Free The Critics Say...: 57 Theater Reviewers in New York and Beyond Discuss Their Craft and Its Future by Matt Windman Page B

do it and would be reasonably cheap. So my friend called me up and asked if I’d be interested. My first reaction was to say, “I can’t be a theater critic. I don’t know how to do that.” And he said, “You’re being ridiculous. You’re a smart guy. You’re a good writer.” And then I thought, Why should I say no to this? Maybe I’d be good at it.
    Michael Musto: I went to Columbia College and majored in English because there was no undergraduate journalism major. I knew I wanted to pursue writing of some kind, particularly cultural writing. I would hang out at the office of the Columbia Daily Spectator every day, just hoping somebody would throw me an assignment, and it wasn’t happening. Then I met a woman named Jami Bernard, who years later became the film critic for the Daily News . She asked me to write for the Barnard Bulletin . Barnard is Columbia’s sister school. I started writing theater reviews for the Barnard Bulletin , be it reviews of campus productions or Broadway shows. Then the Spectator took notice, and I became its theater critic. This was back in the 1970s. I was reviewing shows like A Chorus Line and Chicago . I also did interviews with people like Chita Rivera, Kelly Bishop, and Carole Shelley.
    After college, I wrote for After Dark and SoHo Weekly News , which was an alternative to the Village Voice . I wrote things for daily newspapers in New York—not exclusively about theater, but including theater. In 1984, I got my column at the Village Voice : “La Dolce Musto.” I had done a few freelance pieces for the Voice , and then there was an opening for the column. I submitted a sample column, and they liked it. They wanted something that covered the wide range of culture in New York: theater, nightlife, fashion, and beyond. They gave me the freedom to cover any entertainment or non-entertainment topics that I was interested in. I featured theater very heavily in the column for the 29 years I was there. My current column at Out is called “Musto! The Musical!” That pretty much says how dedicated I am to covering theater.
    Richard Zoglin: I’ve been writing and editing at Time for over 30 years. Back then, our theater critic was William A. Henry III. After he died of a heart attack, Time had no theater critic. I had done a few theater reviews here and there, filling in when Bill wasn’t around. The job fell to me because I could do it part-time. Back when Bill was writing, Time covered theater pretty regularly. Later, the magazine felt less obligated to review everything, so being a theater critic wasn’t a full-time job, and it was kind of perfect for me.
    Rob Weinert-Kendt: As a film major in L.A, I ended up enjoying the critical studies classes more than the production classes. I saw tons of films and learned how to write about them. I started working for a little newspaper in L.A. called Downtown News . At the time, L.A. was having a theater flowering. Gordon Davidson was putting on Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle . Then I got a job as editor of Backstage West , which I had for about 10 years. L.A. is a spread out bunch of communities with theaters all over the place. It was a really fun and gratifying scene to cover.
    I eventually left Backstage West and freelanced for the Los Angeles Times . I really wanted to be the paper’s theater critic, but they wanted someone from New York. They went without a critic for four years—even though I was right there. Clearly, to continue being a theater journalist, I needed to be in New York, so I moved there in 2005. I’ve been freelancing and doing theater coverage ever since. I was the last critic that Broadway.com employed. You may know the story: Broadway.com is a ticket site, and the people selling tickets to the shows didn’t really love having a critic standing alongside their ticket sales, which I can understand.
    I’m now the editor of American Theatre magazine. I also write articles for the Times and Time Out New York