Everybody wants to be first with a play. Premieres make more news, attract more grants and confer more prestige. There’s often money involved–the theater premiering a play sometimes gets a piece of the subsequent action. It’s understandable–and even applicable to other professions. Journalists prefer to break stories than follow up on news already seen elsewhere. But the facts are the facts: I can’t tell you how often a New York theater will claim the American premiere of, say, an English play that we have already seen in Chicago.