Bright lights

摘要

"Theatre," observes John Lahr, a longtime critic for the New Yorker and the author of "Joy Ride", is "an artisa-nal industry in a technological age." Every performance is different, each one a new alchemical product of the players, their lines and the audience. The effect is like a dance, writes Mr Lahr: the tune stays the same but the moves are subject to whim and mood, and the spectators, like all good partners, are alert and on their toes. The dance ends when the music stops, preserved as memory, if at all. It is the job of the theatre critic to try to capture this ephemera in words. This has been Mr Lahr's life's work. Raised in dusty dressing-rooms, playing among the "costumes and props" while his father performed as an actor and comedian, he was perhaps fated to be bewitched by the stage. Mr Lahr went on to manage theatres and write for them, too (he won a Tony for his work on "Elaine Stritch at Liberty"), which has given his criticism a rare humility. He appreciates the sweat behind the thrills, the way actors "turn themselves inside out" to deliver the "carnal wallop" of a live performance. In this world of fleeting gifts, Mr Lahr's work for the New Yorker, where he has been contributing since 1992, offers something of lasting value.