John Simon - How to Succeed on Broadway - 1961

(Or why John Simon has always been disliked). From his 1961 review of "Purlie Victorious":

"The one show that could run forever on Broadway would be a big, vulgar musical about Jewish Negroes. The author would have the audiences, reviewers, and the Pulitzer people eating out of his little hand, and would not have consider all the perfumes of Arabia. Unfortunately, our showman only have wit to use two of the three useful ingredients at one time: thus "Milk and Honey" is a big musical about Israel, "Kwamina" is a big musical about Africa, and "Purlie Victorious" has Negroes celebrating Hanukkah in their church. Yet a score of two out of three isn't a negligible achievement, and I trust all three shows are reaping their just rewards."