Richard Barr: The Playwright's Producer (Theater in the Americas)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Performing Arts
Richard Barr: The Playwright's Producer (Theater in the Americas) Details
In Richard Barr: The Playwright’s Producer, author David A. Crespy investigates the career of one of the theatre’s most vivid luminaries, from his work on the film and radio productions of Orson Welles to his triumphant—and final—production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Explored in detail along the way are the producer’s relationship with playwright Edward Albee, whose major plays such as A Zoo Story and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Barr was the first to produce, and his innovative productions of controversial works by playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Terrence McNally, and Sam Shepard. Crespy draws on Barr’s own writings on the theatre, his personal papers, and more than sixty interviews with theatre professionals to offer insight into a man whose legacy to producers and playwrights resounds in the theatre world. Also included in the volume are a foreword and an afterword by Edward Albee, a three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and one of Barr’s closest associates.
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Reviews
Professor Crespy has used an unpublished autobiography by one of Broadway's great producers as the basis for his book. He is a great enthusiast, and it's cetainly important to have a record of what Broadway was like when it still flourished, allowing Barr himself to contribute some of the amazing plays and one superior musical he helped nurture. But Crespy is not linguistically at home with the exuberance of Barr's personality, or his vivid enthusiasms, and so this necessary work often seems like a small plane trying to reach an altitude just beyond its reach. The journey is worth taking, but Barr's own words might have been more vivid, dangerous, and enthralling. This volume seems cloaked in caution, but as it's likely to be the only record we'll have of an extraordinary career, if you are interested in the period and the playwrights you'll want to read it. Just know that no seat belt will be required for this gentle version of what was a brave and dangerous journey by a unique personality
