First Nighter: Check Out 'Hellman v. McCarthy,' 'Red Velvet,' 'Heathers'

On January 20, 1980 Mary McCarthy, never known to mince words in print or in person, was asked on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show whom she considered overrated writers. After a moment's thought, Lillian Hellman came to her mind. Of the playwright-memoirist, she blurted a few damning comments, including the sentence "I once said in an interview that every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" According to Hellman v. McCarthy, now at the June Havoc, the ailing, failing Hellman was tune...