In a way, I started the year at the top, seeing a touring company do a Broadway show at The Wang Theatre. So running a moviehouse requires you to pay only four people a living wage. However, the size of the pricetags and the size of that audience guaranteed that for that one performance the show took in more money than all the other performances I saw all week long.
Theater critics are totally irrelevant here in Boston.
The last critic that could break or make a show, whose opinions had any impact whatever on box-office, was Kevin Kelly. The closest we come to his power today is Joyce Kulhawick's, and as cable saps the strength of network news even that is waning. About the only power reviewers have today is the ability to wound and insult vulnerable performers and directors here in Boston. And these familiar faces did not imitate a much better classic film, they brought their comedy talents to the words of William Shakespeare. And it was the home-grown imagination of Spiro Veloudos working again with trusted, trusting veteran local talent that brought it about.