The play has been discussed in several books, including Shoptalk: Conversations About Theater and Film With Twelve Writers by Dennis Brown (1993); Broadway's Beautiful Losers by Marilyn Stasio (1972); On Stage: The Making of a Broadway Play by Susan Jacobs (1967); and The Season by William Goldman (1969).
[1] Johnny No-Trump opened at the Cort Theatre on October 8, 1967, and ran for 5 previews and one regular performance.
Directed by Joseph Hardy, it starred James Broderick, Sada Thompson, Pat Hingle, Don Scardino and, making her Broadway debut, Bernadette Peters.
"[6] Walter Kerr, also in The New York Times, wrote that Mercier "is plainly talented, she is already capable of a blunt and crackling speech that insists upon being listened to.
... To compound the disaster, the production was superior at every level: director Joseph Hardy displayed a fresh sensibilty that coaxed an altogether unfamiliar reality – at once supple and hardheaded – out of a familiar kind of domestic crisis.
"[9] William Goldman later argued that the play struggled because it arrived in New York "so quietly": It had no power connected with it.
[10]Pat Hingle, who appeared in the play, argued the producers "panicked" by taking it off stage after one performance.