Although The Iceman Cometh is now considered a masterpiece of twentieth-century drama, when the play first appeared on Broadway in 1946, its critical reception was mixed. By the time of the play's production, O'Neill was a well-established playwright, a recipient of the Nobel Prize, and The Iceman Cometh marked the end of his twelve-year absence from Broadway. Rosamond Gilder, whose review for Theatre Arts is reprinted in O'Neill and his Plays: Four Decades of Criticism, noted "O'Neill's return has done more than give the new season a fillip of interest; it has restored to the theatre something of its intrinsic stature." Of the play itself, Gilder wrote, "The Iceman Cometh is made of good theatre substance—meaty material for actors, racy dialogue, variety of character, suspense and passion." In his book Eugene O'Neill, Normand Berlin quoted George Jean Nathan, who remarked in his review of this production...