But despite a largely zesty cast and a first-class production, the uncomfortable truth is Sheridan's comedy is one of those approved-and-certified classics that require unexpected reserves of patience and fortitude.
Josef Goebbels instantly recognised what he was watching, calling the film: "A masterpiece of propaganda, a first-class production which no doubt will make a certain impression upon the broad masses of the people in enemy countries".
But despite a largely zesty cast and a first-class production from Lincoln Center Theater, the uncomfortable truth is Sheridan's comedy is one of those approved-and-certified classics that require unexpected reserves of patience and fortitude.
Playwrights today already feel their imaginations hemmed in by the economics of theater production: A new play that requires more than a handful of actors has a tough shot at getting a first-class production.
Long Wharf's is a first-class production with strong performances and dynamic staging, but it solves the problem of depicting the most crucial event (what happens after the man catches a large fish) by just skipping it, which is a great loss.
A first-class production and a first-rate cast cannot manage to breathe much theatrical life into "The Twenty-Seventh Man," Nathan Englander's stage adaptation of his own short story about the grim fate that befalls a group of Jewish writers in Russia under the brutal rule of Stalin.
Certainly I heard some grumblings among my critical colleagues at the decision by Manhattan Theater Club to give a prime slot in its season, and a first-class production directed by the hot director Sam Gold, to Ms. Kazan's play, which would probably have benefited from some more diligent dramaturgy and another rewrite or two.
The Spoils wears out its welcome long before it's over (and long after we realize it doesn't know where it's going) but it's certainly given a first-class production any playwright would appreciate.
But, Mr. Wackerman says, he likes to think the company always does first-class productions.
Discriminating audiences, too, find their treks to Williamstown amply rewarded; many of the festival's first-class productions move to Broadway.
The Big Apple Circus has presented so many first-class productions over its 32 seasons that all the usual praise — thrilling, brilliant, joyful — starts to sound repetitious.
