(Charles Spencer’s article appeared in the Telegraph, 12/1.)
The speedy and richly deserved closure of Cool Hand Luke has allowed Sharon Gless – the blonde one from Cagney and Lacey – to take a West End bow.
And what an unexpected pleasure it proves. When my colleague Dominic Cavendish raved about this show during its run at Riverside Studios, I was surprised: it sounds tacky and embarrassing.
The piece is based on the real-life memoir of one Jane Juska, a retired Eng Lit teacher living in Berkeley, California who placed a piquant personal ad in the New York Review of Books.