Early Morning was the final play to be banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office when it was refused a license in its entirety in November 1967.

The Royal Court then formed a members-only club to stage the play (as they had with Bond's Saved), but their plans were thwarted with the arrival of police at the 1968 first night.

[7] Herbert Kretzmer remarked that the three plays staged in 1969 (Saved, Early Morning and Narrow Road to the Deep North) served as "a reminder that it is possible to become famous for having achieved nothing much at all.

[9] Ronald Bryden of The New York Times also reported in 1974 that after the 1969 revival of three Bond plays including Early Morning, "the consensus was that a formidable talent had been savagely misjudged.

Revolutionary in approach and intention, it opens up new possibilities for the treatment of history.”[13] Jenny S. Spencer wrote in a 1992 book on Bond that the play is "richly textured" and "incorporates the working-class wit of Saved".