Joe Papp — volatile, tyrannical and egomaniacal — was, from the 1960s until his death in 1991, the most influential force in American theater.
He battled Robert Moses, the omnipotent Parks Commissioner, to present free Shakespeare in Central Park. He launched the careers of George C. Scott, Meryl Streep, Sam Shepard and Kevin Kline (to name a few). And, at his Public Theater, he produced such landmark shows as “Hair,” “The Normal Heart” and “A Chorus Line.”
Journalist Kenneth Turan interviewed nearly 200 people who’d been, at one time or another, drawn into the Great Man’s orbit. They were remarkably candid — “Joe wants to be immortal,” said one. “He demands loyalty, Mafia-style loyalty,” said another.
Papp dominates the book, and he’s a whirlwind. He produces three or four shows at a time. He fires directors at the last minute and takes over the show himself. He slips struggling playwrights $500 so they can quit their jobs and write. He calls up critic Clive Barnes in the middle of the night and screams: “What kind of a review is this? If you were here, I’d kill you!” He was the king, and the Public was his kingdom. As Papp himself said: “Democracy in the theater is ridiculous. I don’t believe in it.”
Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told
by Kenneth Turan
Doubleday