Home / Quotes / Quote by John Lahr

Quote by John Lahr

“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.”

Quote by John Lahr

Author

John Lahr, born on July 12, 1941, is an accomplished theater critic. His reviews are renowned for their insightful interpretations and profound understanding of the art of theater. more

You May Also Like

“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.”

Two Play America Three Hours Drama Approach Angel Glasses Eras Ambitious Lyrical Millennium Tennessee Menagerie Watersheds Angels In America

Author:John Lahr

“The film depends on the audience's belief in this relationship.”

Film Belief Audience Depends

Author:Ralph Fiennes

“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.”

Audience Comedy Absolutes Inspired Comic Our Time Primal Dames Caprice Personification

Author:John Lahr

“Did you come of age in those sweet summers of the early nineteen-sixties, when the airwaves were full of rock and roll's doo-wop promise of joy and the nation was full of J.F.K.'s eloquent promise of a New Frontier? I did. Life seemed to be laid out before us like a banquet; everything was for the taking, especially hearts.”

Heart Age Joy Nations Rocks Sweet Promise Summer Sixty Rock And Roll Frontiers Eloquent Nineteen Banquets New Frontiers

Author:John Lahr

“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.”

Ifs Knows Mind Firsts Made Important Winning Liberty Opinion Risk Criticism Critics Makers Humbling

Author:John Lahr

“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.”

Thinking Giving States Past Building Drama Importance South Theatre Debate Britain Funding Symbolic Formation Youth Theatre

Book:Joy Ride: Lives of the Theatricals

Source: Joy Ride: Lives of the Theatricals

“Like the tail fins on fifties American cars or the parabolic shapes of Populuxe furniture, 'West Side Story' incarnates the dream of momentum in the golden age of the twentieth century.”

Stories Dream Age Sides Century Car Shapes West Golden Tails Furniture Twentieth Century Momentum Golden Age Fins West Side West Side Story American Cars

Author:John Lahr

“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.”

Thinking Feels Real Social Modern Stage Sight Critics Admire Observation Print Disagree Mary Eloquence Spectacles

Author:John Lahr

“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.”

Made Two Father Waiting Laughing Landscape Vain Sensations Continents Florida Arrivals Miami Debut Grove Beckett Coconuts Tramps Bowlers Godot Waiting For Godot

Author:John Lahr

“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.”

Art Made Speak Sides Practice Streets Drama Authority Critics Magazines Made It Both Sides New Yorkers

Author:John Lahr