Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993

by Frank Rich

In his nearly fourteen years as chief drama critic of The New York Times, Frank Rich was both admired as a passionate advocate for the best in New York theater and reviled as "the Butcher of Broadway" for his presumed destructive power over the commercial fate of Broadway shows. Hot Seat is Rich's definitive chronicle of his long run--an encyclopedic anthology of more than three hundred of his best reviews and essays, interspersed with further thoughts, entirely new to this volume, about his adventures on the aisle at the tumultuous time when Broadway was decimated by AIDS and colonized by the British musical.
        
Rich's opening-night accounts of an era's biggest hits (from The  Phantom of the Opera to Six Degrees of Separation) and most notorious bombs (from Moose Murders to Carrie) are here, as are his year-by-year reflections on major careers both established (Stephen Sondheim, Peter Brook, Jessica Tandy) and new (August Wilson, Kevin Kline, Caryl Churchill).
        
Here as well are Rich's final words on his sparring matches with Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Hare, among others, and his retrospective lists of which plays and performances he admired most and least--as well as lists of the productions he feels he over--and underrated the first time around.
        
From the tragic opening night of David Merrick's 42nd Street to the unprecedented triumph of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Hot Seat captures what was in every way a dramatic chapter in cultural history, as told and lived by a journalist with the best seat and sharpest eye in the house.

Genres: Theatre, Essays, Reference, Nonfiction

1072 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Frank Rich is a columnist (and former chief theater critic) for The New York Times who focuses on American politics and popular culture. His column ran on the front page of the Sunday arts and leisure section from 2003 to 2005; it now appears in the expanded Sunday Week in Review section.

Reviews

[Randi Amick · Rating 5 out of 5]

who knew re-reading his reviews would be so good - even when i disagree.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stellar collection of Frank Rich's theater reviews from 1980-1993 for The New York Times. In each review, Rich enters the detailed, sparkling world of each production, inventorying what makes a show soar or fall flat whilst always acknowledging--- with the utmost respect only a theater-lover has--the hard work of each professional who gave themselves to the production, and its context within a larger landscape of the art form. Rich brings to life a world filled to the brim with plumage, drama, sweat and tears. Some reviews bring you to tears, others to hysterics, and some give you second-hand embarrassment, but even in the places where Rich is clear about what he disliked about a production, (though it may warrant a chuckle) it is not needlessly cruel, or personal--through the page you the reader can feel the deep love, admiration, and endless respect Rich has for theater as an art form, and the role that (his) criticism has in elevating and enriching it.

If you love theater or outstanding non-fiction writing, PLEASE don't hesitate to even read a few in this collection. You will feel the beauty of being whisked from one world to another, you can revel in some of the salaciousness of theater gossip or the inner-workings of the Broadway stage in the 1980's, and you will encounter, through Rich's own writing and the plays that tackle the tragedy and triumph of the time, the eternal way that art reflects our own collective truth, humanity, and history even when they falter to be reflected in other traditional channels. What was human that was on those stages is human now, and the power of art needed as survival is as clear now as ever.

I keep this book by me at all times, and each time I enter it I am reminded of the joy and purpose I find through both theater and through writing. It is that magic which Rich creates (at least for me), a feeling as though I am being, at last, understood by someone who writes with integrity, zeal, humor, and an understanding of the way I/my writer's brain work that I am still in the process of figuring out myself. This book, above all I've read, fills me with a deep sense of peace I wish for each of us to find in literature and elsewhere.

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember when Frank Rich was nicknamed the Butcher of Broadway, before he turned instead to writing about politics. Because of that nickname, I had to get this book. I was not disappointed because of the sheer number of productions reviewed and the hidden treasures inside. For example, I had no idea that John Cameron Mitchell, now widely known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, played a somewhat small part in The Secret Garden. Rich noticed him and gave him a glowing review. The book isn't really readable as a cover-to-cover book, but it's great as a reference to 80's and early 90's New York theatre.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 5 out of 5]

On my nightstand I have been reading Frank Rich's Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for the New York Times, 1980-1993 (New York: Random House, 1998). Spending endless days years ago in the hospital I became addicted to the New York Times and in the process found myself drawn to Frank Rich's column in editorial column in the Times (which I have reprinted here often). He is consistently one of those writers that I find entertaining, engaging and intelligent. So I decided to pick up a couple of his books from the local library.

[Craig Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Rich, the theater critic once known as "The Butcher of Broadway," shows in this anthology of 300 of his reviews and features that he was far more than just a master of the acerbic putdown. He was a smart and perceptive observer of trends in the American theater, and a deft writer who knew how to turn a phrase. That said, his savaging of such flops as "Moose Murders" s hysterically funny, and worth the price of the book alone.

[Martha Southgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s the thing about this book-I’m kinda always reading it. I find it incredibly comforting and dip in and out all the time. Frank Rich was such a symbol to me of what I wanted before I moved to NYC. I treasure these reviews and their picture of the time in American theater when I first moved here.

[bluerose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the best

[Derek Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich trove of reviews. What a brilliant writer and a perspicacious critic! Loved the takedowns of Lloyd Webber...

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theater criticism at its best. Can't beat Frank Rich at the NYT.