A Brilliantly Concise Theatre Review

There's a new musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll called Wonderland, and Time Out NY's Adam Feldman has written a brilliantly concise and clever review in the form of a rewritten version of Jabberwocky. The first two stanzas:

’Tis Wildhorn, and the hapless cast

Does direly gambol on the stage.

All flimsy is the plot half-assed,

Not right for any age.

Beware of Wonderland, I warn!

The jokes that cloy, the scenes that flop!

Beware the humdrum words and scorn

The spurious, bland rock-pop!

As a former theatre director (who actually wrote an adaptation once of Alice in Wonderland which is actually getting a small new production in the coming months), I of course understand the pain of a bad review. But, as a writer and communicator, I love the conciseness and directness that the surprise poetic form gives the reader. I don't think it's too clever by half at all.

Of course, it will never match the most concise review of all time: the 2 word review of Spinal Tap's Shark Sandwich...

But my favorite review will always remain Frank Rich's immortal criticism of Broadway's greatest flop, Moose Murders...