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Sunday, September 15, 2002
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: THE GUYS * * (2 stars out of 4).
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This recording of a reading of the popular off-off Broadway play, "The Guys," was very disappointing. The play is an ostensibly true story about the writer of the play (Anne Nelson), who also helped a fire chief write eulogies for some of his men. I'm a real fan of the genre of recorded plays on audio. Audible.com has a bunch of them, mostly by L.A. Theatre Works, and they're mostly very good. I see it as a return to the radio plays that were so popular before Television, and which were a really beautiful art form that has been mostly forgotten. But having said that, I think The Guys was extremely trite and superficial in its treatment of the emotional impact of the September 11 attacks, and that it got a free pass from the critics because of its subject matter and because of the Flea Theater's proximity to the World Trade Center site. In fact, I think there were a lot of free passes being handed out by critics of the New York Theater in the months after 9/11. Most notably in the case of Mamma Mia, a musical based on the songs of Abba, at the Wintergarden Theater, which opened in October 2001, with much anticipation, but at a time when ticket sales were extremely low following the attack, and when Broadway desperately needed a hit. I haven't seen the play, myself, but the glowing reviews all seem to come through clenched teeth. For example, Newsday entitled its review "'Mamma Mia' a Guilty Pleasure," and NY1's review begins "Mamma Mia defies scrutiny. If you attempt to analyze this mega hit from London, it'll fall apart. It's hokey, implausible and silly. The Abba music, despite its popularity, is mediocre and many are likely to think: What's the big deal?" before going on to tell us how "none of that really matters." I think these and some other shows got better reviews than they deserved, because of 9/11, and I think we should expect better from our critics.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/09/audiobook-review-guys-2-stars-out-of-4.html
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