I had the good fortune to see the original production of Long Day's Journey into Night with Frederic March, Florence Eldridge, Jason Robards, and Bradford Dillman--without a doubt the most thrilling theatrical experience of my life.

I'm in awe, slithy toves, of your enormous good fortune of having had that experience. The closest I can come to something like that is having seen Jason Robard's brilliant revivial of The Iceman Cometh on Broadway in 1985. Robards did Hickey. And the play was so mesmerizing the 4 1/2 hrs just zipped right by (with 2 intermissions). Coming in I was a bit skeptical of how tolerable the length might be...no more! And the first act of "Iceman" was hilarious, just like O'Neill envisioned it to be. And which was one of the reasons he cited for the failure of the play in it's initial production...he claimed the director didn't get the humor in the first act. I am in envy of your witness to such theatrical history. I also think Fredric March was one of the most underrated and overlooked actors of the 20th century...just brilliant.