RIP Clive Barnes

The highest compliment you can pay any professional is to be able to say that he died with his boots on, and so it goes with the New York Post's theater and dabce critic, last spotted on Broadway taking in the revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow in late October. Barnes was at the Post for 30 years, and his was a familiar byline when I was growing up. (Prior to that, he was at the Times, also writing about theater and dance, his great passion.) I frequently saw him on the aisle when I started to write about theater in the mid-90s, and it was good to see a member of the old guard still plying his trade. (More caustic appraisals of his actual aptitude can be found on the All That Chat site. Everyone's a critic.) In a contracting market for print criticism it's hard to imagine any of today's scribes enjoying Barnes' longevity at his desk.