Will Waspe's Whispers
The old question of whether the theatre critics of daily newspapers should have to write their reviews more of less off-thecuff to catch the next day's editions, like reporters phoning in from the scene of a fire, is being asked again. There have been critics-managements meetings at the Arts Council, chaired by the disinterested Sunday Times man Jack Lambert and reported in the Times Diary; leading articles in Drama magazine and the London Evening Standard. Opposition to the idea of a 24-hour time-lag is mostly based on the contention that instant judgments are as valuable a guide as considered reflections, while editors insist a review only has news value on the morning-after the first-night.
What nobody mentions is that today's ' first ' nights are invariably phoney — and so is the debate. Managements decide arbitrarily which night of many is to be designated 'first,' There are three productions now running in London — I, Claudius at the Queen's, Parents' Day at the Globe and Pull Both Ends at the Piccadilly — which will have their 'first' nights on July 11, 12 and 18, respectively. There is no conceivable reason for holding that those performances have news value, while the preceding ones have not.
Brief visit
Speaking of critics, New York managements that may have hastily arranged July openings in the belief that the New York Times's dreaded Clive Barnes was safely out of the way in Europe will be disappointed. Barnes arrived •in London last Thursday after a stopover in Copenhagen, but he was due back in New York on July 4.
Delayed blooms
Too many previously planned British productions of the strangely-named OffBroadway award-winner, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, have gone awry for me to positively proclaim that London will see this play. But Marvin Liebman is the latest impresario to take up the option and he plans to have the American director, Melvin Bernhardt, handle a production scheduled for an out-of-town opening in October. All forty-ish actresses who may be dreaming of the showy title role can relax, though. Sheila Hancock will play it.
Cold reception
Sam Wanamaker, I hear, moved into a new home this week. I hope he will be more comfortable in it than I was in his new Bankside Globe Playhouse. Neither Wanamaker nor his four—repeat four—artistic directors can be blamed for the weather that has chilled customers in his open-sided marquee, but they can be, surely, for the wretchedness of the opening show which would do no credit to village amateurs.
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