Does A Playwright Really Have The Right To Control Discussion Of A Play?

It is a well-established, incontestable fact that playwrights may exert veto power over both casting and creative teams, too, for unlike film and TV, playwrights hold all the cards in the theater. I use the word “incontestable” very much on purpose, for the playwright, indeed, has a legal basis for that level of control, even if — as with those now accusing the estate of Edward Albee of being raging racists — we dislike the result. The question is to what degree the “scope” of a dramatic work legally extends beyond the experience and performance of the play.