COMMENTARY by SHARON EBERSON
Another day, another bloodbath for arts criticism.
The Washington Post on Wednesday wiped out 30% of its workforce, including chief theater critic Naveen Kumar, who in 2024 had replaced longtime critic Peter Marks.
Leave it to Peter, a brilliant, award-winning writer, to sum up what we are losing as media outlets abandon criticism.
He wrote on social media:
“Believe it or not, critics love the art forms they cover. You cannot spend every day — yes, every day — absorbed in the job of seeing, thinking and/or writing about art without it being a devotional act. So on a day when a bevy of great newspaper critics have been told their livelihoods are ending, I wanted to say I grieve for what’s being lost, for them, for the communities they cover, for the readers who appreciated the engagement. It’s not a good day, by any measure.”
At onStage Pittsburgh, every review you read is by a volunteer who believes that a review isn’t just an opinion, but a chronicle of a moment in time, preserved by people who “love the art forms they cover.”
When the then-powers-that-be at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said in 2020 that they were no longer interested in arts and entertainment criticism, I left. (It is worth noting that the editor and managing editor who mandated, “No reviews, ever again,” are long gone.)
I did not know what was next, when I got a phone call from Emmy Award-winner George Hoover.
George resurrected the archives of what was previously Pittsburgh in the Round, and asked me to join him in a newly branded venture – what became onstagepittsburgh.com. We hoped to fill the wide gap arts coverage in the Pittsburgh area.
We keep going, although it’s getting harder and harder as we are both past typical retirement age, because we believe, to paraphrase August Wilson, “in the American theater, in its power to inform about the human condition, in its power to heal.”
And we believe in the artists and live performance organizations of our region, while, as journalists, we understand their struggles to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world.
What happened at the Post on Wednesday is just the latest body blow to my profession. It hurts.
the contributions of media through the ages, including the daily practice
of displaying front pages, nationwide. (Image: Sharon Eberson)
After five-plus years as an all-volunteer, independent, single-topic entity, sustainability is weighing heavily on our minds at onStage Pittsburgh.
George and I are taking steps toward that goal, but it’s a fraught and unpredictable time for the arts, for journalism and perhaps especially for professional criticism.
Godspeed to all those folks at the Washington Post. May they persevere to write another day.
As for me? I’m going hyperlocal on February 5, to see Treasure Treasure in her new work, Agnus Teaches Acting, created with Zanny Laird and Lucas Fedele, a production of the New Hazlett Theater’s Community Supported Art.
You can find tickets to Agnes and other productions at Go See A Show, a new initiative that offers promotion and discounted tickets to 18 producing theater companies and the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
That kind of collaboration in our community gives me hope for the future of Pittsburgh’s live arts and culture scene.
Read all about it, at onstagepittsburgh.com.
THINGS TO DO BETWEEN SHOWS
AUDIOBOOK OF THE MOMENT: For fans of musical theater, movie scores, and first-hand A-list accounts, I highly recommend Marc Shaiman’s memoir, with the evocative title, coined by his Jewish mother (I can relate): “Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner.” I listened to the audiobook, which includes legendary voices singing songs (mostly co-created with Scott Wittman) from Shaiman’s extensive repertoire. There’s Hairspray, of course, a bunch of hits and misses (his insights on both are essential listening/reading), and stories about being the “funny Jew at the piano” for the Sweeney Sisters on SNL and for Bette Midler, as she sang a farewell for all of us to Johnny Carson. He also reads a heartbreaking list of names of friends lost to AIDS, and talks about his demons. … I recommend the audiobook, in his voice, with friends such as Patti LuPone, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Lewis, J. Harrison Ghee, et al. dropping in to sing. (Shaiman notes to us listeners that we should buy the book, too, for the pictures.)
SHAKESPEARE MONOLOGUE & SCENE CONTEST PREP: Drop what you are doing and watch Ian McKellen perform the only monologue we have that’s by William Shakespeare, that’s pen and ink, in his hand. The Bard wrote it as an answer to a mob protesting immigration in the UK, 400 years ago. McKellen delivered it, on Wednesday’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, seemingly spontaneously, but without hesitation, and packed with so much meaning and emotion, I cried. (At about 20 minutes, but the whole interview is priceless.) It’s also a great setup for the 2026 Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest, at Pittsburgh Public Theater, with the Showcase of Finalists on Monday, February 23, at 7 p.m. The competition that began more than 30 years ago with 75 students, now features hundreds of students in grades 4-12, from all corners of the region. More info: https://ppt.org/ppt_home/engage-learn/sh.
THEATER ON TV: If you miss the great Canadian theater series Slings and Arrows as much as I do, a musical comedy out of New Zealand called Happiness — about a native son returning from Broadway in disgrace, to the community theater that launched him — is a fun watch. I tuned in on Prime Video after discovering it on our PBS station, WQED. (While you’re at it, if you like Sherlockian mysteries set in post WWII England, check out Mark Gatiss’ Bookish, too.)
CRITICISM LIVES IN D.C.: For news about theater in and around Washington, D.C., check out DC Theater Arts, a hyperlocal independent website “devoted to a sustainable future for theater journalism —illuminating the art and artists who bring our stages to life, from bold experiments to enduring classics,” and its impressive list of supporters.
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