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Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (Applause Books) - Softcover

 
9781557834676: Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (Applause Books)
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Here is the original story of a true original, the celebrated and internationally renowned director, playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents, whose creative genius continues to energize American stage and screen today. Say his name, and images of West Side Story, Gypsy, Anastasia, The Turning Point, and The Way We Were appear. Laurents' highly praised memoir is a dazzling portrait of his life – as he recounts the great moments, the trials and the joys of his incredible career. He takes us into his world, peopled with the creative artists, directors, actors and personalities who came of age in the theatre and in Hollywood after WWII. Later, back in New York, he writes about jump-starting Barbra Streisand's career by casting her in I Can Get It for You Wholesale. He writes about the creation of Gypsy with Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. And he writes about coming together in a complex, fraught collaboration with his three old pals, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim for West Side Story. Throughout, Laurents is funny, fierce, and frank – a life recounted as richly as it was lived. “This is a historic work. A 'must' for show biz mavens.” – LIZ SMITH, Newsday & Syndicated

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Review:
Best known as the author of scripts for such hit musicals as West Side Story and Gypsy, Arthur Laurents began his career writing strong, socially conscious plays like Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo; he also has impressive credits as a screenwriter (The Way We Were) and stage director (La Cage aux Folles). Such a varied professional life makes for absorbing reading in this lively autobiography stuffed with famous names, including George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, and Stephen Sondheim, all of whom emerge vividly in thumbnail portraits ranging from affectionately frank (Stella Adler) to frankly unflattering (Jerome Robbins). Laurents, born in 1917, was a Marxist during his college years at Cornell, and he retains strong political opinions to this day: he has no use for bigots of any kind, and his memoir displays no inclination to forgive people like Elia Kazan, who named names during the 1950s. Yet the author also has a marvelous sense of humor (after critic Frank Rich inadvertently made public reference to Laurents's homosexuality, Laurents introduced him at a charity lunch as "the man who outed me as a liberal") and a zest for life that shines particularly in a loving portrait of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher. --Wendy Smith
From the Publisher:
"The distinguished 82-year-old playwright-director-screenwriter turns his clear, cold eye on everybody he has been close to. Famous for being uncompromising as well as brutally honest, he lives up to his reputation... He has drawn a group portrait of some exceptional people who have now vanished. His book ends up being a tribute to them, and, whether it was his intention or not, it is a tribute to Arthur Laurents as well."
-- New York Times Book Review

"A terrific read...a unique document from one of the last of a generation of Broadway greats...Laurents fills his memoir with great dish...But Laurents the man is the enduring star of this story, which makes it a page-turner."
-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Wickedly frank." -- Los Angeles Times

"An authentic, told-from-the-inside document of what it meant to be a writer, an artist, a lover, and a citizen in the America of the latter half of the last century...Laurents has a dangerously good memory ...By virtue of his relentless clarity and unflinching self-effacement, [he] paints a radiant picture of the kind of life nobody gets to live anymore."
-- Vanity Fair

"No one is going to accuse Laurents ... of writing a sentimental, evasive or mindlessly feel-good autobiography. In a jaunty, engrossing style, the 82-year-old discusses the highlights of his 60-year career as a writer, director and producer, the ins and outs of his love life, long-term psychoanalysis and friendships with almost everyone in Hollywood and on Broadway. Laurents is brutally honest about his personal life...and he rarely holds back when he thinks that others deserve criticism.... But for all his candor, Laurents comes across as a highly intelligent, loving, politically involved, generous and gracious man--as evidenced by his commitment to social justice, his artistic vision and his long-term relationships with Farley Granger and with Tom Hatcher, who has been his life partner since 1955."
-- Publishers Weekly

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  • PublisherApplause
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 1557834679
  • ISBN 13 9781557834676
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages446
  • Rating

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