In Richard Barr: The Playwrights Producer, author David A. Crespy investigates the career of one of the theatres most vivid luminaries, from his work on the film and radio productions of Orson Welles to his triumphantand finalproduction of Stephen Sondheims Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Explored in detail along the way are the producers relationship with playwright Edward Albee, whose major plays such as A Zoo Story and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf Barr was the first to produce, and his innovative productions of controversial works by playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Terrence McNally, and Sam Shepard. Crespy draws on Barrs own writings on the theatre, his personal papers, and more than sixty interviews with theatre professionals to offer insight into a man whose legacy to producers and playwrights resounds in the theatre world. Also included in the volume are a foreword and an afterword by Edward Albee, a three-time Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright and one of Barrs closest associates.