[smith]

Am I the only one who finds that large picture of Michael Billington on the homepage slightly disturbing? He looks like a serial killer, staring into the distance and smirking as he thinks of all his victims!

[Reich]

Am I the only one who finds that large picture of Michael Billington on the homepage slightly disturbing? He looks like a serial killer, staring into the distance and smirking as he thinks of all his victims!

It's not just the pic of him I find disturbing, most of the words that come out his mouth are far worse ...

[June]

I agree with you both!

[Red Momma]

I like Michael Billington!

[curzon]

I like Michael Billington!

Sebastian

[Red Momma]

Sebastian

Well he has, in the past, said some very nice things about people I know



.

[Alexandra]

It's ok, Red Momma, you're not alone. I find him an excellent critic, certainly for straight drama. I gather musical lovers don't like him but I couldn't care less about that since I don't (on the whole) like musicals.

[Cocktail Clara]

He's ghastly. And what's more he and his Guardian colleagues seem to be taking over at the National. There's a cosy tete-a-tete between him and Hytner coming up in The Olivier, I believe (has it happened already?).

The equally odious Gary Younge (also of The Graun) has produced a nasty little essay in the programme to The Emperor Jones that has naff all to do with the play itself and instead carries on with the Guardian's daily diet of anti-US propaganda. Gary, furious that Condoleezza Rice might actually have a brain of her own and not swallow that disgusting newspaper's propaganda, goes for the usual Guardian tactic when trying to rubbish a politician: he accuses her of racism. Heard of crying wolf, Gary? Might have something to do with plummeting sales figures.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want right-wing commentators swanning around on the National's stages or penning drivel in its programmes (although that would provide some balance), but I don't see why the National has to align itself with any explicitly political commentators in the first place, especially when they're so biased (its even sponsored this year by The Not Very Independent newspaper).

What on earth would Olivier make of his dream being reduced to a talking shop for such wretched people?

[musicals fan]

You must be expecting trouble with these comments.

This site is a second home to Guardian readers - they endless mention that paper in their comments as if it is the last word in impartiality!

Run for cover now.

[Tintin]

Maybe that is why this site has become so boring.