Seats on the Aisle

Wrong, wrong, wrong! Michael Phillips’ review of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” (“In Class by Themselves,” June 9) couldn’t have been more off.

To compare Richard Alfieri’s sensitive, insightful script to a “Golden Girls” episode makes me wonder whether Phillips and I saw the same play. At least he gave Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce the kudos that they so richly deserve for their performances.

Perhaps Phillips never had a widowed mother who lived alone in Florida and took endless dance lessons as a way to fend off loneliness and isolation. Well, I did, and Lily Harrison, Hagen’s role, couldn’t be more authentic. I fear that your readers will give the review more credence than it deserves and deprive themselves of a wonderful theatrical experience.

BARBARA H. BERGEN

Los Angeles

*

If Michael Phillips didn’t like what I thought was an exceptionally funny and telling piece of writing, fine, but at least do readers the service of treating the effort with the consideration such craftsmanship deserves.

Or does he think Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce would have stayed so blissfully afloat on a raft made of 60 blank pages?

KARIO SALEM

Los Angeles

*

After reading the interview with playwright Jessica Goldberg (“Stirring the Pot,” by Hugh Hart, June 2) and the review of her play, “Good Thing,” put on by the Taper Too at the Actors’ Gang Theater (“Kitchen Sink Drama Made Newly Relevant,” by Don Shirley, May 25), I was compelled to go see it, expecting quite a lot: The next hot, young playwright speaking for a new generation, etc. I left the theater feeling duped.

I thought the acting was good, the direction was good, the PR even better, and the play weak and shallow. A one-note melodrama with nothing much to say. Where is Michael Phillips when you need an honest assessment?

RICK CIPES

Los Angeles

*

Although Philip Brandes described Interact Theatre’s “A Little Night Music” as “spirited” and goes on to say the material is “rarely graced with the caliber of talent assembled under John Rubinstein,” if one continues to read this ludicrous review (“Adept Ensemble Creates ‘Night Music,’ ” June 8) the female lead is said to “struggle needlessly to hit notes outside her range.” Another major character is also said to be a better actor than singer. In plain English, these two women cannot sing.

When I go to a musical, I expect the leading characters to be able to sing. It’s the minimum requirement of a professional production. What is the minimum requirement to be a reviewer at The Times? Ownership of a pen?

DENISE TYRRELL

Sherman Oaks

*

I’ve just seen “Side Man” and reflect with very mixed emotions. The point that troubles me is the music. As the wife of a sideman, I usually avoid productions that use prerecorded music. For this production, not only was the music prerecorded, it was prerecorded in Europe. I find this circumstance incredibly ironic.

The play depicts the plight of the musician, or sideman, who, though a very good player, never seems to be able to make ends meet. I can’t help but think that there are any number of sidemen here who could have played that score live at the Pasadena Playhouse, or, if necessary, prerecorded the music. Taking the recording to Europe seems to me a slap in the face of all our Local 47 musicians.

MARY MARGARET McGUIRE

Palmdale