The production was troubled from the start. Billy De Wolfe was forced to withdraw due to illness and was replaced by George S. Irving as Madame Lucy. Reviews in Toronto were mixed, and when Reynolds was stricken with a throat ailment, the producers, rather than cancel the sell-out performances, had her mime her dialogue and songs on stage to director John Gielgud's reading of them from the wings, much to the dismay of angry audiences. Philadelphia critics were brutal, and Gielgud, an odd ...