Responding to a Reviewer With All Good Fellowship

W elcome to the theater, kid.

Times critic T.H. McCulloh used a large part of his review of the play “The Fellowship” (Calendar, July 5) to make disparaging remarks about recovering alcoholics, saying that once most alcoholics stop drinking they become bores--”That’s why they drank to begin with. They bored themselves.”

He also said that it wasn’t the fault of the actors, the writers or director . . . “all of whom give the evening a touch of class. It’s just the way things are.”

His unwarranted comments went beyond the play. They were an insult to thousands of recovering alcoholics. Is alcoholism a disease or a condition of boring people? The personalities of real-life recovering alcoholics and the characters in my play do not change . To call them bores once they have stopped drinking is an outrage and a damnable lie.

The Times has a right to its opinion.

I would have liked an opinion solely about my play, not some distorted view of alcoholics. Couldn’t “The Fellowship” have been judged fairly for what it is?

You had your shot and you lost.

Many critics raved about “The Fellowship,” calling it “a remarkable brave undertaking . . . literate, bittersweet and extremely humorous . . . a hit show.”

Spare me. If The Times doesn’t say it, it doesn’t count. Why a musical about alcoholics anyway? You open yourself up.

Musicals should be about something. The dynamics of recovery, the hope that’s there, the wonderful craziness. . . .

Excuse me, but everything you say is sour grapes and that’s that.

KNX Radio said the play has power and laughs and honesty.

Will you stop? The Times is the only game in town. Without it you close. It’s just the way things are.

I wonder what David Merrick would do?

He would buy thousands of dollars worth of ads in The Times.

Oh.

It’s time to give it up.

I’ve learned that you must not quit before the miracle.

You’ve also learned when to let go.

To let go with love?

Yes.

Not just yet, OK?