The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (play) reception was enthusiastic, critical reception was mixed. Frank Rich in "New York Times" reported dull passages piling up as "dead weight", while John Simon in the "New York Magazine" felt that the work was a "middlebrow enterprise" doing "scant justice" to the novel. In contrast Mel Gussow, again in "The New York Times", noted that ""Nicholas Nickleby" remains true to Dickens – many of the lines are taken directly from the novel, dialogue as well as narration – and to first principles of theater" when describing the RSC's recast production in 1986. Playwright and reviewer Thomas Hischak, writing in retrospect
Nicholas Nickleby (1912 film) would be familiar to those with knowledge of the novel. Nicholas Nickleby and his mother and sister Kate arrive in London, and take up lodgings at Miss LaCreevy's (a miniature painter, per the sign on her house). Mrs. Nickleby sends a message to her brother-in-law Ralph Nickleby, a money-lender, asking his assistance in finding employment for Nicholas. Ralph visits the Nicklebys and shows Nicholas an advertisement to be a school teacher for Mr. Squeers' academy. Wackford Squeers is at the Saracen Head's Inn in London, allowing his new students nearly nothing to eat while he dines well. Ralph introduces Nicholas