To the editors:
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Please, Mr. Bermingham, show some control. The correct way to respond to a critic who has sprayed bladder juice on your recent opus is to attack him with more wit, knowledge, and style than he himself showed in lambasting your show. The wrong way to do it is to use a string of incoherent, capitalized four-letter words and macho threats–and you can let a noun go by now and then without tacking adjectives (“aspiring snob,” “third-grade tirade,” “snotty little nose,” etc) on it. The single, well-placed, cut-to-the-heart zinger can do considerably more damage than a whole page of flailing about with low-octane posturing and name-calling.
In the end, Billy (try using William, that alliterative name is just too cute for anyone to take seriously), instead of reaffirming your position, your bombastic response to Langer’s review only strengthened his case, by revealing you, as a representative of the theater group, as everything he accused your show of being–imbecilic, pompous, exploitive, and sophomoric.
