Elliot Norton

William Elliot Norton (May 17, 1903 – July 20, 2003) was an American theater critic. In a half-century career spanning across various Boston newspapers, he authored 6,000 reviews and became one of the most influential regional theater critics in the country, gaining the moniker "The Dean of American Theatre Critics". Reflecting Boston's historic status as a major pre-Broadway tryout town, Norton practiced a style of criticism known as "play doctoring", where he made suggestions on how to improve a show; his criticism was taken seriously by producers, directors and playwrights, including Joshua Logan, Mike Nichols, and Neil Simon. He also hosted a show on WGBH-TV from 1958 to 1982, and taught at Boston College, Boston University, and Emerson College.

Norton was called "the most valuable critic in America" by producer Alexander Cohen. According to Logan:

Early life

Born William Elliot Norton in Boston to William L. Norton and Mary (Fitzgerald) Norton, he attended Harvard College (Class of 1926) after graduating from the Boston Latin School. At Harvard College, he took George Pierce Baker's class for dramatists. Baker's most famous student was Eugene O'Neill, whose plays were revolutionizing Broadway theater at the time Norton became a drama critic. Norton had been interested in theater before he was interested in writing. “I can remember Barrymore's stabbing the king n ''Hamlet'' in 1922">Hamlet.html" ;"title="n ''Hamlet">n ''Hamlet'' in 1922as vividly as if it were yesterday; it still raises the hair on the back on my hands,” he said.

Journalism career

Norton began his career as a newspaperman with ''The Boston Post'' after graduating from Harvard in 1926. By 1934, he was promoted from reporter to the editor of the drama section, where he began to make his name as a critic. The ''Post'' went out of business in 1956, and Norton was hired by the Boston Record American, which evolved into the ''Boston Herald American'', which eventually became the ''Boston Herald'' after he retired in 1982.

In addition to his newspaper reviews, he was a television critic on Boston television, including public TV station WGBH, where he hosted ''Elliot Norton Reviews''. The show ran for 1,100 episodes from 1958 to 1982.

Play doctor

Norton practiced drama criticism when the relationship between the regional critic and playwrights whose shows were undergoing tryouts in their towns were not as adversarial as they were to become. Frank Rich, who became prominent as a theater critic for ''The New York Times'', wrote about how Norton's role as a "play doctor" was part of its times:

Two major theatrical successes that Norton was credited with midwifing while they were in their Boston tryouts were ''Oklahoma!'' and '' The Odd Couple''.

''Oklahoma!''

Norton helped shape the first collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II during the tryout of as ''Away We Go'' at Boston's Colonial Theatre. Norton provided input through his printed criticism and informally. Retitled ''Oklahoma!'' when it opened on Broadway, the musical not only was a smash but helped change the face of American musical theater.

''The Odd Couple''

Neil Simon said that Norton's criticism of '' The Odd Couple'' helped him improve the play. Appearing on the show ''Eliott Norton Reviews'', in his conversation with Simon, Elliott said that the play went "flat" in its final act. As it appeared originally in Boston, the characters the Pidgeon Sisters did not appear in the final act.

Simon told ''The Boston Globe'':

Honors

Norton received the George Jean Nathan Award for drama criticism in 1964 and a Special Tony Award for distinguished commentary in 1971. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1966. His show, ''Elliot Norton Reviews'', received the Peabody Award, one of television's greatest honors.

The year he retired in 1982, he was honored by the establishment of the Elliot Norton Awards to recognize theatrical excellence in the Boston theater. The American Theater Critics Association inducted him into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1988.

Personal life and death

Norton and his wife, Florence (née Stelmach; d. 1996), had three children. In 2002, he moved from Watertown, Massachusetts, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to be closer to family. He died there on July 20, 2003, at the age of 100, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge.

Publications

*''Broadway Down East: An Informal Account of the Plays, Players, and Playhouses of Boston from Puritan Times to the Present'' (1978)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Elliot
1903 births
2003 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American men centenarians
American television hosts
American theater critics
Boston Latin School alumni
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Harvard College alumni
Journalists from Boston
People from Watertown, Massachusetts
Special Tony Award recipients
The Boston Post people