Arsenic and Old Lace | Critical Overview
When Arsenic and Old Lace opened at the Fulton Theatre in New York City on January 10, 1941, it was an immediate success with the public as well as the critics. Rosamond Gilder, in her review for Theater Arts, noted its ‘‘continuous hilarity,’’ and deemed it ‘‘the ultimate in the genre. Arsenic and Old Lace lives up to its beguiling title and succeeds in turning homicide into side-splitting farce.’’ Brooks Atkinson insists in The New York Times that he does not exaggerate when he writes, ‘‘Joseph Kesselring has written [a play] so funny...
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