“Mike thinks the play could be a real crowd-pleaser, but thinks we should turn Dorothy’s monologue into a proper telephone conversation with Ken saying things into his phone on the other side of the stage. I could easily write that.” And add 20 minutes to the length of the play. Elaine, who I know is now very worried about her play, disguises her anxieties with some gallantry.Back at the hotel I think I’m fairly calm about all this until I turn the light off. We discuss the problems in tones that are blessedly less extreme than Woody’s and Mike makes some courteous suggestions. There I meet Elaine’s support group – Mike Nichols and Marlo Thomas – whose visit to the show is nicely timed to the worst performance.

It’s an odd number so I have my fingers crossed, but without much conviction. Slightly better than last time, he says, but still a million things wrong Debra is now in as the favourite, Linda is emphatically out. He describes her performance as camp, theatrical, and “cutesy”. “We can always replace her,” he says, and I feel a chill run through me This is madness We have less than two weeks before we open. I suddenly wonder if this will ever happen.I stagger out of the Green Room to see Elaine and Julian beckoning me into another open door farther down the corridor.

Woody’s new ending plays smoothly, but by then it’s too late Afterward, he’s waiting for me in the Green Room. So much for the advantages of trying out in Stamford.TUESDAY: Jean now rings begging me to put in Woody’s new ending. When Julian also calls with the same request, I capitulate and alter the rehearsal schedule The evening performance is appalling, the worst so far. (What?!) This, she insists, will help us with the critic from Variety, who, I’m now informed, has insisted on seeing the play out of town and will be in tomorrow night.

I’d been planning to do the Mamet, which got our first performance off to such a good start, but which has since been slowly running out of steam. She counters by saying that Woody feels the new ending will make all the difference not only to his play but to the entire evening; audiences will leave in an upbeat frame of mind, which will send a glow backward over the two other plays. What with rewrites and cuts on the other plays I’ve had to neglect it – unfair to Mamet and to the two actors concerned I explain this to Letty. As I emerge from my session with Woody, she and Julian whisk me into an empty dressing- room so she can explain how she’s fixed it I just want to get out of the building.