Atkinson in the NY Times called it "a stunning drama... It is the basic truth. In a plantation house, the family is celebrating the sixty-fifth birthday of Big Daddy, as they sentimentally dub him. The tone is gay. But the mood is somber. For a number of old evils poison the gaiety -- sins of the past, greedy hopes for the future, a desperate eagerness not to believe in the truths that surround them... The truth invariably terrifies them. As the expression of a brooding point of view about life, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is limpid and effortless. As theatre, it is superb."