If anything, critics are among the voters least compromised by conflicts of interest, and most likely to vote objectively and fairly for the work they judge to be best. (The others are liable to have greater personal, professional and financial stakes in the outcome.)

It also represents another regrettable step toward the marginalization of critics within the New York theatrical community... We can expect to see more such gestures of exclusion in the future, each chipping away, as intended, at the status of critics within the theater world.