Between seasons of "Richard", in 1934 Gielgud returned to "Hamlet" in London and on tour, directing and playing the title role. The production was a box-office success, and the critics were lavish in their praise. In "The New York Times", Charles Morgan wrote, "I have never before heard the rhythm and verse and the naturalness of speech so gently combined. ... If I see a better performance of this play than this before I die, it will be a miracle." Morley writes that junior members of the cast such as Alec Guinness and Frith Banbury would gather in the wings every night "to watch what they seemed intuitively already to know was to be the Hamlet of their time".