VITAMEDIAS
Do reviews matter? No. Yes. Maybe. Depends.
There was a time, artistic directors say, when reviews drove the box office. Troupes would add phone staff in the wake of a good review or brace for sparse houses when the notices fell like shards of glass. Those days have changed.
"A bad review still guarantees that it will kill your show, but a good review doesn't guarantee you'll sell," said Casey Stangl, artistic director for Eye of the Storm Theatre. "I think it's lost its power."