"Who ever heard," exclaimed Playwright Moss Hart, "of theater folk giving a party for a critic?" Last week, nonetheless, Broadway's brightest luminaries took over Sardi's with the sole unprecedented aim of honoring one of the enemy: the New York Times's gentle, erudite Brooks Atkinson, 63, dean of U.S. drama critics. Said Co-Sponsor Paula Strasberg, wife of Actors' Studio Boss Lee Strasberg: "It was a party given with love, to let Brooks know what theater people think of him."
The lovefest came as a complete surprise to Atkinson, an inveterate party-dodger, who was lured to the restaurant by his author-wife, Oriana. The "sentimental...
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