Any Wednesday

Any Wednesday (1964), a comedy by Muriel Resnik. [Music Box Theatre, 982 perf.] John Cleves ( Don Porter) is an arrogant, lecherous, hopelessly spoiled business tycoon who, every Wednesday, meets with his oddball mistress, Ellen Gordon ( Sandy Dennis). Naturally his loyal wife, Dorothy ( Rosemary Murphy), knows nothing about his affair as she continues to pamper his childishness, letting him go first in every silly game they play, and ignoring mistakes he makes. When Cass Henderson ( Gene Hackman), a lowly employee he treats like dirt, discovers that Cleves writes off Ellen as a tax deduction, the cat is out of the bag. Cleves's puerile, petulant reaction alienates both his wife and his mistress and he realizes that if he cheats at any game from now on, that game will be solitaire. Henry Hewes of the Saturday Review dismissed the play as “slight” but “amusing” and most critics concurred. Yet Any Wednesday represented the sort of trivial, if slick, comedy that often keeps theatres lit and profitable between more ambitious plays. Coming to New York with little praise and advance sale, the comedy proved one of the “sleepers” that make for legend on Broadway.