How Odd of Todd

When Michael Todd's raw and raucous Peep Show opened on Broadway a fortnight ago (TIME, July 10), Critic John Chapman of the New York Daily News wrote a balanced review, praising the show's pretty girls but deploring Todd's vulgarity. His verdict: an embarrassingly dirty show. To Critic Chapman's annoyance, thick-skinned Producer Todd called up to thank him for a good box-office notice.

Last week, in a second column, Chapman tried again to set Todd straight. "In my first-night notice," he wrote, "I had called Peep Show an old-fashioned stag smoker and I said I was embarrassed because I had a lady with me ... I did say the girls were numerous and beautiful, the costumes were far from numerous, scenery was lavish . . . But I was frankly relieved when my wife and Vassar daughter ... went home at the intermission.

"A few days before the opening . . . Mike wanted to tell me about his revue but I would not let him, it being [my] firm policy to know as little as possible before the opening performance. So Todd and I chatted about stage humor and he told of his own high principles ... So I went to Peep Show . . . There came a sketch--a strip-tease number ... It was in the lowest possible taste. [There was also] an old burlesque number involving a girl who could twirl her breasts ... I felt sorry for the lovely young ladies of the company . . .

"I still don't know who is the sucker--Todd or his public ... All I can report is that Peep Show made me feel cheap--and if this piece is another good box-office notice I shall feel cheaper still."

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