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Laurents was offered plenty of advice about ways to improve the show -- from composers Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman and playwright Anthony Shaffer, among others, according to sources close to the producers. It was all rejected. So was the testimony of the public, which walked out in droves. At a performance last week, two elderly women in the front row tottered out about 20 minutes before the end. This writer, seated behind, longed to join them.