Rob Kendt and Isaac Butler have a new site, CRITIC-O-METER – it’s like Rotten Tomatoes for New York theater – it compiles all critics’ reviews to award plays a letter grade.

If you look at their listing for HAIRSPRAY, for example, you can see that the site also excerpts portions of all the reviews from which they determined the grade. It’s a good way to get a sense of what lots of different writers think of a show.

From their explanation of the whys and wherefores:
Critic-O-Meter is an idea borne of the blogosphere. Critic and editor Rob Weinert-Kendt and myself (director and writer Isaac Butler) were having matzoh ball soup at the Polish Tea Room when Rob mentioned that he had read on a blog that someone said “You know, they really should have a Rotten Tomatoes for theatre reviews”. In true slowest-moving-art-form fashion, we then puttered about talking about it for a few months before finally building the site you see before you today.

We approve!