A Critic Misses the Point: A Response to Robert Hofler’s Take on 'John Proctor is the Villain'

Photo: Sarah Krulwich/New York Times

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

Theatre criticism, when done right, should help us see a show more clearly. It should give context, offer insight, and sometimes challenge us to think deeper about what we just experienced. But when a critic approaches a piece of theatre with a chip on their shoulder—or worse, with their mind already made up—the review becomes less about the work, and more about the reviewer.

Case in point: Robert Hofler’s take on John Proctor Is the Villain.

John Proctor is the Villain is a revisionist perspective on Arthur Miller's The Crucible, focusing on a group of contemporary high school students and their interpretation of the historical events that inspired the play.

In his review for TheWrap, Hofler wrote off the show as “yet another play about white male toxicity.”

That’s the line. That’s the takeaway. No acknowledgment of Kimberly Belflower’s funny and deeply human script.

No engagement with the way the play reframes The Crucible through the lens of a modern high school classroom. No curiosity about what it means to be a teenage girl trying to make sense of the world while drowning in double standards. Just an eye-roll and a reduction.

And frankly? That’s not just bad criticism—it’s lazy.

If this were a one-off moment, we could let it slide. But it’s part of a pattern. Hofler has shown a consistent tendency to side-eye shows with feminist themes, as if he’s somehow tired of hearing women speak. In his review of Suffs, a show about the women’s suffrage movement, he wondered aloud if the musical had been “emasculated” between its Off-Broadway run and Broadway transfer. Think about that for a second. A show about women literally fighting for the right to vote is being critiqued for losing its… masculinity?

Then there’s Once Upon a One More Time, which uses Britney Spears songs to give fairy tale princesses a feminist update. Was it everyone’s favorite show? No. But Hofler dismissed it outright with a kind of smugness that didn’t feel like critique—it felt like contempt.

And look, not every feminist show needs to be praised. We should absolutely be holding all theatre—regardless of its message—to a high standard. But there’s a noticeable difference between smart criticism and someone who seems fundamentally uninterested in what women are trying to say onstage. When that disinterest becomes the default, it’s a problem.

What frustrates me most is that John Proctor Is the Villain is exactly the kind of play we should be talking about. It’s fresh. It’s urgent. It speaks directly to how we teach, how we listen, and how we respond when young women finally say, “enough.” And to brush that off with a wave of the hand? It’s not just a missed opportunity—it’s a willful refusal to engage.

Robert Hofler has been writing reviews for over 40 years. He’s had a long, prolific career. But maybe it’s time to pass the mic. If you find yourself unable—or unwilling—to meet this moment in theatre, maybe you’re not the one who should be writing about it. The world is changing. The art is changing. Our critics should keep up. Or move on.