Theater's New Season 2019-2020
When you peruse the
bountiful array of plays and musicals coming our way we should all offer a
prayer of thanks to the creators, producers and performers of these much needed
antidotes to the "outside world".
We at Theaterscene
are proud and happy to take you with us to all of these wonderful gifts as we
visit each one.
Enjoy!
Jeanne Lieberman, Editor/Publisher
THE MUSICALS
Moulin Rouge
THE PLAYS
Part 1 Part 2
John Simon, Wide-Ranging Critic With a Cutting Pen, Dies at 94
Prolific, erudite and caustic in his wit, he surveyed the
entire cultural landscape — films, plays, books, art — and saw little that he
liked.
The critic John Simon in 1975. He said that his mission was to
raise standards through unflinching criticism.
Credit...Michael Tighe/Donaldson
Collection, via Getty Images
By Robert
D. McFadden
Nov.
25, 2019
John Simon, one of the nation’s most erudite, vitriolic and
vilified culture critics, who illuminated and savaged a remarkable range of
plays, films, literature and art works and their creators for more than a
half-century, died on Sunday in Valhalla, N.Y. He was 94.
His
death, at Westchester Medical Center, was confirmed by his wife, Patricia
Simon.
In an
era of vast cultural changes, Mr. Simon marshaled wide learning, insights and
acid wit for largely negative reviews and essays that appeared in New
York magazine for nearly 37 years, until his dismissal in 2005,
and in The Hudson Review, The New York Times, Esquire, National Review, The New
Leader and other publications.
Read More...
Editor's
note: Repulsed, Reviled, Revered
I
relished reading Simon's reviews, which I found quire edifying, dictionary in
hand, though I was appalled at the inherent cruelty in many of them. Perhaps
intellect misapplied.
I
had on rare occasions encountered John "off duty" at cocktail parties,
or in the elevator of his Lincoln Center hi-rise, and he was quite cordial and
generously interested in his fellow critics opinions. Towards the end, after he
was no longer writing for major publications but online for his own and other
sites, I always said "hello" when I saw him in a theater, and he was
genuinely humble and pleased to be recognized, which I found quite sad and
touching considering his former infamy.
I
do miss him; he is unforgettable.
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