Review by Martha Bayles of the book The Critic, Power, and the Performing Arts [New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1991, 225 p.].

Among the many fascinating anecdotes included in John E. Booth's The Critic, Power and the Performing Arts, is an exchange between Robert Shaw, the conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the 1960s and Jack Tarvey of the Atlanta Constitution. After listening to Mr. Shaw's complaints that the paper did not have a good music critic, Mr. Tarvey shot back and you're damn lucky we don't have one.

To Mr. Booth, a former theatre critic for the New York Times, associate director of the Twentieth Century Fund, and founding member of the Theatre Development Fund, this exchange raises the essential question: Do Americans really want good theatre, music and dance critics? And if not, why not? To find answers, Mr. Booth offers first a descriptive account of the role actually played by contemporary critics, then an analysis of why good criticism remains the exception, not the rule.

The descriptive account is quite successful, reflecting Mr. Booth's unusual approach of interviewing both performing artists and critics. The first two chapters are organized accordingly: part one focuses on The Impact of Criticism as described by performing artists; part two on the formative experiences and professional practices that comprise The World of the Critic. These sections of The Critic, Power and the Performing Arts offer a page-turning cache of valuable nuggets - anecdotes, complaints, advice and wisdom - from both sides of the proscenium.

On the level of cultural analysis, however, the book is less satisfying. Mr. Booth notes the extent to which artists and critics agree that the performing arts are sorely neglected by the mass media (especially newspapers and television) and explores the reasons for this in part three The Philosophy of Criticism: Toward the Best of Worlds. Yet here, it must be said, the nuggets so painstakingly gathered are not melted down and reshaped into a coherent argument about the state of contemporary culture. (p. 347)

Among the many fascinating anecdotes included in John E. Booth's The Critic, Power and the Performing Arts, is an exchange between Robert Shaw, the conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the 1960s and Jack Tarvey of the Atlanta Constitution. After listening to Mr. Shaw's complaints that the paper did not have a good music critic, Mr. Tarvey shot back and you're damn lucky we don't have one.