Screw-eyed Success

Just before British Producer Henry Sherek left England for last month's Broadway opening of The Cocktail Party (TIME, Jan. 30), he got a postcard from vacationing Poet-Playwright T. S. Eliot: "Best wishes for a comfortable flight to New York and its consequences." The consequences had been pretty much discounted; Producer Gilbert Miller and Director E. Martin Browne thought that Eliot's modern comedy in verse would make an intellectual splash. But, like Eliot himself, they let themselves hope for nothing more than a critical success. Says Miller: "We had all budgeted for a loss."

Last week The Cocktail Party was not only a hot topic at Manhattan's double-domed cocktail parties but a hot ticket on Broadway, i.e., a solid box-office hit. Every performance was sold out, the pre-opening advance sale of $23,000 had tripled and the box office was raking in $7,000 a day. The play would pay off its low $30,000 investment in six more weeks. Beamed Sherek, holder of the British rights, who insisted that he had expected no flop: "I will admit that this much success has knocked us all screw-eyed."

The success, like that of another current "noncommercial" play, The Member of the Wedding, pointedly reminded Broadway showmen not to sell the public short. It was also likely to gnaw at the London drama critics who kicked up a fuss over Manhattan's getting The Cocktail Party first. Now London will not see the play until the Broadway run ends. Did Producer Miller think that it would run through the summer, when most plays fold? Snapped Miller: "Which summer?"

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