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Friday, May 29, 2009 10:41 PM CDT
Our View: Curtain closes on reviewer's long run
By JG/T-C Staff
editorial@jg-tc.com
Carl Lebovitz enjoyed music and the theater but he wasn’t an expert.
That’s why he wrote reviews. He considered himself a reviewer, not a critic.
Lebovitz, who was the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier reviewer-at-large for almost 30 years, died this week at the age of 82.
Lebovitz’s reviews were welcomed by readers and performers.
He was informative about the background of the show or music he was reviewing as well as describing the current performance.
“When I write the reviews, I learn more about what (the program) is about. I like to look into what I’m writing about, be it a play or musical,” he once said.
News reporters and photographers generally are not widely recognized.
But columnists, and reviewers, develop a following.
Lebovitz was easy to spot.
Lebovitz could be seen throughout the area in his Trilby hat, which he seldom removed.
He began working at the newspaper in 1977, compiling the weekly Entertainment Calendar.
He continued that task for years before turning it over to the newspapers’ features department when he was approaching 80 years old.
Soon after he started his part-time work here he began to do occasional reviews.
Lebovitz’s background was as a language translator. He had worked for the Army before starting a translating business with a good friend whose hometown was Mattoon.
They moved to Mattoon in the late 1960s.
“There was a performing arts group that I did some acting with and they said since I sponsored the entertainment calendar, I should do some reviews,” he said. “I’d never done it before. I was just a translator.”
Lebovitz was at home writing about symphony orchestras and string quartets. He reviewed performances at the Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, as well as high school productions at Mattoon and Charleston high schools.
He reviewed a Buddy Holly tribute show and a Red Skelton presenter.
“I like doing all types of reviews. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be doing it,” he stated.
Lebovitz’s reviews spotlighted individual performances. His reviews lauded directors and choreographers. Lebovitz’s reviews generally recognized the stage designers and lighting coordinators, and who created the costumes.
In reviewing a string quartet performance, Lebovitz told readers that one piece was written as a reaction to the start of World War I. In reviewing Handel’s “Messiah,” he pointed out the composer introduced the work to London in 1742 to an audience that included royalty.
“King George II was so stirred by the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ that he spontaneously arose in his box, and he was followed by the rest of the audience, all of whom remained standing throughout the chorus.
“Thus began a still-existing tradition,” Lebovitz wrote in a 2005 review, “and the capacity audience at the McAfee carried on this tradition. It was a moving close to a first-rate evening.”
Unfortunately, Lebovitz’s run of reviews ended too soon last fall when he became ill.
Many cheers for Carl Lebovitz.
JG/T-C Editorial Board
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AnnaNiemaus wrote on May 31, 2009 8:08 PM: