With bad press like this, who needs good press?

I see Speed-the-Plow has recouped its investment. Looks like that PR campaign worked -- thanks, New York Times!

I love how that blurb begins, "Perhaps it’s true that even bad publicity is better than no publicity." It's like Patrick Healy (who wrote it) never saw this article... or this one. Bad publicity? No no no. This (which we discussed back here) is bad publicity.

Speaking of bad buzz for the Roundabout -- did Todd Haimes insult Ben Brantley's mother or something? The Pal Joey review was bad enough, and now this utter loathing for Hedda Gabler. I'm not saying he's wrong, in either case -- I haven't seen either, so I can't comment on that. But he's unusually gleeful about how much he hated Hedda. And yet he loved the Ian Rickson The Seagull, as he reminds us here ("one of the best revivals I have ever, ever seen") -- and it sounds like his objections in the case of Hedda are identical to complaints I heard from others who saw The Seagull.

Hey, speaking of Chekhov: I loved The Cherry Orchard at BAM, and you can rest assured there were no distracting shenanigans going on with the accents. (Well, except for Charlotta Ivanova: I'm still not sure what kind of accent she was trying to do. It sounded German by way of France. But that character is so inexplicable generally that her weird accent seems appropriate.) You'll get more details soon, I hope, but in the meantime, I recommend it.

The same goes for the Atlantic's The Cripple of Inishmaan, which I can't quite get around to really reviewing in detail. Very funny, very good cast, excellent evening out. More details as soon as I can manage it!