Context, circumspection, and craft. I knew I'd miss him personally when I moved East, but I didn't know how much I'd miss his writing. I haven't seen the show, so I can't say whether
Steven Leigh Morris' take on Dead End is definitive. But this is real criticism. The rest of us are mere reviewers.
It's stunningly written, but it kind of misses the point on the show. It's not that Dead End shouldn't be done right now -- I'm sure Stephen Daldry could do a phenomenal take on it -- the real issue is that this production, as a production, was simply terrible: awful, schmaltzy direction, and embarrassingly weak acting. No review I read nailed that as the real problem: they all got caught up in pontificating about the social significance (or lack thereof) of the play. When a production is this bad, when actors look like they just stepped in from a nearby community theatre production of Grease, it's silly to blame the script.
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