Romantic Poetry

Description
John Patrick Shanley and Henry Krieger’s ludicrous new musical—the first show to earn the TONY Theater section’s uncoveted zero-star rating—is a garish failure on every level. The plot is incoherent and inane; the set is supremely tacky; the cast flounders under inept Shanley’s direction; the lyrics are risibly poor. (“His ache it is heinous?/?He touches his penis.”) In a more honorable world, the entire board of Manhattan Theatre Club would resign in disgrace for presenting such bilge, and charging $85 to see it.—AF