Small matters, though, given this first-rate company and this generously inventive play.

There doesn't seem to be a single first-rate company left in the business in this country-and I don't want to deal with d'Anconia Copper.

Two years ago The Dallas Morning News lamented, "Texas is the home of a first-rate ballet company, and it ain't in Dallas."

A first-rate performing company of regulars helps considerably.

But Stiglitz dismisses that threat: "If you had three, four, five first-rate companies around the world willing to compete for Bolivia's resources, no boycott would work."

The Grands Ballets may not be a first-rate classical company.

Conceived as a national venture, it attracted a first-rate acting company starting with its first year.

If this is summer stock, I wonder what Mr. Nightingale would consider a first-rate company.

So the question I raised was, 'If the audience doesn't appreciate the difference, why should we keep spending money to make this a first-rate company?'

Bozell, which is donating its services to the Boy Scouts, also used a first-rate post-production company called First Edition.