He's Baaaaaack

Critic John Simon, formerly scaring people at New York Magazine, is back writing theatre reviews at Bloomberg.com. I had no idea. Go get 'em, John.

A small sample from his review of Hedda Gabler:

The Roundabout Theatre Company production marks the fourth major staging in recent memory -- and New York still can’t get Henrik Ibsen's drama right. Of the three other recent heroines, though famous, one Hedda was absurd (Elizabeth Marvel), one colorless (Kate Burton), and one in need of defrosting (Cate Blanchett).

[....]

Ian Rickson, a British director who already did serious current damage to “The Seagull,” now gets to wreak havoc on another masterwork. Rickson’s people do not behave like proper, staid, 19th-century Scandinavians, the source, in large part, of Hedda’s ennui. Rather, they carry on like hot-blooded Sicilians storming through “Cavalleria Rusticana” minus the music. And, apropos music, the score P.J. Harvey has composed here is something for a horror movie.

Hasn't changed a bit.