Broadway Blog - The Must-Read Theatre Book of the Year...

I'm only two-thirds of the way through reading Free For All, Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told (which I can't put down) and can already tell you that it's by far, the must-read theatre book of the year. I picked it up late in the day Friday and haven't put it down since. 

In it, Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan takes you behind the scenes at the Public Theater and tells the amazing story of how Joe Papp made American theatrical and cultural history.

Free for All is the oral history of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater-two institutions that under the inspired leadership of Joseph Papp have been a premier source of revolutionary and enduring American theater.

To tell this fascinating story, Kenneth Turan interviewed some 160 luminaries-including George C. Scott, Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Kevin Kline, James Earl Jones, David Rabe, Jerry Stiller, Tommy Lee Jones, and Wallace Shawn-and masterfully weaves their voices into a dizzyingly rich tale of creativity, conflict, and achievement. And at the center of this incredibly engrossing account of artistic daring and excellence the larger-than-life figure of Joseph Papp reigns supreme.

It's informative, inspirational and I can't recommend it any more highly...