Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows - Tapa dura

Anyone interested in the history of the American theater and contemporary drama will applaud these thoughtful and critical pieces.--Carolyn M. Mulac

An exuberant, entertaining collection.

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

An important collection.--Steven Suskin

Engaging and loquacious company.

[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

Incisive, exuberant.... Lahr's vivid reportage, trenchant insight, and infectious love of the stage will remind readers just how exciting modern theater can be.

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.

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.

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

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.