In the years that I ran WhatsOnStage, the site’s Discussion Forum, a.k.a. “The Board”, was often the bane of my life. Producers would pull me aside on press nights to complain about it – insiders were revealing secrets about their shows that they shouldn’t be, they lamented; competitors were dishing dirt on their shows and […]
Press pass: Embracing My Theatre Mates and the Also Recognised Awards + lots of thanks
For all the planning and preparation I’ve been doing with Mark Shenton over the past few months, even I am a little taken aback by the response to our launch yesterday of MyTheatreMates.com and the Also Recognised Awards, including the UK’s first-ever award for Best Musical Direction. I couldn’t be more delighted, and, on […]
What am I up to next? Let’s start with some Mates recognition
I was touched and heartened by the outpouring to the news last week that I finally won my unfair dismissal claim against the new owners of WhatsOnStage. Amongst many of those responses was a very frequent question: what am I up to next? First, let me please assure you, apart from litigation, I have been […]
Terri Paddock vs Whatsonstage.com
You can see Kevin Spacey reprising his performance as legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow at the Old Vic Theatre at the moment. We also recently had the chilling, thrilling musical The Scottsboro Boys at the Garrick (itself now unjustly replaced by Let It Be), which told the true story of nine young black men falsely accused of murder in 1930s Alabama.
Those theatrical versions of real-life stories cast long shadows about injustice, and the Scottsboro Boys only recently got a long overdue pardon more than 80 years later in 2013.
Tribunal ruling: I was “unfairly dismissed” by WhatsOnStage
It’s been 455 days since I was walked out of the offices of WhatsOnStage, the company that I co-founded. And today I can finally, officially and publicly say: I did nothing wrong and should not have been dismissed. To say that the past 15 months have been extremely long and difficult for me is an understatement, and […]
Charles Spencer, Mark Shenton, Tim Walker and the “strange world of theatre critics”
When the Daily Telegraph announced yesterday that Charles Spencer is retiring after 25 years as the newspaper’s theatre critic, there was an outpouring of appreciation for Charlie on Twitter: his long service, his astute opinions, his coins of phrase (Nicole Kidman = “pure theatrical Viagra”) and his public battles with his personal demons (alcoholism and […]
The long and winding road to Employment Tribunal
When Mark Shenton was dismissed as critic from the Sunday Express last December, it was the talking point of the theatre industry, particularly after he blogged for The Stage about the sensational reason for and the manner of the dismissal. Next week, his case against his former employer will be heard in a five-day employment […]