J. B. was something of a sensation in its time, especially because of MacLeish's audacity and deftness in attempting to write verse drama for a modern audience. The play was published as a book months before it was ever performed, and so its first reviewers were readers, not members of an audience. Because MacLeish was well known as a poet, his play in verse received more critical attention in the major newspapers and magazines than it might have otherwise. The poet John Ciardi, in a review titled "Birth of a Classic," written for the Saturday Review of Literature, called the play "great poetry, great drama, and . . . great stagecraft." Other critics were more modest in their praise but were largely favorable. After its first production, at Yale University in 1958, the play was selected.....
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