Brustein Accused

An article in Sunday's New York Times magazine accuses Robert S. Brustein, professor of English and director of the Loeb Drama Center, of ethical breaches, including using the offer of a Harvard job to curry favor with the New York Times' theater critic.

"I rarely had ugly confrontations with anyone in the theater, and my mail from theater people, even at its angriest was civilized," former Times theater critic Frank Rich '71 wrote in the magazine article. "In 13 years the few significant exceptions invariably involved Robert Brustein, the artistic director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University."

Brustein denied the allegations in an interview this week.

"I consider this to be a character assassination," Brustein said of Rich's article. "There's not a word of truth in it."

Rich and Brustein, who has produced on Broadway, have had a long running feud. Rich has been dubbed the "Butcher of Broadway" because of the power of his reviews to shorten show runs.

In Sunday's article, Rich alleged that Brustein "offered me a teaching position at Harvard weeks after I arrived at the paper, airfare to and from my weekly seminars included."

The author, now an op-ed page columnist for The Times, also suggested that Brustein was quick to criticize the work of gay writers in the professor's theater column in The New Republic. And Rich charged that Brustein did not support Black productions.

"Brustein's American Repertory Theater was notorious among major American institutional theaters for never originating main-stage productions of plays by Black Americans," Rich wrote.

In an interview, Brustein said Rich's piece is a politically-correct attempt to exact revenge for an article Brustein wrote two years ago in The New Republic.

That article, entitled "An Embar- rassment of Riches," alleged that Rich and hiswife, who was the Times' theater reporter, workedtogether to promote and hurt he chances of certainplays. Brustein said the arrangement between Richand his wife, Alex Witchel, represented aninappropriate "consolidation of power" at theTimes.

"What you found in each case was that he wouldpraise the play and she would write a positivepiece about a playwright," Brustein said. "Orworse, the opposite would happen."

Making reference to Brustein's article in hisrecent piece, Rich charged that the professor hadcast his own wife in a show. "Often [Brustein]would stare conspicuously at Alex before the lightwent down at a performance we both attended," Richwrote.

Brustein said this week that Rich misunderstoodhis criticism. "I was not protesting nepotism,"Brustein said. "What I objected to was theaccumulation of power."

Brustein said Harvard's American. RepertoryTheater, which he heads, has done several works bygay and Black artists. He cited 12 gay or minorityartists--including Han Ong and Paula Vogel--whohave worked at the ART in the last two seasonsalone.

"I find it demeaning that I have to answer suchcharges," Brustein said. It is typical of apolitically correct society that we have to dealwith such charges."

Brustein said he could not remember if he hadoffered Rich a Harvard job, but that it waspossible he had. But the American RepertoryTheater director called the suggestion that he hadtried to buy influence "rediculous."

"If he were teaching here, obviously hecouldn't review us," Brustein said

"What you found in each case was that he wouldpraise the play and she would write a positivepiece about a playwright," Brustein said. "Orworse, the opposite would happen."

Making reference to Brustein's article in hisrecent piece, Rich charged that the professor hadcast his own wife in a show. "Often [Brustein]would stare conspicuously at Alex before the lightwent down at a performance we both attended," Richwrote.

Brustein said this week that Rich misunderstoodhis criticism. "I was not protesting nepotism,"Brustein said. "What I objected to was theaccumulation of power."

Brustein said Harvard's American. RepertoryTheater, which he heads, has done several works bygay and Black artists. He cited 12 gay or minorityartists--including Han Ong and Paula Vogel--whohave worked at the ART in the last two seasonsalone.

"I find it demeaning that I have to answer suchcharges," Brustein said. It is typical of apolitically correct society that we have to dealwith such charges."

Brustein said he could not remember if he hadoffered Rich a Harvard job, but that it waspossible he had. But the American RepertoryTheater director called the suggestion that he hadtried to buy influence "rediculous."

"If he were teaching here, obviously hecouldn't review us," Brustein said