Marginal. Man is a theatre critic; wife writes a play; man feels obligated to review the play; play is bad; marriage suffers. Stereotypical characters in a man who is upright and honorable and can't sacrifice his integrity to lie about his wife's play, and is too proud to allow someone else to review it. Wife is ditzy and easily hurt, unable to accept any criticism of her play (of course, the husband is "witty" in his criticism, throwing barbs right and left without concern for who is hit by them). Precocious son from a previous marriage, ex-wife who left him after a bad review of her performance as Helen of Troy, and an energetic, attractive young producer manage to add most of the wit in the play. The ending is stereotypical 50s sit-com with wife realizing that a woman's real role is taking care of the husband, and husband basically telling her, nope, can't say I'm sorry, because I did the right thing and you have to act like a grown up. Wife swoons over this, forgives him, and everyone is happy - except, of course, the reader, who has been fed a script straight out of Leave it to Beaver, and deserved much more from a major stage play. Missable. ( )

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