John Lahr

I bought this book when it came out in, but never read it. Reading recently Lahr’s piece on Buster Keaton in the LRB and also Cat on a Hot Tin Roof reminded me of this really excellent biography. Lahr balances really well that emotional life - the pilgrimage of the title - with very evocative and acute depictions of the creation and stagings of the plays. I also like the way we jump straight into the book, at rehearsals for The Glass Menagerie.

This book attests to Lahr’s knowledge and experience as theatre critic and of course, his gift for style and narrative. I doubt if a better biography of Williams is possible. I wish someone would bring out Lahr’s biography of Joe Orton in the UK in eBook form.… (más)

The author is a former writer for the New Yorker; here he shares some of his profiles and reviews. The commentary on the playwrights, directors, and shows is well written and lively, even if I do sometimes disagree with his assessment. His biographical sketches are interesting, and help to add some understanding to some of the work of these artists. There is one major complaint - he places the date the piece was written at the end of the piece, and it can become difficult when he references things like "this year" or "next year" without that frame of reference; I found myself constantly flipping forward to figure out what the time frame was.

Another interesting feature is that it adds a new perspective on the lack of diversity in theatre. The book is dominated by white males. There was one female director, one female writer, and one writer of color. The total lack of diverse voices in such an important publication goes a long way to explaining the lack of visibility of writers who are not white or male in the greater theatre scene. I could think of a slew of other possible subjects he could have written about, many of them at least as prominent as writers who were covered. This feature was very disappointing. I hope if the author does any further anthologies, he seeks to correct that omission.… (más)