The critic John Simon has been dismissed from his post at New York magazine. Playbill doesn't say why. But in general Simon made a career of losing friends in Manhattan, which is roughly a stage critic's job. When I was a critic I read the old Simon for inspiration, even if I didn't agree with him. But "the old Simon" means his writing from thirty and forty years ago -- when he was still pungent. For at least the last decade he's just been sour.
In any case the artist-critics are still the best: George Bernard Shaw's bombardments still rattle the bones even if the plays he saw (never mind the symphonies, or early films) have retired.
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
1:15 PM
