To nearly two generations of Broadway producers at more than 10,000 first nights, no onstage exits were as important as the abrupt, deadpan departures of Critic George Jean Nathan from his aisle seat. If that departure came (as it did all too often) at the end of the second act, financial disaster loomed ahead. For his abrasive wit in demolishing flimflam and fraud, his impish pride in prejudice, and not least for his ability to hone a sharper line than most of the playwrights he panned, slight (5 ft. 7 in., 130 1bs.), white-thatched...
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