Theatre Register

Joseph Papp

Shows · Joseph Papp

Director 1921–1991

Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classical theater accessible to all people by producing free-of-charge performances. He was a known advocate for non-traditional and diverse casting practices. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Eventually, one of the six performance spaces inside the Public Theater was renamed Joe's Pub in honor of Joseph Papp. It con…

Also credited on2 works

A Chorus Line
Hair

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • A Chorus Line was produced on Broadway by Joseph Papp, artistic director of the Public Theatre, and much of its earnings redounded to the Public. Estimates of the earnings to the Public from A Chorus Line vary, from $10 million to $20 million. The earnings, whatever their total, freed the Public from many financial worries for fifteen yea…ebooks/Donahue, Tim & Patterson, Jim/Stage Money_ The Business of the Professional Theater - Tim Donahue & Jim Patterson.txt
  • First, Joseph Papp decided to produce Hair as the inaugural attraction at his Public Theatre on Lafayette Street in October 1967. This was surprising, given that the producer was best known for spearheading Shakespearean productions in Central Park. If he’d had any penchant for musicals, he’d never made it known.ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • Joe Papp It’s one of the greatest ironies in theater history: Joseph Papp, off-Broadway’s perennial hero who had little use for “the Main Stem,” green-lit a project that became Broadway’s longest-running production: A Chorus Line .ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • His Broadway successes had caught the eye of producer Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre. Papp wanted Bennett for one project, but Bennett soon talked him into financing this new Broadway animal called “the workshop.”ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • Nearly eight years after it had opened on Broadway, the nine-time Tony winner was still grossing well enough for Bennett, producer Joseph Papp, and the Shubert Organization to start checking the calendar and counting. Yes, on Thursday, September 29, 1983, A Chorus Line would play performance 3,389 at the Shubert Theatre and establish a ne…ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • BERNARD GERSTEN is the executive producer at Lincoln Center and was associate producer of the New York Public Theater during the Joseph Papp years.ebooks/Frommer, Myrna Katz & Frommer, Harvey/It Happened on Broadway_ An Oral History of the Great White Way - Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — director — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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