Broadway’s ‘The Music Man’ Starring Hugh Jackman Won’t Invite Critics Before Opening Night
deadline.comIn a break with Broadway custom of recent decades, producers of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster are not inviting critics to pre-opening night previews.Instead, critics are being invited to the revival’s Feb.
10 opening night at the Winter Garden Theatre, with reviews embargoed until thereafter. (Deadline received the invitation by email today.)Typically, critics are invited to at least several pre-opening night previews, with reviews embargoed until opening night.
Although the trope of aisle-sitters rushing to file reviews after the opening night curtain falls conjures images of All About Eve-era Broadway, the practice is thought to have generally continued at least into the 1970s, with then-New York Times critic Richard Eder occasionally, perhaps apocryphally, credited with having encouraged the switch to critics’ previews to allow reviewers more time to consider and craft their reactions.Asked by Deadline for the reasoning behind the decision, Music Man spokesperson Rick Miramontez said in a statement, “We feel just terrible for offering dozens of theater critics premium seats to a Broadway show.
I am sure they will simply loathe having to tell their grandchildren about the time they were forced to witness Broadway history in the making.
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