Michael Moore hoped his Broadway play, entitled The Terms of My Surrender, would be the signature piece to take down Donald Trump. He boasted on Twitter that people were lining up to see his show. Unfortunately, his true self as a self-aggrandizing narcissist came through and many of the reviews by his fellow Progressives were absolutely awful.
Another sold out show 4 my one man play last nite! The line on 44th St wraps all the way down 2 6thAve! Thank u all! pic.twitter.com/iEhoEXcxGh
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) August 1, 2017
He tweeted some of the more positive reviews.
“The Terms of My Surrender” A MUST-SEE!” – Ben Brantley, New York Times https://t.co/9FB51DTf7p
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) August 11, 2017
VarIety: “Moore fires up the faithful to revolt… and makes his revolutionary pitch with surprising sweetness.”. https://t.co/QdXlNEpumA
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) August 11, 2017
He boasted that his far-left favorites attended the Thursday night opening. Gloria Steinem and Harry Belafonte loved it.
Despite those great self-reviews, the show is a bomb and many of the liberal and Progressive reviewers know it. They gave him absolutely awful reviews.
The New York Times theater critic Jesse Green described it as “a bit like being stuck at Thanksgiving dinner with a garrulous, self-regarding, time-sucking uncle. Gotta love him — but maybe let’s turn on the television.”
While praising Moore’s activism, Green wrote, “Still, you don’t have to disagree with Mr. Moore’s politics to find that his shtick has become disagreeable with age. He wants to help liberals turn their Post Traumatic Trump Disorder into practical action.”
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“Audiences hoping for a bit of feel-good liberal therapy, let alone a good show, may be disappointed to find that Mr. Moore isn’t very interested in them. He’s not preaching to the choir: He’s bragging to it,” Green added.
Green also noted Moore’s “failure to examine the inept moral equivalences and disguised elitism inherent in his brand of provocation. The result is as confusing politically as it is theatrically.”
“Audiences hoping for a bit of feel-good liberal therapy, let alone a good show, may be disappointed to find that Mr. Moore isn’t very interested in them,” Green concluded. “He’s not preaching to the choir: He’s bragging to it.”
“Michael Moore looked like a fish out of water — or was it a deer in headlights?” the Los Angeles Times‘ Charles McNulty wrote.
“I found myself cringing at the self-congratulatory applause that would break out when he would utter one of his pieties,” McNulty continued. “And I lost patience with the way he seemed to want both sympathy for being a victim of the right and adulation for being the champion of all mankind.”
“Some of these personal anecdotes are proud puffery,” Variety’s Marilyn Stasio said.
Peter Marks of the Washington Post asserted that “Michael Moore should leave Broadway to the pros.”
The Post reviewer called the play a “sloppy concoction” that is “less a jaunty excursion than an unvarnished ego trip” and “a slog through cringe-inducing skits and only occasionally engaging anecdotes about Moore’s stumble into the life of a political gadfly.”
As Mr. Green said, “The Terms of My Surrender” is Mr. Moore’s shaggy and self-aggrandizing Broadway showcase…
