The following occurred a few years back in the management comp seats at an orchestra performance that included a world premiere:<\/p>\n
Amanda, flipping through program, sees composer’s headshot:<\/b> He’s hot. <\/p>\n
Friend:<\/b> Good thing, because his music sucks.
Amanda, squints and sees composer up in a box: <\/b>Oh, not as hot in person. <\/p>\nFriend:<\/b> Too bad, because his music sucks. <\/p>\n
[first half of the concert begins, ends, intermission comes]<\/i><\/p>\n
Nice older gentleman, gesturing to the empty seat between him and his wife and Amanda and her friend:<\/b> <\/i>Excuse me, would you mind if our son came and sat here? <\/p>\n
Amanda\/Friend: <\/b>Sure, no problem.<\/p>\n
[older gentleman waves to his son in the box, composer comes downstairs and takes his new seat]<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There are, of course, a hundred stories like this. If you are critical of a performance while still within the venue walls, inevitably you’re going to be on the water fountain line behind the concertmaster’s Great Aunt Susie. Or worse, sitting behind the composer or the soloist who just played on the first half of the program. My mom always says that the truest reviews of a Broadway show come from the Ladies Room (\/ the line for the Ladies Room) at intermission. People – perhaps just women? I’ve not experienced the Men’s Room but welcome any intelligence on the matter from the men reading – seem a bit more frank in that setting than they are at their seats. <\/p>\n
At one intermission, a journalist I had literally met the night before walked up and started searing me about my client. Loudly, and in front of another journalist I had been talking to. He was angry! Really angry that he wasn’t enjoying the concert. (Note: it’s not as if he wasted his money, as he had press tickets.) I disagreed with his opinion, as did the other journalist, and he snapped that publicists don’t always have to enjoy their clients’ performances. I said thank you for that permission, and wondered why he didn’t save his criticism for his review. After the concert, I heard him laying into some other poor soul he (presumably?) knew about the performance, and again found it curious: he has a platform for criticism that he actually gets paid for, so why the need to personally go from audience member to audience member, spreading negativity? <\/p>\n
Perhaps performances should be like voting sites; no political buttons, sweatshirts, signs or discussion about the candidates within X feet of the booths. After the Can Our Son Sit Here Incident of 2005, I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut until I’m a safe distance from the venue (and the popular post-concert hang-outs), and actually get jittery when my friends start being negative too soon after\/during any performance, not just one of my clients’. <\/p>\n
Do we think the “reviews from the Ladies Room” are a publicist’s problem? If so, is there some deft way to manage them? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following occurred a few years back in the management comp seats at an orchestra performance that included a world premiere: Amanda, flipping through program, sees composer’s headshot: He’s hot. Friend: Good thing, because his music sucks. Amanda, squints and sees composer up in a box: Oh, not as hot in person. Friend: Too bad, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}