Putting on the Ritz - Softcover

Joe Keenan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099435055 ISBN 13: 9780099435051

Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Following the hilarious debacle of Blue Heaven, librettist Philip Cavanaugh has again allowed himself to be drawn into a fiendish money-making plan by his friend and ex-lover Gilbert Selwyn.

Gilbert has fallen in with Tommy Parker, a veritable Adonis and a magazine editor employed by media magnate Boyd Larkin. Philip's brief is to spy on Larkin's greatest adversary Peter Champion. To this end Philip enters the Champion entourage - a clan so poisonous they make the Borgias look Amish - with his songwriting partner Claire. Together they are to turn Champion's talentless wife Ilsa (a woman so rich she 'ovulates Fabergé eggs') into a chanteuse.

As Philip and Gilbert out-spy each other in vying for Tommy's admiration, plot follows counter-plot in a novel whose comic complications, devastating repartee and cast of high-hat lowlifes is nothing short of dazzling and unforgettable.

About this title

About the Author

A playwright and lyricist, Joe Keenan received his M.F.A in Musical Theatre from New York University. His musical The Times received the Richard Rodgers Development Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters as well as the Kleban Award from the Ed Kleban Foundation. His first novel, Blue Heaven - which introduced the characters of Philip Cavanaugh, Gilbert Selwyn and Claire Simmons - is also published by Arrow. Mr Keenan spent six years as a writer/producer for the television show Frasier. His work on the show earned him five Emmys and two Writes Guild Awards. He has also worked as a writer on the television series Desperate Housewives along with a number of screen plays. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr Keenan lives in Los Angeles with his partner Gerry Bernardi.

From Kirkus Reviews

In a knockabout sequel to Blue Heaven (1988), songwriter Philip Cavanaugh agrees to write a set of tunes for untalented would-be songbird Elsa Champion--as a cover for spying on her boorish super- rich husband Peter. Peter's latest step in his feud with rival billionaire Boyd Larkin, you see, has been to start Estime, a gossipy magazine whose circulation already tops that of Larkin's Boulevardier; meanwhile, Larkin, his scrumptious aide-de-camp Tommy Parker, and Philip's old pal Gilbert Selwyn (who's thoroughly smitten by Tommy) persuade Philip to sign on with Elsa in order to get the dirt on Peter's nefarious business practices so they can blackmail him out of the business. What Philip actually gets (after masquerades and double-crosses too numerous to count) is much better--an audio tape, hilariously procured, of Peter's S/M session with Elsa's sister Kitty Driscoll. But his hapless attempts to deliver it without delivering himself to Peter or his lawyers lands him in repeated jams only his songwriting partner, improbably straight, unkinky Claire Simmons, can get him out of--and she's not kindly disposed toward him after Elsa's debut in the Rainbow Room, somewhat dampened by her just having heard the tape, makes Claire a laughingstock (along with Elsa) and the codefendant (along with Philip) in a ten-million-dollar lawsuit. Still to come: Philip's long-awaited romance with Tommy, whom Larkin insinuates into the editorship of Estime (and who plans to ``elevate'' it into financial ruin) and a showdown between Kitty, Elsa, and assorted hangers-on on live TV. An ebullient, overplotted tour of New York's brutish high life that's zany, arch, and gay in every sense of the word. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099435055
• ISBN 13: 9780099435051
• Binding: Paperback