Entertaining Mr. Sloane has generally been overshadowed by what are now considered Orton's more mature and more clearly "farcical" plays, Loot and What the Butler Saw. However, when Orton's first full-length play premiered, eminent British playwright Terence Rattigan called it (in a letter to Orton quoted by Lahr) "the most exciting and stimulating first play. . . that I've seen in thirty (odd) years' play-going." And while reviewing the 1981 Off-Broadway revival of the play, New Yorker theatre critic Edith Oliver, while admitting the superiority of Orton's later efforts, exclaimed, "but what a debut!"

As with all of Orton's purposefully shocking plays, Entertaining Mr. Sloane aroused violently mixed reactions in its initial production. Some reviews referred to him as a bright new figure in the theatre world while others blanched at the play's amorality, noting that the play's hOmiC1de (Kemp's death) was unaccompanied by any moral judgment. Still...