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John Lahr

Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows Hardcover – September 21, 2015

by John Lahr (Author)

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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

Print length

592 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

September 21, 2015
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
ISBN-10

9780393246407
ISBN-13

978-0393246407
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Editorial Reviews

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

"Anyone interested in the history of the American theater and contemporary drama will applaud these thoughtful and critical pieces."
― Carolyn M. Mulac, Library Journal

"Engaging and loquacious company."
― The Guardian

"Impressive, entertaining and insightful…so worth reading or worth reading a second time around."
― Michelle Jones, Dallas Morning News

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).

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 039324640X
Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (September 21, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780393246407
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393246407
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #566,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #291 in Performing Arts History & Criticism
- #316 in Drama Literary Criticism
- #589 in Theatre Biographies

Customer Reviews:
13 ratings

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Aram Saroyan

Joy Ride lives up to its title and then some

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2016

Verified Purchase

Joy Ride lives up to its title and then some. Not since Kenneth Tynan's mid-century Curtains has there been a comparably brilliant compilation, and Lahr's portraits of playwrights and directors are in a class by themselves. The book has the feel of a valedictory, and the final piece on Mike Nichols, both heartbreaking and hilarious, is a classic that can stand beside Edmund Wilson on Edna St. Vincent Millay and Freud on Leonardo. The piece ends:

"At the end of our time together, he sat back on the sofa and declared himself pleased with the conversation. 'I do well with the fundamentally inconsolable,' I said. The words seemed to surprise Nichols and to press him back in his seat. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, then opened. "We get a lot done, you know," he said.

7 people found this helpful

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Salli Parker

Really good book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

So much insight into, as the title says, "Show People and their shows." Really held my attention, and ended too soon.

Helpful

For those who love the theater, here is a magic carpet on which take a joy ride of their own

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2015

I have previously read all of John Lahr’s profiles and reviews for The New Yorker and am delighted to have so many of them assembled in a single volume. My second reading indicates that most of them have retained their liveliness. With regard to the book’s title, Caryn James addresses it in her own review for The New York Times: “To John Lahr, joy in the theater is as much about artistic ambition and intellectual rigor as it is about simple happiness. The word infuses Joy Ride…He finds deep cultural resonance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, about blues musicians in the 1940s, because ‘it teaches through joy, not through reason.’ The Broadway director Susan Stroman (The Producers), whose personal sorrows include the death of her husband, says, ‘Tapping into joy – it saves you.’ And of Ingmar Bergman, whom he visited at home on the island of Faro, Lahr finds ‘another kind of joy’ in ‘the audacity of Bergman’s camera, in the vigor of his argument.’ The word morphs as it meets its subjects.” I noted more than a dozen other inclusions of joy. I share James’s regret that he did not include actors among his subjects his Joy Ride, notably his interview of Helen Mirren and his profile of Sean Penn.

Lahr’s skills as a journalist share much in common with those of a New Yorker colleague, Lillian Ross. Both are astute observers, keen listeners, and bring to life their interactions with those of in greatest interest. For Ross, as indicated in recently published Reporting Always: Writings from the New Yorker, they would include (in alpha order) Edward Albee, Julie Andrews, Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Clint Eastwood, Federico Fellini, Ernest Hemingway, Gayle King, Willie Mays, Al Pacino, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench (together to help promote their film, Ladies in Lavender, at the Tribeca Film Festival), and Robin Williams.

Whereas Ross describes them in terms with which her readers can associate, Lahr's approach focuses on the "show people & their shows" as both human beings (for better or worse) and incomparable artists. As he explains, his aim in Joy Ride " is to bring the theatergoers up close and personal with the artists and their processes, with the plays and playwrights, with what they seek to express, and how they express it." In addition to Bergman, Stroman, and Wilson, they include (again in alpha order) Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Sam Shepard, and Mike Nichols. He also shares his thoughts about productions of five of Shakespeare's plays as well as more recent works that include Private Lives, Sweeney Todd, Oklahoma, The Rose Tattoo, and Carousel.

I am deeply grateful to John Lahr for providing what I view as a magic carpet on which I have been able to take a joy ride of my own. I view this book as a precious gift and have waited until this day to thank him for it.

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

but I hear he is a good author.

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

I've not read it yet, but I hear he is a good author.

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