John Henry Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic and writer. From 1992 to 2013, he was a staff writer and the senior drama critic at The New Yorker. He has written more than twenty books related to theater, including Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, and won many awards for his work.

Early life and education

John Henry Lahr was born on July 12, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish family.

Until his father was on the cover of Time magazine when Lahr was in grade school, he did not know what he did for a living. Lahr later wrote: "On stage, Dad was sensational; in private he was sensationally taciturn: a brooding absent presence, to be encountered mostly in his bedroom chair at his desk, turned away from us...". His childhood was also filled with access to Hollywood and Vaudeville celebrities who were his father's friends, such as Eddie Foy Jr., Buster Keaton, Groucho Marx, and Ethel Merman.

Lahr received a B.A. from Yale University. While there, he was a member of the literary fraternity of St. Anthony Hall and was an editor of the Yale Daily News. He also has a master's degree from Worcester College, Oxford University.

In 2002, he co-wrote Elaine Stritch's one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty. However, Lahr sued Strich, claiming she "cheated him of profits" from the play.

Critic and writer

Lahr became a contributing editor to Evergreen Review in 1967.

In 1992, when he was fifty years old, Lahr became a staff writer and a senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine. Throughout his time at The New Yorker, Lahr profiled more than forty actors, including Woody Allen, Roseanne Barr, Ingmar Bergman, Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Bob Hope, Eddie Izzard, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Helen Mirren, Mira Nair, Mike Nichols, and Al Pacino.

In 2015, Lahr admitted he got death threats for not liking a musical by Stephen Sondheim.

He retired from The New Yorker in 2013.

Recognition and awards

In 2014, in a review of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh for The Guardian, journalist, historian, and author Alexander Larman called Lahr "one of the greatest biographers writing today".

He has won a number of awards, including:

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  • Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2015)
  • Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography – Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (2015)
  • National Book Critics Circle Award – Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (2014)
  • ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Writers, Editors, Publishers — for Sinatra's Song (1997)
  • George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism – for "In Search of a New Mythology", Evergreen Review, January 1969 and reviews in The Village Voice (1968–1968)
  • Yale writing prize She was the daughter of the Liberal politician, art patron, and industrialist Sir Geoffrey Mander. They married on August 12, 1965, at St. Peter's Church in Eaton Square, London. They also had a second wedding in New York City for Lahr's parents, who were unable to travel to England. After their marriage, they lived in New York City.

Lahr contributed to John Kerry's presidential campaign and Democratic organizations.

Bibliography

Books

Biographies and profiles

  • Notes on a Cowardly Lion (Knopf, 1970)
  • The Business of Rainbows: The Life and Lyrics of E.Y. Harburg (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1978)
  • Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton (Lane, 1978)
  • Coward the Playwright (University of California Press, 1983)
  • Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilization: Backstage with Barry Humphries (Bloomsbury, 1991)
  • Sinatra: The Artist and the Man (Random House, 1997)
  • Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles (Overlook Press, 2000)
  • Honky Tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles of Show People (Overlook Press, 2005)
  • Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (W. W. Norton & Company, 2014)
  • Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015)
  • Arthur Miller: American Witness (Yale University Press, 2022)

Collected criticism

  • Up Against the Fourth Wall (Grove Press, 1970)
  • A Casebook on Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" (Grove Press, 1971)
  • Acting Out America: Essays on Modern Theater (Penguin, 1972)
  • Astonish Me: Adventures in Contemporary Theater (Viking 1973)
  • Life Show: How to See Theater in Life and Life in Theater (Viking, 1973, with Jonathan Price
  • Automatic Vaudeville: Essays on Star Turns (Knopf, 1984)
  • Light Fantastic: Adventures in Theatre (Bloomsbury, 1997)

Fiction

  • The Autograph Hound (Knopf, 1972)
  • Hot to Trot (Knopf, 1974)

As editor

  • Plays from the Eugene O'Neill Foundation (Grove Press, 1970)
  • The Orton Diaries (HarperCollins, 1986)
  • The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan (Bloomsbury, 2002)
  • Gem of the Ocean ( Theatre Communications Group, 2003)

Plays and film adaptations

  • Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet (1969)
  • — (November 24, 2008). "Land of Lost Souls". The Critics. Life and Letters. The New Yorker. 84 (38): 114–120.
  • — (November 15, 2010). "Angels on the Verge". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 86 (36). Retrieved April 30, 2012.
  • — (March 14, 2011). "Losers Take All". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 87 (4): 62–64.
  • — (April 4, 2011). "God Squad". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 87 (7): 76–77. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  • — (November 7, 2011). "The Natural". Backstage Chronicles. The New Yorker. 87 (35): 31–37. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  • — (January 30, 2012). "Boldfaced Bard". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 87 (46): 68–70.
  • — (February 13–20, 2012). "A Talent to Abuse". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 88 (1): 118–119.
  • — (November 19, 2012). "Supersize". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 88 (36): 94–95. Retrieved 2014-11-04.
  • — (November 26, 2012). "Unhappy Families". The Critics. The Theatre. The New Yorker. 88 (37): 84–85.
  • — (February 25, 2013). "Songs of Angry Men". The Talk of the Town. Credit Due Dept. The New Yorker. 89 (2): 26–27.
  • — (March 31, 2014). "Joy ride: Susan Stroman puts 'Bullets over Broadway' on Broadway". Profiles. The New Yorker. 90 (6): 50–59.
  • — (July 21, 2014) "A Last Lunch with Mike Nichols". Culture Desk. The New Yorker.
  • — (September 15, 2014) "Caught in the Act: What Drives Al Pacino" Profiles. The New Yorker. 90 (27): 58
  • — (November 24, 2014) "Poster Boy" The Boards. The New Yorker.
  • — (September 21, 2015) "Julianne Moore, Beauty and the Beast". The New Yorker
  • — (October 24, 2016) "The Dynamism of Janet McTeer." The New Yorker.
  • — (December 19–26, 2016). "Act of Grace : Viola Davis Aims to Alter How African-Americans Are Seen". Profiles. The New Yorker. 92 (42): 52–64.
  • — (July 31, 2017) "Postscript: Sam Shepard Who Brought Rage and Rebellion Onstage". The New Yorker.
  • — (July 19, 2018) "Squealing to Survive", London Review of Books, 40 (14): 33–35.
  • — (September 8, 2014) "When He Acted it was Like Jazz". Daily Telegraph (London).
  • — (September 24, 2018) "Sam Mendes's Directional Discoveries". Profiles. The New Yorker.
  • — (November 19, 2019) "Todd Haynes Rewrites the Hollywood Playbook". Profiles. The New Yorker.

Footnotes

References