Critic Unfair to ‘Hero’

I found Jan Breslauer’s review of “Lobby Hero,” Kenneth Lonergan’s play at South Coast Rep, to be blatantly reactive to the success the author has recently been enjoying (“A Less Than Heroic Effort, on All Fronts,” F1, Feb. 25). This is a bizarre attitude to bring into the theater, and I cannot help but feel that Breslauer’s mind was made up before the curtain went up. What’s more, she felt the need not only to attack the production she was watching but also Lonergan’s previous work, stating that “This Is Our Youth” was nothing more than hip cynicism and that those who enjoyed it were “limousine liberals,” a phrase which I suppose means artsy bourgeois? Or, more simply put, a class of theatergoer she considers herself better than, whoever they are. Breslauer is doggedly closed off to what makes theater wonderful: rhythms of speech, subtle surprises of character, loving details and the risks of sudden earnestness that lie hidden in a cynical landscape. She is not doing any of us any favors by sharing her heroic, anti-hip judgments.

DAVEY HOLMES

Los Angeles