11 1. In your columns I have expressed admiration 'Or Your
astute and lucid theatre critic, Alan Brien, ?fle of the shrewdest and best of the younger genera- "on; but when he suggests that any reader who enjoys the Spectator is likely to enjoy The World of Paul SlickeY.1 am at a loss to understand him.
As one unmoved (amid the boos and cheers) on the rowdy and erratic first night, I would say that the vast majority of those present were not regular first- nighters, but members of John Osborne's own genera- tion who were frankly puzzled by their hero's (a) ineptitude, (b) childish naïveté, and (c) surprisingly feeble tilts at the Establishment and current thinking, when the topics he chose were so rich in satiric pos- sibility. His poisoned darts missed all along the line; which is the main reason for the boredom, dullness, and inevitable failure of this futile and (astoundingly) pretentious little musical.—Yours faithfully, BENNETT GARDINER 14 Ulster Place, Upper Harley Street, NW I
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