John Lahr Quotes - Page 2

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• In 1957, “West Side Story” had introduced the musical to the reckless dark side of teen-age life; “Bye Bye Birdie,” set in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where the citizens apparently dress mostly in chartreuse, mauve, orange, periwinkle, and turquoise, was a walk on the bright side.

  John Lahr

  Goodbye, Sweet, Dark

  "Can’t Stop the Beat" by John Lahr, www.newyorker.com. October 26, 2009.

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• Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot,' billed as 'the laugh sensation of two continents,' made its American debut at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, in Miami, Florida, in 1956. My father, Bert Lahr, was playing Estragon, one of the two bowler-hatted tramps who pass the time in a lunar landscape as they wait in vain for the arrival of a Mr. Godot.

  John Lahr

  Father, Florida, Two

  "Panic Attack". www.newyorker.com. May 18, 2009.

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• I was the first critic ever to win a Tony - for co-authoring 'Elaine Stritch at Liberty.' Criticism is a life without risk; the critic is risking his opinion, the maker is risking his life. It's a humbling thought but important for the critic to keep it in mind - a thought he can only know if he's made something himself.

  John Lahr

  Winning, Risk, Mind

  "Questions for John Lahr". www.newyorker.com. January 23, 2009.

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• In Britain, the theatre has traditionally been where the public goes to think about its past and debate its future. The formation of the National Theatre, at the Old Vic, near the South Bank, in 1963, institutionalized the symbolic importance of drama by giving it both a building and state funding.

  John Lahr

  Drama, Past, Thinking

  John Lahr (2015). “Joy Ride: Lives of the Theatricals”, p.408, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• The pigeons are shitting on George M. Cohan. I shoo them off. They fly up and perch on his hat. Cohan would've never given his regards to Broadway if he saw how dirty they kept his statue in Duffy Square. New Yorkers walk right by. Nobody cares.

  John Lahr

  Dirty, Squares, Pigeons

  John Lahr (2013). “The Autograph Hound: A Novel”, p.58, Open Road Media

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• Broadway shows in New York draw two times the attendance of all New York sports teams put together.

  John Lahr

  Sports, New York, Team

  "Betting the Tonys". www.newyorker.com.

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• The only thing I get from the theatre is a sore arse.

  John Lahr

  Theatre, Arses

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• Writers don't always know what they mean - that's why they write. Their work stands in for them. On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.

  John Lahr

  Writing, Mean, Self

  "Reality Checks" by John Lahr, www.newyorker.com. May 31, 2010.

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• Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.

  John Lahr

  Business, Crazy, People

  The Guardian, August 1989.

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• Although the 'New York Times' annually declares that Broadway is on its deathbed, news of its demise is greatly exaggerated. There's a lot of life yet in the old tart.

  John Lahr

  New York, News, Demise

  "Lahr’s Tony Picks: The 2012 Edition". www.newyorker.com.

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• Angels in America' - which is composed of two three-hour plays, 'Millennium Approaches' and 'Perestroika' - proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee Williams's 'The Glass Menagerie.

  John Lahr

  Drama, Angel, Glasses

  "Angels on the Verge" by John Lahr, www.newyorker.com. November 15, 2010.

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• Dame Edna is that rarest sighting in our time of the absolute comic, an inspired personification of caprice whose comedy answered the primal call to take the audience for a tumble.

  John Lahr

  Dames, Comedy, Inspired

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• Of the modern critics, although I disagree with almost everything she says, I admire Mary McCarthy's eloquence and social observation in 'Sights and Spectacles'; she thinks in print, but she doesn't have a real feel for the stage.

  John Lahr

  Real, Thinking, Sight

  "Questions for John Lahr". www.newyorker.com. January 23, 2009.

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• The New Yorker's' drama critics have always had a comparable authority because, for the most part, the magazine made it a practice to employ critics who moonlighted in the arts. They worked both sides of the street, so to speak.

  John Lahr

  Art, Drama, Practice

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• Theatre is a game of hide-and-seek. For both the hiders and the seekers, the thrill is in the discovery. When the rules of the game are too vague or too complicated, however, the audience can lose its urge to play; the prize no longer seems quite worth the hunt.

  John Lahr

  Discovery, Games, Play

  "The Human Circus" by John Lahr, www.newyorker.com. March 1, 2010.

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• Tony Awards boost Broadway attendance and sell the shows on the road. They're the sugar to swat the fly. If you needed more explanation for the yearly ballyhoo, in the metropolitan areas where a Broadway show plays, the local economy is boosted by three and a half times the gross ticket sales. So when we're talking Tonys, we're talking moolah.

  John Lahr

  Awards, Talking, Play

  "Lahr’s Tony Picks: The 2012 Edition". www.newyorker.com.

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• When Elvis made his mass-media debut on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' - his notorious gyrations filmed only from the waist up - I fell off the family chaise longue with delight.

  John Lahr

  Media, Delight, Notorious

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• Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence.

  John Lahr

  Music, Science, Silence

  John Lahr (1970). “Up against the fourth wall: essays on modern theater”

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