John Simon (critic): Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}}

{{Infobox writer

|name = John Simon

Reporting for ''[[Playbill]]'', [[Robert Simonson]] wrote that Simon's "stinging reviews – particularly his sometimes vicious appraisals of performers' physical appearances – have periodically raised calls in the theatre community for his removal."<ref name=simonson/> In 1969, the [[New York Drama Critics' Circle]] voted 10–7 to deny Simon membership, although the following year he was accepted into the group. A 1980 issue of [[Variety (magazine)|''Variety'']] included an ad signed by 300 people decrying Simon's reviews as racist and vicious.<ref name="kenneth jones"/><ref name=simonson />

 

 

While some people loved Simon's reviews in ''New York'' magazine and others hated them, Simon suggested that many were quick to change positions, depending on what he thought of their latest work. Interviewed by [[Davi Napoleon]] for ''[[The Paris Review]]'', Simon described a photo taken with producer [[Joseph Papp]], who had "his arm around me after I've given him a good review, and [asked] for the picture back the next month because of a bad review."<ref name=ParisReview/> [[Lynn Redgrave]] and [[John Clark (English actor)|John Clark]] were particularly happy with his review of ''[[Shakespeare for My Father]]'', then about to debut on Broadway.<ref>[http://www.johnclarkprose.com/commentary-john-simon-theatre-critic-still-alive.html John Clark's blogsite]; retrieved January 28, 2009.</ref> Others have suggested that his negative criticism was mean-spirited, not constructive. For example, he was known for dwelling on what he saw as the physical flaws of those actors who displeased him: [[Wallace Shawn]] is "unsightly", [[Barbra Streisand]]'s nose "cleaves the giant screen from east to west, bisects it from north to south. It zigzags across our horizon like a bolt of fleshy lightning",<ref>Gilman, S. (2000). ''Making the Body Beautiful'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vs09mB9QjTgC&dq=john+simon+barbra's+nose&pg=PA203 p. 203].</ref> while [[Kathleen Turner]] is a "braying mantis".<ref name=reese/>

In his memoir ''Life Itself'', [[Roger Ebert]] wrote, "I feel repugnance for the critic John Simon, who made it a specialty to attack the way actors look. They can't help how they look, any more than John Simon can help looking like a rat."<ref>{{cite book|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=Life Itself: A Memoir|year=2011|publisher=Grand Central|location=New York|isbn=978-0-446-58497-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeitselfmemoir00eber/page/219 219]|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeitselfmemoir00eber/page/219|url-access=registration}}</ref>

 

 

In 1973, Simon wrote an unfavorable review of the play ''Nellie Toole and Co.'',<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QuubMdy3nFUC&dq=Nellie+Toole+and+Co.&pg=PA3 Nellie Toole and Co.]''</ref> which featured actress [[Sylvia Miles]], whom Simon referred to as "one of New York's leading party girls and gate-crashers".<ref name=reese>{{cite web|last=Reese|first=Jennifer|title=Seeking Ageless Wisdom? Ask the Aged|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100587126|department=Book Reviews|publisher=National Public Radio|access-date=September 23, 2013}}</ref> In retaliation, Miles dumped a plate of food, mostly [[steak tartare]] (not pasta, as had been misreported), onto Simon's head in the popular New York restaurant O'Neal's.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Napoleon|first=Davi|title=Interviews: John Simon, The Art of Criticism No. 4|journal=The Paris Review|date=Spring 1997|volume=Spring 1997 |issue=42|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1282/the-art-of-criticism-no-4-john-simon |access-date=September 23, 2013|quote=The most famous case is Sylvia Miles throwing some steak tartare at me, which made her into a heroine. In fact, Andy Warhol said in one of his so-called books that she's famous for that and not much else. This incident was so welcomed by the Simon-hating press that the anecdote has been much retold. She has retold it ten thousand times. And this steak tartare has since metamorphosed into every known dish from lasagna to chop suey. It's been so many things that you could feed the starving orphans of India or China with it.}}</ref>

 

==Awards==

 

==Bibliography==