Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows - Hardcover

Lahr, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039324640X ISBN 13: 9780393246407

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015

Synopsis

A collection of John Lahr’s New Yorker profiles and reviews that are “the nearest we get to modern theatre history” (The Spectator).

Joy Ride throws open the stage door and introduces readers to such makers of contemporary drama as Arthur Miller, Tony Kushner, Wallace Shawn, Harold Pinter, David Rabe, David Mamet, Mike Nichols, and August Wilson. Lahr takes us to the cabin in the woods that Arthur Miller built in order to write Death of a Salesman; we walk with August Wilson through the Pittsburgh ghetto where we encounter the inspiration for his great cycle; we sit with Ingmar Bergman at the Kunglinga Theatre in Stockholm, where he attended his first play; we visit with Harold Pinter at his London home and learn the source of the feisty David Mamet’s legendary ear for dialogue.

In its juxtaposition of biographical detail and critical analysis, Joy Ride explores with insight and panache not only the lives of the theatricals but the liveliness of the stage worlds they have created.

2 illustrations

About this title

About the Author

National Book Award finalist John Lahr is the author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, among other books. He was the senior drama critic of The New Yorker for over two decades. He has twice won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and is the first critic ever to win a Tony Award (coauthor, Elaine Stritch at Liberty).

Review

“[Lahr’s] interviews are themselves gleeful illuminations of art and its mysterious process, as he blends vivid details with erudite scrutiny of plays...His passionate arguments are always worth engaging...Lahr creates a book worthy of its title: It is a living celebration of theater itself.”
- Caryn James, New York Times Book Review

“Incisive, exuberant.... Lahr’s vivid reportage, trenchant insight, and infectious love of the stage will remind readers just how exciting modern theater can be.”
- Publishers Weekly

“Chatty, learned and wittily opinionated, Lahr’s essays bring us not only his passion for theater, but also his zest for the artistic and creative life.”
- San Francisco Chronicle

“An important collection.”
- Steven Suskin, Huffington Post

“An exuberant, entertaining collection.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“Lahr patiently mines the essence of his subjects―playwrights, directors―with the affection of a fan, the insight of a confidant and the authorial flair of an experienced critic...a delight to read.”
- The Economist

“John Lahr writes―beautifully―about the theatre and those who make it with an unrivalled blend of enthusiasm, perception, and analytical precision. This book is justly titled―his joy is irresistible.”
- Nicholas Hytner

“Informed, wide ranging, and charming...the pieces are, without exception, captivating. A must for theatergoers and theater collections.”
- Mark Levine, Booklist

“Lahr...must be one of the world’s foremost experts on “show people”....[he has] an ability to look past these authors’ mythologies without demeaning their achievements.”
- Jonathan Russell Clark, Literary Hub

“100 years from now this is where people will look to see what it was like back then. Bravo!”
- John Guare

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 039324640X
• ISBN 13: 9780393246407
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 592