Thomas McCormack was for many years the chairman and chief executive officer at St. Martin's Press. So it isn't surprising that in writing his first full-length play, the nicely titled Endpapers, McCormack has followed advice often given to aspiring authors: He's written about what he knows, in this case, the publishing business. Indeed, at 70, he may have written everything he knows; McCormack's drama, which follows a transfer of power at a top New York house, is as packed with incident as any 400-page novel.

The sheer amount of machinations and confrontations sprawling across Neil Patel's wide and detailed set, and under Rui Rita's cluttered-office lighting, prompts a particular thoug[...]