Like most modern playwrights—like most modern thinkers of any kind—Kopit has a distinct tendency to view the rotting underside of life from below. There is nothing particularly new about this—Kopit's contribution lies in the wry imagination he brings to his description of life as he sees it…. (p. 345)

In a way it would be quite unfair to form any judgment of Kopit's abilities as a playwright and thinker on … Oh Dad, Poor Dad … [which] is essentially a huge practical joke. Kopit has written a brilliant satiric take-off on the conventions of the avant-garde drama, and most of the play's popularity undoubtedly stems from the fact that it is wildly funny without being at the same time even vaguely disturbing. (p. 346)

George Wellwarth, "Arthur Kopit," in his The Theater of Protest and Paradox: Developments in the Avant-Garde Drama (reprinted by permission of New York University Press...