New Plays: Staircase

If some plays had fuel gauges attached to them, their needles would indicate half full. The full half of Staircase, which opened on Broadway last week, contains uncompromisingly fine acting by the two-man cast, Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea, and a decent quota of amusing though not wildly funny lines. The empty half consists of scanty action, no character development, and a drowsy repetitiveness that comes from distending a potentially compact one-acter into a full-length play. The comedy concerns two aging homosexual barbers and is unlikely to offend any one, except possibly...

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