“Macbeth” was the third of the plays to open.

“Not having put on a new production since the two they mounted last week, the Old Vic actors performed ‘Macbeth’ at the Winter Garden last evening,” Brooks Atkinson wrote in his review in The New York Times. “Performed it very well, moreover.” He continued:

“Paul Rogers, who acted a saucy Mercutio and a valiant John of Gaunt last week, plays Macbeth with craft, force and bluntness. An intelligent actor with a resonant voice, Mr. Rogers catches the whole range of the character from the mannerly though guarded beginning to the reckless brutality at the end.”

Though he had also acted in more contemporary works — notably in two plays in verse by T. S. Eliot, “The Confidential Clerk” and “The Elder Statesman” — Mr. Rogers branched out further during the 1960s. In 1965 he originated the role of Max, the seethingly vicious patriarch of a warped household, in the “The Homecoming.” He continued in the part when the production, directed by Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company, moved to New York in 1967. It won the Tony for best play and Mr. Rogers took home the best-actor award. (He reprised the role in a 1973 film directed by Mr. Hall and starring much of the Broadway cast, including Ian Holm and Vivien Merchant.)