John Simon: 80 and still ornery as hell
Ousted New York theater critic John Simon has the last word in this week’s Time Out New York, with a frank and unrestrained interview. Known and loved for his acerbic, cutting reviews (and by “loved” we mean “viscerally loathed by many show people including a certain Huffie with a longstanding grudge”), Simon doesn’t hold back, reminiscing about how he was once censored for writing that “Barbra Streisand was the sort of thing that starts pogroms” (meanwhile, a thousand hearts just stopped in Chelsea) and mistily recalling a time when it was okay to refer to a show as a “faggoty Jewish musical” (at this point our hearts stopped; we love faggoty Jewish musicals!). Simon does show his softer side, philosophizing about making way for young people, writing poetry for Yoko Ono and why his wife rocks even more than Lloyd Grove. He’d like you to remember him as a big ol’ pussycat, and also he thinks ugly women should stay the hell off the stage.
Dramatic Exit [TONY, not yet online but eventually archived here]
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