Monday, March 2, 2009

Arthur Laurents tells all

This is going on my must-read list. I didn't even know Arthur Laurents was writing a memoir.

Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story and other Musicals will be published this month, coinciding nicely with Laurents' revival of West Side Story, which opens at Broadway's Palace Theatre on March 19.

Longtime Connecticut arts writer Frank Rizzo, who blogs for the Hartford Courant at Behind the Curtain, has read an advance copy. He says the 90-year-old Laurents pulls no punches.

"While the "mainly" part is full of insights and history, it's the not-so-mainly parts I loved, where he went off-topic and shared some juicy, what-the-hell, behind-the-curtain tales (and settling a few scores, setting the record straight along the way)." Plus, Rizzo says there are some great Patti LuPone stories.

Rizzo says the book will be published March 16 but every other source I checked seems to peg the release date at March 10. In either case, I'm looking forward to it.

2 comments:

Sarah B. Roberts said...

Arthur already wrote a memoir of his life. "Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood" was published in 2001. The new book is supposed to be more of the professional rather than the personal, but I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to throw in some of more details of his many liasons.

Esther said...

Thanks, Sarah. I'll check that one out, too.