Criticism don’t originate in a vacuum. Reviews are about a particular show, of course, but they’re also the product of a particular frame of mind at a particular moment. Or two moments — when you saw the show and when you wrote about it. Sometimes I’ve had a few days to digest what I saw; sometimes I’m writing a few hours after leaving the theater.

Thinking back to my review of John Leguizamo’s “Ghetto Klown,” I realize I was probably a little too generous — the show may have been just fine in a lesser season, but right now, when a lot of the competition is firing on all cylinders, “Ghetto Klown” pales a bit.

Plus of course reviewing isn’t a science: We all bring our own history. And maybe “Ghetto Klown” got extra points from me because it partly deals with growing up in New York in the 1960s and 1970s, a topic that tends to fascinate me. Or maybe it lucked out because it uses what happens to be one of my favorite songs.

At one point Leguizamo cruises a girl who likes dancing to 1970s music — and they boogie to Machine’s “There But for the Grace of God Go I.” Yessss! Any excuse to listen to this song will do. Take it away!