New York theater critics gave enthusiastic reviews to The Little Foxes, and Tallulah Bankhead's portrayal of Regina still ranks high on the list of the most brilliant performances on Broadway. The smash hit opening of The Little Foxes in 1939 followed Hellman's highly successful The Children's Hour (1934) and Days to Come (1936), a failure that closed after a handful of performances. Her third effort catapulted her into the New York theater limelight, a status she enjoyed for the rest of her life, even though she wrote only five more original plays. In spite of strong competition from hit plays running at the same time The Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn, a Cole Porter musical called Leave it to Me that made Mary Martin a star, Laurence Olivier playing in No Time for Comedy, and the record-breaker Life with Father, a play that would see over 3,000 performances The Little...