As reported in December towards the closing of The Best Man on Broadway, another Gore Vidal play may have future revival prospects. Producer and press agent Jeffrey Richards and co-producer Michael B. Rothfeld are putting together a reading of Vidal's 1957 piece, Visit to a Small Planet, with John Tillinger directing. "The reading will determine its future," Richards told Variety (Dec. 29, 2000). Tillinger is currently directing Abby Mann's Judgment at Nuremberg, so the Planet reading has been scheduled for March, Richards told Playbill On-Line (Feb. 14). No word yet on actors for the reading or any other plans for the play.
Visit to a Small Planet originally opened Feb. 7, 1957 at the Booth Theatre. Eddie Mayehoff, Conrad Janis and Cyril Ritchard were among the cast-members of Vidal's three-act, satirical comedy, which ran nearly 400 performances. The play is set in the living room of a well-to-do television commentator (originally played by Philip Coolidge) and concerns a visitor from a more civilized planet paying a call on Earth.
— By David Lefkowitz