High Drama

A theater reviews its policy toward City Paper critics.

For reasons that remain unclear, Walnut Street Theatre informed City Paper last week that its critics would no longer receive free press tickets to shows.

The theater's managing director, Mark Sylvester, confirmed but refused to explain the decision when called for comment for this article. "Walnut Street Theatre has already provided [City Paper interim editor] Howard Altman with a statement, and we have no further comment."

But according to Altman, that statement said little. Altman says Sylvester's statement was, "We have the right to invite people, and we have the right not to invite people." Sylvester also told Altman that "members of your staff are very well aware" of the reason for the theater's decision, but City Paper arts editor Debra Auspitz checked with critics Toby Zinman and David Anthony Fox, and neither knew anything about it. Auspitz's call to the theater's publicist was returned by Cristian David, director of marketing and public relations, who also declined to explain.

Also unclear is whether the new policy applies to shows by the many smaller companies that use Walnut Street Theatre's facilities.

City Paper apparently is free to purchase tickets for its critics. Altman says he hasn't decided whether he'll authorize that.

The paper faced the same choice in the spring of 1991, when the theater struck then-City Paper critic Cary Mazer and a critic from the Courier-Post, a South Jersey daily, from the press list. Then, however, the theater was less oblique. In an Inquirer article about the move, producing artistic director Bernard Havard was quoted as saying, "If they want to trash the Walnut, they can pay to trash it."

"It amused me," says Mazer, especially since the announcement came suspiciously soon after his negative review of a play written by Havard's then-wife. And the matter was resolved by the next season, though Mazer doesn't recall how.

City Paper's last review of a Walnut Street production, Zinman's take on Great Expectations ("Water Pip Down," March 28), was relatively positive. After acknowledging that staging Charles Dickens' classic is a daunting task, she wrote, "Given all of that, this new adaptation of GE has turned out nicely enough."

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