Theatres face ban on misquoting reviews
Theatre producers who deliberately misquote reviews in marketing material could face legal action from the end of this year, when a new EU directive comes into force in the UK. From December, managements who mislead the public by using selective quotes from reviews will face the prospect of civil, or even in rare cases, criminal sanctions. Theatre critics complain that the practice of tweaking or “blatantly misquoting” reviews is relatively common and that while gentlemen’s agreements are in place, in practice they do not always work.
Simon Gorham, a solicitor at Boodle Hatfield, said: “The key is that the legislation says that any omission of relevant information is also unfair,” he told The Stage newspaper. “However, someone would need to make a test case to see exactly what the impact will be.” Gorham said the new directive meant producers would have to be more careful in the future when using selective quotes, because from December there would be a “real risk” of a clamp down, with the Office of Fair Trading or Trading Standards looking for an early test case.
Times critic Dominic Maxwell said his review of Saturday Night Fever which had read “if it’s an all-out retro romp you want, this only fitfully delivers” had been edited to “an all-out retro romp” in publicity material. Under the new legislation this would be a criminal offence, lawyers claim. A survey carried out by The Times last year found that more than a third of theatres displayed highly selective quotes on their hoardings and some had extracted apparently glowing phrases from the middle of damning sentences.
Nick Allott, managing director of Cameron Mackintosh, said that the new law would put a stop to promoters who regarded selective quoting as a game. “If you take liberties you’re asking to be shot down.” Westminster City Council, which oversees half of London’s theatre district, said that it would contact promoters to inform them of the new law and ask them to stop using selective quotes. “We would consider legal action if we felt that theatregoers were buying tickets on the basis of misleading endorsements,” said Audrey Lewis, of the council.
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