The (Opening Night) Party's Over

"It was one of those wonderful overnight flops...You're at the party, everyone's having a wonderful time, telling you how much they've enjoyed it. Then you look around – it happens in a millisecond – and everybody's gone. And you think: 'Oh my God, it's a flop.'...[I]t doesn't happen any more. Everyone looks at the Times review on their Blackberry or their iPhone before they come to the party. Or they don't come."

-Nicholas Hytner, recalling his ill-fated Broadway outing with Sweet Smell of Success. 

From a nice meaty profile of the Royal National Theatre AD in the Guardian.