Rocco does Peoria
St. Louis-born Rocco Landesman is coming home to the Central Time Zone. The recently confirmed Director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) smeared Peoria theater, and by extension all small-town theater, in a pre-confirmation interview with New York Times reporter Robin Pogrebin. Before becoming a government bureaucrat, Landesman was a big-time Broadway producer who specialized in musical theater, so he must know something about theater, right? (Not to mention the rest of the arts.)
Anyway, the hicks in Peoria made him look like the ill-informed New York snob he is. With good-humor and typical Midwestern generosity, they invited him to town to experience Peoria theater, and in a rare exercise in diplomacy, he has graciously accepted the invitation. Comparing the visit to President Obama’s beer summit at the White House with Henry Gates and Cambridge police officer James Crowley, Kathy Chitwood, director of East Peoria’s Eastlight Theater called it more of a “lemonade stand.” Landesman is scheduled to visit during the theater’s annual Christmas show. He will probably find it excruciating, but he says he understands that there is a Steak ‘n Shake in Peoria, which he is looking forward to visiting. It is, he says, his favorite restaurant.
For the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/arts/18nea.html?hpw
The irritating thing about coastal snobbery towards “Peoria” and the Midwest in general is that the phrase “Will it play in Peoria?” was an adage leftover from Vaudeville days, when everyone on the circuit knew that Peoria had the most discerning audiences and the toughest critics, and that for an act to go over well in Peoria it had to be exceptionally good. But since then, as the elites have decided they need to huddle together on the coasts, the phrase has come to signify “Well, we have to dumb it down so people in Peoria will understand it.”
Which is patently untrue, but people don’t become elites by giving other people their due, but by running down anyone who isn’t desperately insecure enough to move to NYC just to prove how wonderful they are.