Finding the Reviews: Sites containing theatre reviews

This week's article was inspired by my difficulty finding online reviews to shows that I know should be there.

So you're set for a trip to the big city and you've saved your pennies for a year just so you can see a show or two while you're there. So whatta ya gonna see? How're you gonna make up your mind?

If you're a trusting soul, you can rely on the tried, although not necessarily true, method of listening to the critics. And being the connected type you are, you'll want to find the reviews online. Here are some places to start. Note that although the pages mentioned may belong to much larger sites, the links provided below usually bring you directly to the link areas.

The Pros
Net Exclusives
These links contain reviews that are written exclusively or primarily for web sites. The authors are considered (or consider themselves) as professional caliber.

First and foremost is AisleSay, The Internet Magazine of Stage Reviews and Opionion, created by lyricist/composer/author David Spencer. Their reviews are timely and up-to-date with reviews submitted by critics from around the world.

Larry Stark maintains a site devoted to Boston and New England theatre, The Theater Mirror, Boston's Live Theater Guide. The many reviewers are top notch and reviews are posted regularly.

A critic who writes for both AisleSay and Theater Mirror maintains a site devoted to her own work. Actor/playwright Geralyn Horton's reviews have appeared in the Brighton Journal, the Brookline Citizen, the Cambridge Chronicle, and She.

Elyse Sommer's site CurtainUp has reviews by a number of writers in addition to herself of current New York shows. (This is also a place to read occasional "sneak previews" of shows prior to their opening with appropriate disclaimers and care taken not to appear as if the show is actually being "reviewed.")

Newspapers
The big city papers are where people have traditionally gone for their dose of critical writings. Many of the larger papers now maintain a web presence although most newspapers find that publishing their non-hard-news to the web is a conflict of interest. If you could get everything you wanted from a paper at its website, why would you ever buy the hard copy? That's why you'll see some lag time between the time a review appears in print and when it finally shows up at the website.

There are obviously many more papers to go to than you'll find below. I've kept the list to the larger papers from towns known for premieres of new theatre works (with the exception of Boston which is well represented in the "Net Exclusives" section above.