NEW YORK -- (AP) William Glover, a retired editor and drama critic for The Associated Press, died Friday after a long illness. He was 91. In his 18 years as the AP's drama critic, from 1960 to 1978, Glover covered more than 3,000 openings on and off-Broadway. He reviewed theater in 28 states and 20 countries, in cities as far-flung as Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Tashkent, central Russia.

During a time when first-night drama critics raced back to their desks to write reviews on deadline, Glover acquired a reputation for his agile exits from the theater the moment the curtain came down.  Cue magazine once dubbed him "the Nureyev of the aisle."

Glover's reviews were concise and to the point. If he liked a show, you found out in the opening paragraph. "An exuberantly winning musical, "Mame," opened tonight to well-earned cheers at Broadway's Winter Garden Theater," he wrote in 1966.

Glover began his journalism career at the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, where he was city editor from 1935 to 1939. He joined the AP's Newark bureau in 1939, and in 1941 came to the AP in New York as news editor of a mailed feature service. After World War II, he returned to the AP as science editor for a year and then as editor of AP News features until 1957.

It was at that time Glover began contributing Sunday theater columns and reviews for the AP wire, at the same time serving as news editor of the New York bureau. In 1960, he became the full-time drama critic, a position he held until his retirement.

Glover graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and served in the U.S. Maritime Service from 1943-1945.

He was a member of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, as well as one of its presidents. For many years, he served on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards, both before and after his retirement from the AP.

Glover is survived by his wife, ATPAM Press Agent Virginia Holden Glover, and a sister, Grace Nye, of Pensacola, Florida.