the piece, "It may not be a milestone in the development of English drama, but it is a very funny play". J. C. Trewin in The Illustrated London News thought the piece overlong: "If this were a revue, we might consider ten minutes ample". The reviewer in The Stage concurred that the piece was too long, finding it "for some time clever, surprising, funny, until, fifteen minutes or so before the end Mr Shaffer's invention, and so the impact of the piece, weakens." Claudia Cassidy in the Chicago Tribune also thought the play overlong, but noted that "some of the sight and sound gags are so flawless … that the audience is reduced to jelly". The Tatler'''s reviewer found the play "one of the funniest farces I can remember seeing". Penelope Gilliatt in The Observer gave the piece a moderate welcome but found it "a blinding idea not very boldly pursued". In The Guardian, Philip Hope-Wallace called it "an uproarious piece of slapstick vaudeville … sometimes a little long, but it comes to a magnificent climax almost worthy of Feydeau". When the first Broadway production opened in 1967, John Chapman wrote in The Daily News, found that the author sustained the comedy from start to finish: "I was sorry indeed when the stage went dark and the farce ended". The White LiarsBlack Comedy is often performed with another Peter Shaffer one-act, The White Liars, to form the double-bill of The White Liars and Black Comedy. The two plays are published together. The White Liars was first performed in 1967 under the title White Lies, with the original Broadway production of Black Comedy. It was billed as a "curtain-raiser" to Black Comedy. Peter Shaffer retitled the play for subsequent productions.The White Liars is shorter than Black Comedy. It concerns a down-on-her-luck fortune teller living in a decaying seaside resort, and the two young men – Tom, the lead singer in a rock band, and Frank, his business manager – who consult her. It is more serious than its farcical companion piece. Revivals First Broadway productionBlack Comedy was first presented in New York with White Lies at the Ethel Barrymore Theater by Alexander H. Cohen directed by Dexter with the following cast:White Lies: Sophie, Baroness Lemberg – Geraldine Page Frank – Donald Madden Tom – Michael CrawfordBlack Comedy: Brindsley Miller – Michael Crawford Carol Melkett – Lynn Redgrave Miss Furnival – Camila