Nick Keenan is a tyrant, and probably deaf, says the Chicago Reader

Ah, perpetuating a stereotype:

I left the Goodman thinking we need to end the tyranny of the great and powerful–and probably deafened–guy in the sound booth.

So says Deanna Isaacs in the Chicago Reader’s Onstage blog.

Here’s my other favorite line:

Didn’t they crank the volume at Gitmo?

I can’t, and won’t speak to to Deanna’s experience at this production.  It was her experience.  But, as a experienced theatre reviewer and arts reporter for the Reader (and a quite a good one. I have been a fan of her reporting for years), shouldn’t she have known who is responsible for sound levels at a theatrical production: the Sound Designer?  It’s even there in the program…

We’ll let Nick Keenan, the tyrant “guy in the sound booth” (which in this case, is factually untrue.  He is on the upper balcony and out of the booth for this production) respond to this.

But here are two other experiences:  My mother and her boyfriend saw this production, and they didn’t have a complaint about the sound.  My wife and 5 year old son saw it, and he fell asleep halfway into it (don’t use that as a review of the show, he was just really tired), and stayed asleep well after the finale, house up, and even the worklights coming up after the theatre had emptied.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Chicago, General, audience, critics, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.