Review of A Review: "Just Can’t Say Goodbye to Gotham by Claudia La Rocco"

Claudia La Rocco’s review of “The Love Letter You’ve Been Meaning To Write To New York” summarizes her opinion of the performance within the first three sentences of the article. Having spent the past four days reading scientific literature that takes at least five paragraphs to summarize a point, it was refreshing to read a piece so concise.

The first paragraph summarizes the quality of the show, the second is a brief description of what the show is about, or rather what makes the show unique. The play takes place outside the theater, while the audience sits inside the building watching the performance take place, literally, on the streets of New York. I understand a review needs to be about evaluation and analysis but given the set-up of the show, La Rocco could have used a bit more description in her article.

After her initial analysis at the beginning of the review, La Rocco fails to explain why she wrote what she did. She didn’t say why actors seemed “amateur” and failed to give examples of how the script was “hackneyed,” leaving her audience of art patrons feeling a bit vague on what made the show bad or if it was even bad at all.

Despite the lack of clarity in her statements, La Rocco’s voice is easy to read, mixing colorful descriptions with short and concise sentences. A little more insight would have been helpful but overall the review was well written. She made certain scenes come alive to the reader. The descriptions she gave sparked interest but the evaluation aspect was lacking detail.

In comparison to other theater reviews, such as New York Times writer Andrew Dinwiddle’s take on “Get Mad At Sin!” her details fall short. Dinwiddle writes a thorough analysis, giving just enough background and description before diving into his analysis of the actors and the director. That being said, La Rocco’s article is more alive than other articles I read. For example, Jason Zinoman’s review of “The Bilbao Effect” lacked some of the personality La Rocco has to offer. His voice isn’t as distinct and some of his wording seems to be passive. He doesn’t stand out as much as La Rocco did to me.

It is also important to note that La Rocco is a dance critic. Scripted theater isn’t what she reviews on a weekly basis. Many of her reviews are of tap shows, ballet numbers or contemporary dance. Her writing is consistent there too. Her style is personable, her thoughts well articulated and she explains herself better. While I didn’t enjoy her review of “The Love Letter I’ve Been Meaning To Write To New York,” I thoroughly enjoyed many of her dance reviews.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/theater/reviews/jonathan-solaris-love-letter-on-a-sidewalk-stage-review.html?ref=theater