Weather 
As sure as the holiday season brings televised showings of How The Grinch Stole Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life, no sooner does the calendar turn to December than the culture pages of media outlets, especially legacy media outlets, turn to Best of and Top 10 lists of the past year’s offerings. It’s a tradition.
It makes no matter that the year is not yet over and these are really December to November rundowns. The nation’s cultural critics either rush or are pushed to recap all they’ve seen or consumed in some fashion. Those who follow arts criticism and its dedicated purveyors aren’t necessarily surprised by these lists, since they well may be evident to readers with long memories. Nonethless, these lists proliferate, populating Sunday sections – if such a thing exists for the outlet – with summary surveys.
These lists are seasonal bonanzas for marketers if the culturally praised remains in the marketplace. Ads therafter are festooned with mentions of how many best of lists a particular offering may have been featured on. For films, since the calendar year aligns exactly with Academy Award eligibility, the lists are part of the run up to nominating season, and valuable tools as Oscar campaigning. Because the Tony Awards timing is fairly asynchronous with the calendar, only shows that opened in the early part of each season get to trumpet their place on such lists, but come April and May, the recognition will surely be resurfaced, for nominators and voters alike.
Yet for all of the positive validation that these lists offer, they have a flip side, and evil twin, that never fails to get my dander up each December. I refer, of course, to the Worst Of lists that often go hand in hand with their sunnier counterparts. These lists are not necessarily ten items long as well, but they are often given, on a per show basis, equal weight and space, yet they serve, at least as far as theatre goes, little practical purpose for the reader.
After all, theatre has a way of weeding out shows which aren’t up to snuff in critical and popular opinion, and numerous productions will have closed before the year is out. Worst of lists exist primarily so that critics can unleash an extra round of snark at (dis)favored projects, in all but rare cases kicking a show that isn’t necessarily down, but very possibly already out. That’s not to say that every project is widely received the same by all, and one person’s failure could be another’s fave, but the shows that land on worst of lists tend to fall into such a category by consensus, even if reviews are by their very nature one person’s own opinion, rather than a survey of sentiment.
I resent these lists year after year because it seems a waste of time and energy to re-slag a show weeks or months after the opportunity first presented itself in the course of reviewing responsibilities. After all, the shows which fail didn’t do so because the makers were less than dedicated and in most cases any less professional in their efforts. Shows that don’t succeed may have suffered from some questionable choices along the way, or arose from a premise that didn’t resonate with those who saw it. But why should the end of each year become an opportunity to retraumatize the people who had to face the initial round withering opinion upon opening, very possibly slamming dozens upon dozens of people who no longer have employment because the project couldn’t sustain itself in the marketplace.
And let’s say something deemed worst is in fact surviving. Why should critics take another whack at it? Worst of list entries for cultural offerings that survive seem designed to try to undercut the success they may be finding once again, while insulting the people who apparently find enough favor in it to keep it afloat.
Perhaps this is shouting against the wind and the convention of Best and Worst lists is too ingrained to sway. But if cultural arbiters are still thinking about their least rewarding evenings at the theatre from the past 11 or 12 months, perhaps they’ll realize that there’s nothing to be gained by once again expressing their displeasure with certain projects, and the sharper their wit the less compassionate they are to the artists they work to cover year round. As for consumers, maybe just skip that Worst Of tag on at the end of Best lists, and forego the dark wit used to question and perhaps vilify that which didn’t make the critical grade. After all, it’s a time for celebration and holiday, not the dredging up of grudges.
