PAUL SLICKEY
Sia.—As one who can and does enjoy the Spectator every week, I was surprised and a little disappointed to find your critic Alan Brien including me among those who would, or even should, `get a kick out of Paul Slickey.' I can assure him and reassure you that the Spectator has a great deal more bite, wit, humour and entertainment value.
A pity, too, that Brien should pick on a first-night audience as unlikely to 'be inside all the jokes and hoaxes and wheezes and scandals of the last year.' For whatever your critic may think—and I suspect he attends more second than first nights—the audience for an opening of a show such as this is likely to consist of a large number of the actual 'targets' them- selves. Certainly there would have been few to whom Phrases like 'dressing up in drag,' or 'Who is John Deane Potter?' presented much difficulty. The fact that they were not received with rapturous applause Was hardly surprising, since they, like most of the script, which even tried to raise a snigger from the °Id prep-school joke-name 'Poppy Tupper,' had only a superficial sophistication and humour which simpky \vas not mature enough for the audience. And if all these clever references, as your critic sug- fe,sts, confounded that first-night audience, it looks brigade a gloomy prospect for the Tunbridge Wells ?riga& with their block-bookings and interval teas.—
l rat 3. 40 Elm Park Gardens, SW 10
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