Here is John Lahr-"the most intelligent and insightful writer on theatre today" (New York Times)-at his trenchant best, reinventing the celebrity profile. On the roster of greats who talk to Lahr with rare candor are: Bill Hicks, Dame Judi Dench, Ang Lee, Billy Connelly, Mira Nair,Baz Lurhmann, Tony Kushner, Laurence Fishburne and August Wilson, the only substantive profile of the late, great African American playwright.

"John Lahr is in my view the best drama critic and show-biz profile writer we have…Fourteen of these are reprinted here; the author himself calls them ‘mini biographies’ and he is not far wrong. If you are an actor or a dramatist or even a stand-up comic, don’t expect the usual hurried half hour or so in a bar. Having him write your profile must be not unlike adopting or marrying him; not content with just reporting a career, he has been known literally to move in on the life of its owner. The result is a piece which could only otherwise have been written by a close friend, relative or long-term guest. These profiles are psychological studies of quite chilling intensity and intimacy.

Because there exists no definitive chronicle of contemporary entertainment, Lahr’s profiles are the nearest we get to modern theatre history...What Lahr has is the key to the dressing room door: where else would you hear Barry Humphries discoursing on the legendary Polynesian art collection of the late Peggy Guggenheim? ‘Disgusting, my dear: all woden willies.’ "

Sheridan Morley, The Spectator

click to read an extract

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