the right stature and crystal clear diction". The same paper commented, regarding his Sir Joseph Porter, "Mr. Reed's impersonation, prim, dry, roundly articulated (and sung in tune, as some of his illustrious predecessors never attempted to do), was eminently likeable." Of his Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, it said, "Reed, in particular, chose understatement as his main weapon, and in his dryness, at once naive and sophisticated, produced a Murgatroyd very much in the authentic D'Oyly Carte tradition. Critic Alan Blyth commented that in his Bunthorne, "Reed ... remains a past master of keeping the text fresh and articulated". Blyth also wrote that "The Lord Chancellor is one of John Reed's most appropriate roles, with plenty of scope for his fleet-footed clowning, and in the Nightmare-Song he gives an object-lesson in projecting one of Gilbert's most complex texts." In The New York Times, Milton Esterow praised Reed's Lord Chancellor: "Not only is he light, but he virtually floats. The man is irresistibly comic. Of course in his dignified official robes he is also austere, which is what a good Lord Chancellor should be." Reed's fans eagerly anticipated his "business" in the many encores that followed some of his songs, in which "his antics would become ever more outrageous. ... Reed's Sir Joseph Porter would jump overboard only to re-enter clutching a rubber life-ring, while ... his Ko-Ko would be found furiously – and anachronistically – pedalling across the stage in a toy car." On the other hand, he was sometimes criticised for these instances of dropping character and adding anachronisms. He explained, "An encore is a different thing – a bit of fun between me and the audience – then I come right back into character again." After the D'Oyly Carte After he left the D'Oyly Carte organisation in 1979, Reed continued to perform in, and direct, Gilbert and Sullivan productions for the rest of his career, also occasionally appearing in other theatre. He appeared as a guest artist numerous times with D'Oyly Carte after his retirement, including their "last night" concert in 1982. The solo show A Song to Sing, O was created for and premiered by him at the Savoy Theatre in 1981. The reviewer for The Times disliked the piece, commenting, "The attraction is almost entirely the talented twisting of Mr. Reed's tongue around familiar patter." Reed performed and directed, through the 1980s, with many Gilbert and Sullivan companies,