In this review of a 1957 New York production of Osborne's play, Clurman examines the motivations for Jimmy Porter's anger—which spring from sources that the critic feels are not immediately evident to American viewers. While generally laudatory, Clurman feels that the playwright's talents have been overstated but that his talent clearly promises that greatness in the future.

John Osborne, an actor still in his twenties, wrote a play two or three years ago, Look Back In Anger (Lyceum), which has also knocked at the door— this time at the door of British drama. The knock reverberated momentously through the English theatre, and its echo, slightly muted by its ocean passage, may now be heard on our Broadway shore.

I saw the play at its opening in London, where it was received by the leading critics with an excited gratitude which astonished as much as it pleased me...