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Top 25 John Lahr Quotes (2025 Update)

John Lahr Quote: “Criticism is a life without risk.”

1. “Criticism is a life without risk.”

John Lahr Quote: “Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.”

2. “Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.”

John Lahr Quote: “Entertainment is not politically neutral.”

3. “Entertainment is not politically neutral.”

John Lahr Quote: “His life was one long extravaganza, like living inside a Faberge egg.”

4. “His life was one long extravaganza, like living inside a Faberge egg.”

John Lahr Quote: “Questions about political theatre always overlook America’s most powerful and effective political theatre, which is always thriving: the American musical. The politics is conservative but, to my mind, effective and insidious.”

5. “Questions about political theatre always overlook America’s most powerful and effective political theatre, which is always thriving: the American musical. The politics is conservative but, to my mind, effective and insidious.”

John Lahr Quote: “In 1957, ‘West Side Story’ had introduced the musical to the reckless dark side of teen-age life; ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ set in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where the citizens apparently dress mostly in chartreuse, mauve, orange, periwinkle, and turquoise, was a walk on the bright side.”

6. “In 1957, ‘West Side Story’ had introduced the musical to the reckless dark side of teen-age life; ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ set in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where the citizens apparently dress mostly in chartreuse, mauve, orange, periwinkle, and turquoise, was a walk on the bright side.”

John Lahr Quote: “Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence.”

7. “Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence.”

John Lahr Quote: “The history of theatre is the history of first nights.”

8. “The history of theatre is the history of first nights.”

John Lahr Quote: “Identity is memory; when memory disappears, the self dissolves and love with it.”

9. “Identity is memory; when memory disappears, the self dissolves and love with it.”

John Lahr Quote: “We live in a time of terror, and contrary to what we see on television and allow ourselves to believe, the real goal of terror is not to kill people but to kill thought; to so demoralize a society that it implodes from within.”

10. “We live in a time of terror, and contrary to what we see on television and allow ourselves to believe, the real goal of terror is not to kill people but to kill thought; to so demoralize a society that it implodes from within.”

John Lahr Quote: “Theatre people, who are an adaptive species, know that to remain sane in the process of production where everyone and his uncle has an opinion about how to fix a show, you must pick the people whose knowledge and taste you trust and stick only to these few. The Tweetocracy is no place to look.”

11. “Theatre people, who are an adaptive species, know that to remain sane in the process of production where everyone and his uncle has an opinion about how to fix a show, you must pick the people whose knowledge and taste you trust and stick only to these few. The Tweetocracy is no place to look.”

John Lahr Quote: “Broadway shows in New York draw two times the attendance of all New York sports teams put together.”

12. “Broadway shows in New York draw two times the attendance of all New York sports teams put together.”

John Lahr Quote: “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.”

13. “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.”

John Lahr Quote: “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.”

14. “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.”

John Lahr Quote: “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.”

15. “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.”

John Lahr Quote: “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.”

16. “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.”

John Lahr Quote: “Theatre is a game of hide-and-seek. For both the hiders and the seekers, the thrill is in the discovery. When the rules of the game are too vague or too complicated, however, the audience can lose its urge to play; the prize no longer seems quite worth the hunt.”

17. “Theatre is a game of hide-and-seek. For both the hiders and the seekers, the thrill is in the discovery. When the rules of the game are too vague or too complicated, however, the audience can lose its urge to play; the prize no longer seems quite worth the hunt.”

John Lahr Quote: “I detest literature. I abominate the theatre. I have a horror of culture. I am only interested in magic!”

18. “I detest literature. I abominate the theatre. I have a horror of culture. I am only interested in magic!”

John Lahr Quote: “Writers don’t always know what they mean – that’s why they write. Their work stands in for them. On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.”

19. “Writers don’t always know what they mean – that’s why they write. Their work stands in for them. On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.”

John Lahr Quote: “A cruel critic has never made anything; his glibness is a way of inflicting his emptiness on others.”

20. “A cruel critic has never made anything; his glibness is a way of inflicting his emptiness on others.”

John Lahr Quote: “When Elvis made his mass-media debut on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ – his notorious gyrations filmed only from the waist up – I fell off the family chaise longue with delight.”

21. “When Elvis made his mass-media debut on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ – his notorious gyrations filmed only from the waist up – I fell off the family chaise longue with delight.”

John Lahr Quote: “Nobody has ever gone broke selling escape to the American public.”

22. “Nobody has ever gone broke selling escape to the American public.”

John Lahr Quote: “Momentum was part of the exhilaration and the exhaustion of the twentieth century which Coward decoded for the British but borrowed wholesale from the Americans.”

23. “Momentum was part of the exhilaration and the exhaustion of the twentieth century which Coward decoded for the British but borrowed wholesale from the Americans.”

John Lahr Quote: “The British playwright Nina Raine is one of her generation’s most promising talents.”

24. “The British playwright Nina Raine is one of her generation’s most promising talents.”

John Lahr Quote: “I go to the theatre expecting to have a good time. I want each play and performance to take me somewhere. Naturally, this doesn’t always happen.”

25. “I go to the theatre expecting to have a good time. I want each play and performance to take me somewhere. Naturally, this doesn’t always happen.”

John Lahr Quote: “A prose writer never sees a reader walk out of a book; for a playwright, it’s another matter. An audience is an invaluable education. In my experience, theatre artists don’t know what they’ve made until they’ve made it.”

26. “A prose writer never sees a reader walk out of a book; for a playwright, it’s another matter. An audience is an invaluable education. In my experience, theatre artists don’t know what they’ve made until they’ve made it.”

John Lahr Quote: “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.”

27. “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.”

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