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Joseph Papp, the dynamic man of the theater who began producing Shakespeare in a church basement on the Lower East Side 37 years ago and went on to present many of the nation's most important plays and musicals, died in his Greenwich Village apartment early yesterday after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 70 years old.
As producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, Papp presented provocative new American and foreign plays as well as plays by William Shakespeare at his Public Theater. He became a major force on Broadway when he moved "A Chorus Line" to the Shubert Theater for what turned into a record 15-year run.
In August, while under treatment for cancer and mourning the death of his 28-year-old son, Anthony, from AIDS, Papp appointed JoAnne Akalaitis as the Shakespeare Festival's artistic director, retaining the title of producer. He had begun turning over control of the festival in May of last year when he named Akalaitis - a co-founder of the experimental Mabou Mines troupe - as artistic associate.
"Joseph Papp ignited a flame in American theater that will never be extinguished," Akalaitis said yesterday. "What sustains me in the face of this unspeakably painful loss is this fire which burns in my heart . . . And we were so lucky, all of us in American theater, to be graced by his presence, his energy, and his vision."
Bernard Jacobs, president of the Shubert Organization, which occasionally co-produced plays with Papp, said, "He's going to be missed. He was a giant. He certainly was a major factor in turning the theater around in the '60s, '70s and '80s,...