Theater: Mint Theatre / 311 West 43rd Street, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
What The Public Wants is Arnold Bennett's sly satire on tabloid journalism -- a lively look at life behind the headlines and proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same. This clever 1909 comedy charts the efforts of media mogul Sir Charles Worgan to boost circulation as well as his social standing. He owns forty different publications and claims to have "revolutionized journalism." He employs over a thousand people and is worth millions -- and yet Worgan wants more -- he wants respect from the "superior people" who look down their noses at him. But is he willing to pay the price?
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January 30, 2011: If there’s one thing you learn by going regularly to the Mint Theater, which specializes in forgotten dramas, it’s that the world has changed less than you think.
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January 27, 2011: The key character in "What the Public Wants" is a driven media tycoon who reaches millions via dozens of publications. Through them, he seeks to entertain the many and influence the mighty.
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January 27, 2011: For those not acquainted with the phrase "yellow journalism," it refers to sensationalizing the news with overly dramatic headlines intended to grab readers and sell the most papers. That's the subject of "What The Public Wants," a comedy by Arnold Bennett that satirizes tabloid journalism in 1906 London. The play opened Thursday night at the Mint Theater in a witty, well-acted production; director Matthew Arbour is faithful to the original material, which is clever and surprisingly contemporary more than a hundred years after Bennett wrote it.
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January 31, 2011: Jonathan Bank has given a foster home to Arnold Bennett's 1909 play What the Public Wants at the Mint Theatre. And as directed superbly by Matthew Arbour and designed by Roger Hanna, what a welcome new resident it is as it goes about skewering a publishing mogul who may put today's audiences in mind of someone like Rupert Murdoch.
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January 27, 2011: According to a press release, Arnold Bennett's 1909 comedy about London tabloid journalism, though obscure here in America, has been revived numerous times in England, always to huzzahs for how topical it remains. Alas, Mint Theater Company's strained production reveals just the opposite. Time has long since passed by this artificial broadside against the evils of indulging the people's "low" taste. Indeed, in the age of the Internet, when the public can self-satisfy its hungers through tweets, blogs, videos, and chat rooms, "What the Public Wants" seems positively irrelevant.
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