --> 00:38:31.740
<v Adam Feldman>And that means you have to believe that someone who has disliked it is wrong, either because they made a mistake or because they're an idiot.
00:38:31.740 --> 00:38:40.100
<v Adam Feldman>And maybe sometime later, you can look back on it and maybe you'll still think they're wrong and they're an idiot, or maybe you won't, especially if you've had something successful since then.
00:38:40.100 --> 00:38:44.900
<v Adam Feldman>But in the moment, you're going to be hurt and angry and I'm not going to impose on that.
00:38:44.900 --> 00:38:46.280
<v Adam Feldman>I'm not going to demand that you like me.
00:38:46.280 --> 00:39:01.180
<v Adam Feldman>That said, there are times when I will come in contact with people or I will forgetfully or I'll think that what I said wasn't very harsh and then it turns out that they were very hurt, offended by it, or something I haven't said, or something that I wasn't positive enough about.
00:39:01.180 --> 00:39:06.180
<v Adam Feldman>And people are very sensitive and I get that and I'm sorry to have put them in that position when it happens.
00:39:06.180 --> 00:39:07.620
<v Adam Feldman>It's not something I ever want to do.
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:11.840
<v Nancy Magarill>It's hard to be objective about your own work when you're in it.
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:18.720
<v Nancy Magarill>It's one thing when you can step back and look at it and go, oh, he had a point or whatever, that's what he got from it.
00:39:18.720 --> 00:39:24.960
<v Nancy Magarill>But when you're in it and you've poured your heart and soul into it, it's hard to take any criticism.
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:25.540
<v Nancy Magarill>Yes.
00:39:26.260 --> 00:39:34.040
<v Adam Feldman>Emotionally and also it has a personal impact, it has a professional impact, it has a reputational impact, it has a financial impact.
00:39:34.040 --> 00:39:39.820
<v Adam Feldman>You have a lot riding on these things and I understand that we're often just the messenger is the truth.
00:39:39.820 --> 00:39:43.660
<v Adam Feldman>We are reporting that this is not working for audiences of which we are one.
00:39:43.660 --> 00:39:49.200
<v Adam Feldman>But still, it hurts to hear that, especially if you've been surrounded by supportive people whose job it is to be supportive.
00:39:49.200 --> 00:39:54.220
<v Adam Feldman>Your friends and your family and all those people and the people in your show are all going to be telling you it's great.
00:39:54.220 --> 00:39:54.780
<v Nancy Magarill>It's great.
00:39:54.900 --> 00:39:56.140
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah, because they should.
00:39:56.140 --> 00:39:57.520
<v Adam Feldman>That's what they're there for.
00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:02.140
<v Adam Feldman>But so it can be jarring and upsetting to hear otherwise.
00:40:02.140 --> 00:40:04.720
<v Adam Feldman>But artists are...
00:40:06.560 --> 00:40:08.460
<v Nancy Magarill>You're talking to two, be careful.
00:40:08.460 --> 00:40:10.700
<v Adam Feldman>No, I don't mean this in a bad way.
00:40:10.700 --> 00:40:15.460
<v Adam Feldman>I just mean, if anyone, no one is as hard on shows as other artists are on shows.
00:40:16.520 --> 00:40:18.340
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, it's not, they don't-
00:40:18.340 --> 00:40:19.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or to ourselves.
00:40:19.940 --> 00:40:23.500
<v Adam Feldman>Or to themselves, but not necessarily, but they don't want that to be in public.
00:40:23.500 --> 00:40:24.860
<v Adam Feldman>And I understand that it's humiliating.
00:40:24.860 --> 00:40:28.520
<v Adam Feldman>But the other thing is there is that time factor.
00:40:29.100 --> 00:40:31.980
<v Adam Feldman>I talked to John Kander once, who's a lovely, lovely man.
00:40:31.980 --> 00:40:37.340
<v Adam Feldman>And he was, I'm the president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, and we were giving an award to Hamilton a few years ago.
00:40:37.340 --> 00:40:42.200
<v Adam Feldman>And John very sweetly agreed to give this award to Lin Manuel.
00:40:42.200 --> 00:40:46.220
<v Adam Feldman>And he arrived early and we were chatting for a bit, and we were all very nice.
00:40:46.220 --> 00:40:51.740
<v Adam Feldman>And then he asked me basically, he said, you seem like a nice fellow, and seem like you like theater.
00:40:51.740 --> 00:40:54.340
<v Adam Feldman>I don't understand why you would possibly want to be a critic.
00:40:54.420 --> 00:40:55.380
<v Adam Feldman>Wow.
00:40:55.380 --> 00:40:56.960
<v Adam Feldman>And he didn't mean it in a mean way.
00:40:56.960 --> 00:40:58.800
<v Adam Feldman>He was genuinely, Yeah.
00:40:58.800 --> 00:41:00.560
<v Adam Feldman>Like, why would you do this?
00:41:02.260 --> 00:41:03.460
<v Adam Feldman>People will hate you for it.
00:41:03.640 --> 00:41:04.840
<v Adam Feldman>And it's so negative.
00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:06.020
<v Adam Feldman>And I said, well, you know what?
00:41:06.020 --> 00:41:09.880
<v Adam Feldman>But I know theater people don't like us when we're mean, but they do like us sometimes when we're nice.
00:41:09.880 --> 00:41:15.280
<v Adam Feldman>And like your song in Curtains, your song in Curtains, the whole thing is like what kind of jerk would be a critic.
00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:17.340
<v Adam Feldman>And then in the last verse, it's they get a nice review.
00:41:17.420 --> 00:41:21.420
<v Adam Feldman>And it's like, what kind of brilliant man would ever become a critic.
00:41:21.420 --> 00:41:23.980
<v Adam Feldman>And he said, yeah, but you know, but that was a joke.
00:41:23.980 --> 00:41:25.780
<v Adam Feldman>We put that in for a laugh.
00:41:25.780 --> 00:41:27.680
<v Adam Feldman>They would have somewhere for their song to go.
00:41:27.680 --> 00:41:29.520
<v Adam Feldman>Now, two responses.
00:41:29.520 --> 00:41:32.340
<v Adam Feldman>First of all, again, he was it was a genuine conversation.
00:41:32.340 --> 00:41:33.840
<v Adam Feldman>It wasn't him putting me down.
00:41:33.840 --> 00:41:34.980
<v Adam Feldman>He was genuinely curious.
00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:37.560
<v Adam Feldman>And this is not a knock on John Kander whom I love.
00:41:37.560 --> 00:41:39.300
<v Adam Feldman>But I'll say two things about that.
00:41:39.300 --> 00:41:42.280
<v Adam Feldman>One is that, you know, I've read John Kander.
00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:46.960
<v Adam Feldman>John Kander and Fred Ebb did a terrific little oral history interview book.
00:41:47.680 --> 00:41:49.880
<v Adam Feldman>Some years ago called, I think, Colored Lights.
00:41:49.880 --> 00:41:52.400
<v Adam Feldman>And in it, they very candidly discuss all their past work.
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:57.020
<v Adam Feldman>And it's clear that they know which of their shows are really great and which of their shows aren't.
00:41:57.020 --> 00:41:58.060
<v Adam Feldman>They know perfectly well.
00:41:58.060 --> 00:42:02.220
<v Adam Feldman>So, you know, they can look back and say, oh, that one, yeah, that one really didn't work.
00:42:02.220 --> 00:42:04.520
<v Adam Feldman>It's just that they don't like when other people say it.
00:42:04.520 --> 00:42:04.920
<v Adam Feldman>Right.
00:42:04.920 --> 00:42:06.120
<v Adam Feldman>Right.
00:42:06.120 --> 00:42:08.140
<v Adam Feldman>And sure, yeah, I get that.
00:42:08.140 --> 00:42:10.540
<v Adam Feldman>But also some of their shows are better than others.
00:42:10.540 --> 00:42:19.260
<v Adam Feldman>There's a reason that Chicago and Cabaret and, you know, are like all-time classics of the American stage, and some others that I won't mention are not.
00:42:19.260 --> 00:42:20.360
<v Adam Feldman>So there's that.
00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:25.180
<v Adam Feldman>Second thing is, what it comes down to at some point is, do you think that critics should exist at all?
00:42:25.180 --> 00:42:36.600
<v Adam Feldman>Like, do you think that there is a role to be played for public discussion of the quality of shows as a counterpoint, if nothing else, to the other factors like advertising and IP and all the rest of that?
00:42:36.600 --> 00:42:37.940
<v Adam Feldman>So do you think they should exist at all?
00:42:37.940 --> 00:42:38.460
<v Adam Feldman>Maybe you don't.
00:42:38.460 --> 00:42:44.220
<v Adam Feldman>If you do think that they exist, that they should exist and that they have a role to play, then the question is, you know, who should do it?
00:42:44.220 --> 00:42:51.080
<v Adam Feldman>And someone, for me, I do think it should exist and I think, well, I'm someone who can do it.
00:42:51.080 --> 00:42:53.040
<v Nancy Magarill>And someone who loves theater and knows theater.
00:42:53.040 --> 00:42:57.120
<v Adam Feldman>I love this material, I know this material, I spent years studying this material at high levels.
00:42:57.120 --> 00:43:01.100
<v Adam Feldman>I've seen thousands of shows, I'm rooting for all of them to succeed.
00:43:01.100 --> 00:43:08.160
<v Adam Feldman>I try to write as engagingly and cleverly as I can and try to keep the conversations lively and I think I'm good at it.
00:43:08.160 --> 00:43:11.060
<v Adam Feldman>And I would rather that I be doing it than someone I trust less than me.
00:43:14.120 --> 00:43:17.480
<v Adam Feldman>Because I agree with myself most of the time.
00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:23.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>Adam, before we let you off to your next venture tonight, and if you're off tonight, thank God.
00:43:23.520 --> 00:43:24.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>But two things.
00:43:24.540 --> 00:43:29.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>One, can you help make Cats the Jellicle Ball come back to life?
00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:30.940
<v Adam Feldman>What a great production.
00:43:30.940 --> 00:43:32.280
<v Adam Feldman>All of, I mean, I loved it.
00:43:32.280 --> 00:43:35.900
<v Adam Feldman>I wrote a very fond review of it.
00:43:35.900 --> 00:43:41.980
<v Adam Feldman>And, you know, that's an example of a show that I never had particular love for as a stage show.
00:43:41.980 --> 00:43:46.120
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, I have a nostalgic fondness for a lot of the songs from having heard them.
00:43:47.420 --> 00:43:51.800
<v Adam Feldman>But this was the best account maybe that's ever been of this show that makes it work the most.
00:43:51.800 --> 00:43:53.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Why is it not coming back?
00:43:53.160 --> 00:43:56.680
<v Adam Feldman>Well, it didn't come in immediately for a few reasons.
00:43:56.700 --> 00:44:12.700
<v Adam Feldman>One is to maintain the concept, it can really only either go into Circle in the Square or go into a theater that they have spent millions of dollars transforming like they did with Copper Bay or Here Lies Love, and that's a very expensive and dicey proposition.
00:44:12.700 --> 00:44:27.600
<v Adam Feldman>So the other thing is that the Andrew Lloyd Webber had another reimagined revival of a musical on Broadway this year that I don't think that we particularly wanted to compete with, and has another one coming off Broadway this season probably or early next season for Phantom of the Opera, which they-
00:44:27.600 --> 00:44:28.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'll go to that with you.
00:44:28.580 --> 00:44:29.700
<v Adam Feldman>Yeah.
00:44:30.220 --> 00:44:38.320
<v Adam Feldman>But they also don't necessarily want to compete with, and so it's in a bit of this bind where, you know, I don't know if they want to bring it in all that fast.
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:48.540
<v Adam Feldman>That said, I think it's the best of the bunch probably, and I haven't seen the new Phantom, but I think it's probably the best of the bunch, and I liked Sunset, but I thought that Cats is just sensational.
00:44:48.540 --> 00:44:48.980
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay.
00:44:48.980 --> 00:44:54.380
<v Peter Michael Marino>Then my second question is, what is the number one show you're looking forward to that's opening this season?
00:44:55.900 --> 00:44:57.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're just giddy about.
00:44:57.000 --> 00:44:57.680
<v Adam Feldman>I don't know.
00:44:57.680 --> 00:45:00.520
<v Adam Feldman>There's too many of them coming up at once for me to be giddy about.
00:45:00.720 --> 00:45:01.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Give me two.
00:45:02.540 --> 00:45:03.880
<v Adam Feldman>I really love Carol Churchill.
00:45:03.880 --> 00:45:07.160
<v Adam Feldman>So there's a Carol Churchill play coming off Broadway.
00:45:07.160 --> 00:45:13.820
<v Adam Feldman>It'll be four short pieces, which isn't necessarily like my very favorite form of Carol Churchill, but I'll take anything I can get.
00:45:13.820 --> 00:45:15.960
<v Adam Feldman>She's just one of the great playwrights in the world.
00:45:15.960 --> 00:45:16.620
<v Peter Michael Marino>Totally agree.
00:45:16.620 --> 00:45:17.880
<v Peter Michael Marino>I love those four short pieces.
00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:21.020
<v Adam Feldman>I can't wait to see whatever it is that she has up her sleeve.
00:45:21.020 --> 00:45:25.660
<v Adam Feldman>If I hate it, then I'll hate it, but I'll hate it because it's something fun and engaging that I don't like.
00:45:27.340 --> 00:45:29.160
<v Adam Feldman>So I'm always excited for that.
00:45:30.340 --> 00:45:39.780
<v Adam Feldman>I'm excited to see Brennan Jacobs-Jenkins' new play on Broadway, I think, that purpose.
00:45:40.060 --> 00:45:46.420
<v Adam Feldman>I've really loved An Octoroon and I really liked Appropriate a whole lot.
00:45:46.420 --> 00:45:46.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>Comeuppance?
00:45:46.940 --> 00:45:47.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>Anyone?
00:45:47.500 --> 00:45:48.420
<v Adam Feldman>Comeuppance I like too.
00:45:48.420 --> 00:45:48.940
<v Nancy Magarill>Right.
00:45:48.960 --> 00:45:51.240
<v Adam Feldman>Obsessed.
00:45:51.900 --> 00:45:55.400
<v Adam Feldman>He's on a great streak and so excited to see that.
00:45:55.400 --> 00:46:02.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm so glad these two shows that you're giddy about are two shows that maybe our listeners are not even aware of, so that's fantastic.
00:46:02.500 --> 00:46:05.180
<v Nancy Magarill>And that Pete might be able to go to them.
00:46:06.940 --> 00:46:07.380
<v Adam Feldman>Go to my page.
00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:08.040
<v Peter Michael Marino>My plan.
00:46:08.040 --> 00:46:08.780
<v Peter Michael Marino>It is working.
00:46:08.780 --> 00:46:16.160
<v Adam Feldman>Go to the upcoming Broadway and upcoming off-Broadway pages on Time Out and you'll see my list of the shows coming up this season.
00:46:17.560 --> 00:46:19.440
<v Adam Feldman>And go to the off-off page all the time.
00:46:19.660 --> 00:46:24.260
<v Adam Feldman>That changes over every two weeks because of the nature of these shows.
00:46:24.280 --> 00:46:25.140
<v Adam Feldman>And dance shows too.
00:46:25.140 --> 00:46:31.320
<v Adam Feldman>Dance shows run for like a weekend, or maybe two weeks at the Joyce at the most, you know?
00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:38.640
<v Adam Feldman>I mean, obviously, other than the big ballet, you know, Lincoln Center things which run for weeks, but other than that, maximum two weeks at the Joyce.
00:46:38.640 --> 00:46:45.560
<v Adam Feldman>So you can go there all the time, see what's new and plot to go because this is freaking New York City.
00:46:45.560 --> 00:46:48.300
<v Adam Feldman>This is at your disposal in a way that it is at nowhere else.
00:46:48.300 --> 00:46:49.480
<v Adam Feldman>So go.
00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:50.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>Hey, thanks for checking us out.
00:46:50.580 --> 00:46:53.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Links to today's guests can be found in the show notes.
00:46:53.420 --> 00:46:58.360
<v Nancy Magarill>Don't forget to subscribe, like us, rate us and tell all your friends about Arts and Craft.
