There’s an interesting debate a day in the making over on the D-FW Theater Facebook page. The story: Nancy Churnin, the DMN theater critic, wrote an unfavorable review of Beth Henley’s Laugh, now playing at Theatre Three. Her headline quite plainly advises theatergoers to “skip” the production. The theater then X-Acto knifed a favorable sentence out of the review, switched out a period for an exclamation point, jacked up the font size on the last two words—and voilà—promo material.
After seeing a Theatre Three email blast using her words, Churnin called the theater out, posting on Facebook that the move was “NOT COOL” (her caps). A lengthy convo has ensued. After one commenter argued that movies and Broadway do this kind of crafty advertising all the time, Churnin replied:
I don’t appreciate false information anywhere, but films and Broadway are big business and a whole different ballgame. Mine is the only quote in this ad. Folks, you have one full-time print theater critic in an endangered industry, with some critics struggling for space and others seeing their positions cut. Credibility is key to survival. I go out of my way to be fair and as kind as possible. This was not a good show and I said so, while praising the actors. I hear from my readers about my reviews. Most of them think I’m pretty much on target. But if someone goes to a show on my recommendation and it’s not good, you can bet I hear about it.
So what do you think? Is Theatre Three’s ad slick, skeezy, both, or neither? Do you have anything better to do this gloomy Friday afternoon?
