What's next, Les Spindle?

I was very sad to read that Les Spindle, long-term theater critic for Frontiers Magazine, was no longer working for the magazine. I never met anyone in Los Angeles who was a bigger champion of local gay AND straight theatre. I'd often run into him at the French Market and he always seemed excited to tell me about some new hit play he had recently discovered and reviewed. He made me want to see shows. He loves theatre.

I'm sure it ain't easy being a theatre critic. You have to sit thru alot of crap night after night, but Les never showed signs of fatugue. He never seemed jaded or bitter or angry. Even when he criticised a show he would find encouraging things to say and he never wrote off an artist just because they produced a bomb or two.

When I recently read he'd left Frontiers I couldn't help but feel we were at the end of an era in LA theater. Les understood the scene because he saw so many plays and he could discuss a playwrights progression and history and compare their work to other plays he'd recently seen. He was the only critic I read that consistently discussed themes and trends in local gay theater because he saw EVERYTHING and he understood the scene! And his reviews were more than just reviews, they were also mini-history lessons. He had this wonderful ability to make things sound important. He'd write about a play in a 50 seat theater playing to 10 people with as much passion as a show in a 2,000 seat theatre. He treated everyone with the same respect and interest. He wasn't bamboozled by big-budget productions and he never pandered to advertisers.

Les is not a close friend of mine. I can't tell you the direction his life is going but I hope he continues to cover theatre. LA needs him. Sometimes a review in Frontiers by Les was the only support a play would ever receive. I haven't personally spoken to Les about his departure and if I do and he gives me any news I'll be sure to pass it on.

I sincerely hope his life as a theatre critic is merely in transition and not yet over. It won't be as fun doing shows in Los Angeles if Les Spindle isn't in the audience.