Leish, Kenneth W.

Kenneth W. Leish Theatre Reviews, 1961-68

1961-1968.

1.25 linear feet, 1 archival box.

Five hard cover 3-ring binders. One 1-inch binder, two 3-inch binders, two 2-inch binders.

Biographical Note

Kenneth W. Leish (Kenn.) was a freelance drama critic in New York City from 1961-1966 for Variety Magazine. Variety’s policy did not allow the use of critic’s full names, and Leish signed his reviews “Kenn.”

Leish was born in Cambridge, MA in 1936. He grew up in Boston and Brockton, where he attended many shows at Boston’s renowned theaters, the Shubert, the Wilbur, and Emerson’s Colonial Theatre and Cutler Majestic Theatre. His usual seat was in the second-story balconies (the cheap seats!). At the time many Broadway productions had Boston try-outs before bowing on Broadway. It was not uncommon for shows to undergo major revisions, deletions or additions of songs during these Boston-based runs. Boston was also a prime engagement for second companies and touring editions of Broadway hits.

Leish graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1958 as an English major with a thesis on Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. He then attended the Columbia graduate school of Journalism in New York and remained there to work in publishing. Leish’s publishing career included 15 years at the American Heritage Publishing Company, where he edited scores of books on American history and the creative arts, and eventually became manager of the book division and vice president of the publishing company. Leish married Barbara Ackerman in 1966, with whom he has 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

Leish also worked at Bantam Books before becoming Vice President of Grolier Publishing Company. His projects included “Hello America,” a mixed media project for English language learners. Leish even wrote 2 books for Newsweek Books about the history of movies and the history of the white house. Nevertheless, Leish watched as many plays and musicals as possible, on and off Broadway. He retained all his theatre programs, which he then donated to the University of Missouri in 2018. 

Scope and Contents

Variety Newsprint clippings of reviews of off-Broadway openings, or follow-up reviews of long running Broadway shows, or shows with a new cast. Includes annotations by the author-donor. Occasionally includes letters and memos from readers, editors or cast.

Persons of note (award winners, or mentioned at least 3 times): Alvin Ailey, Alan Arkin, Leonard Bernstein, Ray Bradbury, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Rosemary Harris, James Earl Jones, Le Roi Jones, Linda Lavin, Ming Cho Lee, Liza Minelli, Jerry Orbach, Estelle Parsons, Harold Pinter, George C. Scott, Stephen Sondheim, Jon Voight, Billy Dee Williams.

Content warning: The records may contain harmful language that reflects attitudes and biases of their time.

Finding aid: Kenneth W. Leish Theatre Reviews, 1961-68.

Series Descriptions

Kenn. Variety theater reviews. Arranged by author-donor. Original order preserved. 

Inventory 

Box 1– Kenn. Variety theatre reviews 

Binder #1 – 1961-1962: Autobiographical note; A Worm in The Horseradish; Ladies’ Night in A Turkish Bath; Anything Goes; The Only Sense Is Nonsense; The Seven at Dawn; Happy As Larry; A Fig Leaf in Her Bonnet; Walt Whitman Am I; No Corner in Heaven; The Apple; The Dark Lady of The Sonnets; The Ticket-Of-Leave Man; All Kinds of Giants; Brecht On Brecht; A Stage Affair; The Lovers in The Metro; The Man of Destiny; Fly Blackbird; The Book of Job; Dumbell People in A Barbell World; Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in The Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad; This Side of Paradise; Signs Along the Cynie Route; The School for Scandal; Mummers & Men; Pilgrim’s Progress; Nathan The Wise; Solo; Half Past Wednesday; The Tavern; At Sea and Aleestis Comes Back; King Of the Whole Damn World; If Five Years Pass; Come Out Carlo! and In the Penal Colony; The Father; The Mime’s Eye View.

Binder #2 – 1962-1963: Off-B’way Follow-up: Second City; Legit Follow-Ups: Mary, Mary; The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker; Legit Follow-Ups: Milk and Honey; Sweet Miani; Digging For Apples; Wretched The Lionhearted and A Toy for The Clowns; Iolanthe; Take Her, She’s Mine; Legit Follow-Ups: The Night of The Iguana; King Lear; Raisin’ Hell in The Son; The Tempest; The Merchant of Venice; The Cat’s Pajamas; Down In the Valley and Look at Us; The Kumquat in The Persimmon Tree; The Mikado; H.M.S. Pinafore; Legit Follow-Ups: The Sound of Music; Man Is Man; A Man’s a Man; Angels Of Anadarko; Hints To the First-Nighter; A Thousand Clowns; The Sound of Music; O Say You Can See!; The Love of Two Hours; The Anvil; Intimate Relations; P.S. 193; We’re Civilized; Legit Follow-Ups: No Strings; A Tenth of An Inch Makes a Difference; The Living Room; Macbeth; Camelot; The Dumbwaiter and The Collection; Legit Follow-Ups: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Cherry Orchard; Whisper into My Good Ear and Mrs. Dally Has a Lover; Pullman Car Hiawatha; The Coach with Six Insides; The Love Nest; The Night is Black Bottles; Riverwind; The Wide-Open Cage; Parnassus ‘63; Legit Follow-Ups: Carnival; Desire Under the Elms; Abe Lincoln In Illinois; Legit Follow-Ups: A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Forum; Mary, Mary; I Got Shoes; A Doll’s House; The Typist and The Tiger; Vanity Of Nothing; The Laundry; New Girl in Town; The Importance of Being Earnest; A Wilde Evening with Shaw; The Taming of The Shrew; Six Characters in Search of An Author; A Darker Flower; The Magistrate; Yes Is for A Very Young Man; Legit Follow-Ups: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Legit Follow-Ups: Camelot; Legit Follow-Ups: Stop the World – I Want to Get Off!; Legit Follow-Ups: Fade Out – Fade In; The Firebugs; Do You Know the Milky Way?; Hey you, Light Man; Call It Virtue; Darkness At Noon; Best Foot Forward; Legit Follow-Ups: Tehin-Tehin; The Good Soldier Schweik; The Dragon; The Emperor; The Boys from Syracuse; The Saving Grace; Oklahoma; Legit Follow-Ups: Calculated Risk; Enter Laughing; The Square Root of Wonderful; The Lion in Love; The Chief Thing; The Blue Boy in Black; Utopia!; The Uncommon Denominator; Save Me A Place at Forest Lawn and The Last Minstrel; Five Evenings; Room Service; Put It in Writing; Night Of the Auk; The Summer of Daisy Miller; Along Came a Spider; The Brig; The American Dream; A Month in The Country; Asides and Ad-Libs; Off-B’way Was In-‘N’-Out In ’62-’63, But Season Had Quota of Rewards; Off B’way’s 1962-63 Season.

Binder #3 – 1963-1964: The Gondoliers; Chiaroscuro; Patience; Cages; The Living Premise; Tour De Four; Brecht On Brecht; Legit Follow-Ups: Beyond the Fringe; Never Too Late; The Second City; Legit Follow-Ups: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Beyond The Fringe; Legit Follow-Ups: Cages; Plutus; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Legit Follow-Ups: Best Foot Forward; Five Queens; A Time of The Key; The Bald Soprano and The Lesson; A Political Party; The Spots of The Leopard; Color Of Darkness ; Opening Night and A Matter of Like Life and Death; Legit Follow-Ups: The Fantasticks; Mister Johnson; Morning Sun; Corruption In the Palace of Justice; Ballad For Bimshire; Mr. Simian; Penny Change; The Vegetable; Walk In Darkness; The Streets Of New York; God, Man & You, Baby; In White America; The Theater of Peretz; The Immoralist; Journey To the Day; The Maids; Kismet; Telemachus Clay; Burn Me to Ashes!; Thistle In My Bed; The Ginger Man; The Plot Against the Chase Manhattan Bank; The Burning; The Worlds of Shakespeare; The Theatre in Israel; Candida; Crime and Crime; Trumpets Of the Lord; The Trojan Women; Play and The Lover; Pimpernel!; Funnyhouse of a Negro; Jerico-Jim Crow [sic]; The Athenian Touch; Too Much Johnson; A Lovely Light; Cabin In the Sky; A Man for All Seasons; Once In a Lifetime; The Caretakers [sic]; Legit Follow-Ups: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Shrike; The Deputy; Riverside Drive; Jo; The Amorous Flea; Plain And Fancy; Squat Betty and The Sponge Room; The Blood Knot; Right You Are (If You Think You Are); The Tavern; Anna Russell; Scapin and Impromptu at Versailles; Clerambard; The White Rose and The Red; Homage to Shakespeare; Little Eyolf; Luther; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; La Vida Es Sueno; Cindy; Life Is a Dream; Beeket-Arrabal-Jones Triple Bill; In The Summer House; The Lower Depts; The Salad of The Mad Cafe; Inside Stuff-Legit; Repertory Reviews: The Seagull; Of Mice and Men; The Crucible; A Dream of Swallows; Diary Of a Madman; Billygoat Eddie; Arms And the Man; Doubletalk; The Knack; Dark Corners and Mr. Grossman; Porgy And Bess; Home Movies and Softly, And Consider the Nearness; The Awakening of Spring.

Binder #4 – 1964-1965: Productions ’63-’64 Season; The New Yorker 8/27/64; Around the World in 80 Days; World Of Illusion; Legit Follow-Ups: The Three Sisters; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Here’s Love; The Alchemist; That Hat; Kiss Mama; Legit Follow-Ups: Barefoot in the Park; Legit Follow-Ups: Cindy; The Tragical Historie of Doctor Faustus; Gogo Loves You; What Makes Sammy Run?; Othello; That 5 A.M. Jazz; Oliver; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; Shout From the Rooftops; Suddenly Last Summer and A Memory of Two Mondays; The Old Glory; The Cradle Will Rock; The Giants’ Dance; Route One; Ernest In Love; I Knock at The Door; Man And Superman; On The Necessity of Being Polygamous; The New Pinter Plays; Helen; Le Roi Jones Plays; Pictures In the Hallway; The Child Buyer; Her Master’s Voice; Babes In the Wood; Play With a Tiger; The Cat and The Canary; Polish Mime Theatre; War And Peace; A View from The Bridge; All Women Are One; Legit Follow-Ups: Cambridge Circus; The Fourth Pig; Say Nothing; Friday Night; Legit Follow-Ups: Never Too Late; Legit Follow-Ups: What Makes Sammy Run?; Legit Follow-Ups: Any Wednesday; The Great Western Union; The Fantasticks; The Sweet Enemy; World Of Oscar Brown Jr.; The Queen and The Rebels; A Sound of Silence; Lorenzaccio; The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis and Sing to Me Through Open Windows; Billy Liar; Judith; Lovey and Hunting the Jingo Bird; Matty and the Moron and Madonna; Legit Follow-Ups: Golden Boy; The Bitch of Waverly Place and The Blind Angel; L’annonce Faite a Marie; Legit Follow-Ups: Blues For Mister Charlie.

Binder #5 – 1965-1968: Wet Paint; Do Not Pass Go; Harry, Noon and Night; Baal; Colombe; By Jupiter; Legit Follow-Ups: Barefoot in the Park; Legit Follow-Ups: The Subject was Roses; That Thing at the Cherry Lane; The Bitch of Waverly Place and The Blind Angel; Matty and the Moron and Madonna; Funny Girl; The Subject Was Roses; Happy Days; Legit Follow-Ups: The Odd Couple; The World of Ray Bradbury; The Trigon; Legit Follow-Ups: The Glass Menagerie; The Music Man; Troilus and Cressida; Friends and Enemies; Legit Follow-Ups: Golden Boy; Hotel Passionato; The Parasite; The Wives; Square in the Eye; Good Day and The Exhaustion of Our Son’s Love; Kill the One-Eyed Man; Legit Follow-Ups: Sweet Charity; Oliver; Oklahoma; Trouble in Tahiti and Down in the Valley; The Exception and the Rule and The Prodigal Son; Troubled Waters; Live Like Pigs; Off-B’way Had N.G. Season; Love’s Labor’s Lost; Leonard Bernstein’s Theatre Songs; The Genius Farm; Man of La Mancha; Monopoly; An Evening’s Frost; Joe Palooka, Go Home; Play That on Your Old Piano; Great Scot!; Hogan’s Goat; The White Devil; Medea; Macbeth; Command Performance; Legit Follow-Ups: Don’t Drink the Water; Legit Follow-Ups: Hallelujah Baby; Dynamite Tonite; Scuba Duba; Fortune and Men’s Eyes; Stephen D.; Jonah!; The Poker Session; Turntable on the Fritz; To Clothe the Naked; Fragments; Beyond Desire; Now is the Time for all Good Men; Legit Follow-Ups: Mame; The Niggerlovers; The Homecoming; Legit Follow-Ups: Fiddler on the Roof; Have I Got One for You; Beclch; Dames at Sea; A/N: Processing 12/20/21. 

File folders

Folder 6: Binder 5 Originals: Colombe – The Music Man.
Folder 7: Binder 5 Originals: Troilus & Cressida – Live Like Pigs. Folder 8: Binder 5 Originals: Off B’way had N.G. season – Macbeth.
Folder 9: Binder 5 Originals: Command Performance – Dames at Sea.
Folder 10: Variety Magazine. Kenneth Leish, Theatre Reviewer.

MU Catalog: Kenneth W. Leish Theatre Reviews, 1961-68. 

Collected, compiled and occasionally annotated by the original creator, Kenn. Donated to MU in 2018.

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English.

Boston, MA.

1961-1968