Book Description

Maude Adams (1872–1953) was a beloved and talented American Broadway actress who greatly influenced succeeding acting methods and production techniques. She first appeared on stage as an infant in her actress mother’s arms, and then moved to a succession of children’s parts. Her New York debut came in 1888, supported by E. H. Southern and then Charles Frohman, a demanding mentor. In 1905, she played her most famous role: the star of James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Beautiful, kind, and very private, this early American actress is chronicled in a biography covering both her life experiences and innovations on the stage. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Excellent view of a supreme artist
The spirit of Eleonora Duse fills this excellent little book. Eva Le Gallienne, a master in her own right, clearly loves Duse, and she unapologetically deifies her. Weaving together histories, analyses, personal recollections, quotes, reviews, and theological musings, Le Gallienne creates a vivid image of the woman, and made me mourn that I could not see her myself. She even addresses that, responding to a young actor with the same complaint (with pity). But I did feel, after reading the book, that I had connected with Duse in some small way; In this, Le Gallienne is an actor on the page, guiding her audience to the character without forcing it upon them.

The message I got was that Duse was a person first. Other actors are full of life when on the stage, and switch off once the curtain falls. For Duse, theatre was an extension of her life. Her craft (so strong that she seemed to have none) and her spirit filled the stage, but no more than it filled her life.

I recommend this book to all actors- this book was written with us in mind- but also to all artists. It is one-sided, yes, but it is not meant to be an objective account. It shows some of Duse's flaws, but tone is always one of love. ... Read more

Book Description

First published in 1937, Present Indicative is the first part of the autobiography of one of the most celebrated characters in British theatrical history and hints at the success that would come to Coward as actor, playwright, novelist and performer. Each line is punctuated with his trademark effervescent wit, making this book a comic tour de force in its own right, as well as a "must read" for anyone with an interest in the world of theater.

Book Description

The turbulent, often tragic life of America's greatest playwright, Eugene O'Neill, is laid bare in this acclaimed and insightful biography. ... Read more

Book Description

Augusto Boal, by any measure, has had an extraordinary life. Hamlet and the Baker's Son is Boal's remarkable story of how a small, observant boy from Rio became one the most vocal and political figures of 20th-century theater. His autobiography gives voice to his unique gift of using the stage to empower the disempowered. ... Read more

Book Description

This three-generation theatrical saga traces the accumulation of Russian theatrical culture and its impact on British and American theatre.The story began in Saint Petersburg on November 25, 1863, with the operatic début of the tenor Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky at the Mariinsky Theatre. More than thirty years later, his daughter Vera joined another imperial theatre, the Alexandrinsky. Finally, a decade later, came the first reviews of her half-brother, Fyodor Komissarzhevsky the younger, who began his career in the then relatively new profession of director.

Fyodor Komissarzhevsky (1832-1905) was Stanislavsky's first and probably only teacher; Stanislavsky often said that he owed everything to their lessons and conversations. The turbulent, dramatic family life among the artistic intelligentsia was an ideal setting for Vera Komissarzhevsky (1864-1910), the Alexandrinsky Theatre's foremost actress and a friend of Chekhov, Rachmaninov, and Chaliapin. The younger Fyodor (1882-1954), an eminent theatre director in prerevolutionary Russia, was a dominant figure in the British theatre for twenty years before emigrating to America; those who owe artistic debts to him include John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, and Alec Guinness.

Based on Russian and western archival material, unpublished letters and memoirs, theatrical reviews, and interviews, this beautifully illustrated artistic biography is a rare example of one family's enormous influence on the history and development of theatrical life across two continents. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Astonishing Feat of Family 'Portraiture'
As a lover of music and theatre I was thoroughly engrossed in this astonishing feat of family 'portraiture' of three people dedicated to their art. Although I had not previously known anything about this particular theatrical dynasty, many of the other names, plays and operas were not unfamiliar to me and I was fascinated to discover how they were connected to each other. Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Chekhov are household names in the theatre world, but it is always enriching to learn something new about them. And because our opera and theatre traditions in the West developed separately, it is interesting to see how closely allied they were in Russia and then see how the Russian tradition in turn influenced ours. As for the Komissarzhevskys themselves, I was carried along with their joys, hopes and disappointments. I only wish I'd been alive at the time to be able to sit in a darkened auditorium and witness their genius, whether it be singing, acting or directing.

The author has obviously consulted and collected a great deal of material in the writing of this book. He gives the reader a balanced view by the many wonderful reviews, both 'good' and 'bad'(and sometimes funny), of the various performances. The excellent quality of the photographs helps to bring these people and their work to life, re-creating the atmosphere of the age. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A terrific introduction to a non-traditional artist
Dan Mufson quite masterfully brings together all of the elements required to provide real insight into the work of Reza Abdoh. It is a shame that more people have not been exposed to his work. My daughter enjoyed the book as well, and getting her to read anything of any length is usually a challenge. ... Read more

Book Description

Every few years in theatre a visionary comes along--a person who, with talent, drive, cunning and unfaltering tenacity, manages to focus the spotlight and brighten its beam. In London, 1992, that man was Sam Mendes. Young and inspired, within ten years Mendes would transform the darkened, boarded-up Donmar Warehouse into one of the brightest and most acclaimed theatre destinations in London's West End. In "Sam Mendes at the Donmar: Stepping Into Freedom," author Matt Wolf chronicles these ten amazing years for the Donmar and for Sam Mendes, combining accounts of numerous productions and extensive interviews with Mendes himself and more than 60 Donmar alumni: Sodheim, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Helen Mirren, Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, to name but a few. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A unique and captivating tribute
Sam Mendes At The Donmar: Stepping Into Freedom by London theatre critic and arts correspondent Matt Wolf is a close chronicle of first decade of the Donmar Warehouse, the site of unforgettable play performances which ranged from classics of live theatre to the works of contemporary playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel, and Harold Pinter. Celebrating The Donmar's tenth anniversary as a theater (and doubling as a farewell to Sam Mendes who has left the theater to further his career on the silver screen), Sam Mendes At The Donmar is a unique and captivating tribute enhanced throughout with black-and-white photographs and thought-provoking quotations. ... Read more

Book Description

Fierce and exciting, this is the biography of American playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, the finest writer to emerge from the golden age of television, and the only individual to win three Academy Awards for Marty, Hospital and Network. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Mad as Hell and Still a Genius
"...(Chayesfky) called a trusted friend at NBC, John Chancellor. He asked Chancellor if it was possible for an anchorman to go nuts on TV. 'Every day,' replied Chancellor."

Paddy Chayefsky wrote NETWORK. That would've been enough to put him in the top grade of all Hollywood screenwriters by itself. Twenty-five years after NETWORK hit the screens, there were dozens of articles that his script wasn't just a satire of the media, it was a genuine prophecy.
But Chayefsky has also done what no other writer has yet to do: he's won three Oscars for screenwriting (the other films were MARTY and THE HOSPITAL).
The man is definitely work reading about. Even if I didn't have an interest in screenwriting, I believe I would still find this book interesting for its look into the "Golden Age of Television" and the behind-the-scenes stories of Chayefsky's film career. The author has done a wonderful job of coming up with a lot of great details and fascinating anecdotes about everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Sam Peckinpah to Bob Fosse to Burt Lancaster.

Paddy Chayefsky was the real deal as a writer and I know his work will be praised and studied for decades to come. Shaun Considine has done everyone a favor by giving us a look into Chayefsky's life. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Anthony Holden doesn't pull any punches in his choice of biographical subjects. Having already taken on the Prince of Wales, Laurence Olivier, and Tchaikovsky, this time Holden has gone for no less than the Bard himself. Dismissing claims that there is nothing left to say about the poet and playwright, Holden's bold study argues that, on the contrary, the archives are rich with traces of Shakespeare as husband, father, actor, dramatist, poet, and Stratford lad made good. Holden also argues that "if each generation recreates Shakespeare in its own image," then we need a new version for the 21st century. He obliges with a racy, incident-packed account of the glovemaker's son who rose to subsequent immortality via the stage of Elizabethan London. In addition to poring over the established evidence, Holden makes some controversial but intriguing claims. Not only was Shakespeare a covert Catholic who spent his so-called lost years as a budding actor in Catholic households in Lancashire under the name of "Shakeshafte" but he also suffered from sexually transmitted diseases, experienced a nervous breakdown, fathered an illegitimate son via his middle-aged landlady, and sailed close to the political wind with what Holden sees as his residual Catholic and "republican instincts." It's all very entertaining--if at times far out on its own interpretative limb--and a lively and refreshing approach to the Bard as an Elizabethan man behaving badly. William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius may not be for all time, but it resonates richly with our times. --Jerry Brotton ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Enlightening New Shakespeare Biography
Anthony Holden's biography of William Shakespeare is comprehensive and full of new and interesting information. Holden provides the best explaination, based on evidence, I have ever seen about what Shakespeare was doing during the "Lost Years" and how he came to be in London. I learned many new things from this book, and I am already well versed in Shakespeare.

excellent - should be on every English student's shelf
Somewhat to my surprise, this is a first-rate popular biography of a genius about whom we know practically nothing. Not that this has stopped any number of amateur sleuths from the Baconians to Eric Sams from trying to find clues in the poems and plays. Holden's is by far the liveliest and most readable. He doesn't make the mistake Anthony Burgess did of spraying his own personality over Shakespeare in the usual tom-cat fashion; nor is he bonkers, excessively academic or portentous. If you want to discover as much as can be known or surmised about the Bard, especially the early years, then Holden's book is fascinating. His thesis that the SHakespeares all closet Catholics, and that the young WS was sent as a teenager to recusant Lancashire to teach at Sir Thomas Hesketh's house as good an explanation as any of how the "rude groom" acquired polish and knowledge of how aristocratic families lived. His gloss on his marriage, the untimely death of his son Hamnett and his growing interest in his daughters all substantiated by apt quotations.

A wonderful piece of detective-work. Alongside Joanthan Bates's The Genius of Shakespeare it's a great new addition to the modern enthusiast's library.

Painful Reading
I found the book to be extremely hard to get through, wordy and boring. The entire book focuses on direct quotations from all of Shakespeare's works with little focus as to why the quotations were included in the text. The book gives the reader little of his personal life, personality, or political views, but focuses only on hundreds of people that he knew and met throughout the years giving detailed explanations of names, and their backgrounds. I found the book to be very boring, with little content on Shakespeare as a person; the book featured only comments on his hundreds of works. If you are EXTREMELY well versed with Shakespeare's works, this is a good pick for you. If you have some to little knowledge, pick something else. For the student who needs interesting information on him as a person, choose another book. I found it to be dry, repetative and only in depth on quotations from thousands of plays.

One word more
Some of the other reviews incite me to add yet a few more words. Holden does NOT blur fact and fiction. He consistently lables speculation and inference, identifies sources, outlines opposing views, gives reasons for his choices, and qualifies his conclusions. His reading of the plays, while brief, reaches deeply into the heart of Shakespeare's works. This is a responsible and valuable book.

The Essential Biography
This is the essential preface to any first reading of the collected works of Shakespeare. It's the perfect introduction for the student -- and a rich summing up for an experienced reader or theater person. Despite Holden's previous oeuvre of front-table bookstore products about Prince Charles, Princess Di, Olivier, the Oscars, etc., this is a serious (though very readible) biography, which makes full use of a vast resource of scholarship. Tossing -- or, rather, kicking -- aside any nonsense about the plays and poems being the work of some mystery author, Holden presents Shakespeare's chronology with clarity, rich color and carefully examined detail. He relates the plays to what is known or can be reasonable inferred about the succeeding periods of Shakespeare's life and the developing stages of his thought. He does not idealize or fantasize. And he places the works in the context of the theatrical history of the period. The reader comes away enriched with a profound feeling for the qualities that Shakespeare's admirers so value. The plays become more accessible in the process, as does Shakespeare scholarship. A very valuable book. ... Read more

Book Description

Fred Stone was one of America's most versatile and talented of Broadway's colorful entertainers. Audiences quickly discovered he could do anything and everything, from tightrope walking and acrobatics to song-and-dance, musical comedies, and straight drama. This work chronicles his extraordinary life and career. He was born in a log cabin August 19, 1873, in Valmont, Colorado, to a family that was part of the covered-wagon migration into the virtually unknown West. He joined a traveling circus at age 11 and two years later, joined a different one as a self-taught tightrope walker. During his teens, Stone performed on the variety stage, and at age 22, met Dave Montgomery, with whom he performed for over twenty years, including Broadway musicals, notably as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. After Montgomery's tragic death in 1917, Stone continued to perform and shared his continued success with his closest friend Will Rogers, and Annie Oakley, Broadway producer Charles Dillingham, Western artists Charles Russell and Ed Borein, and author Rex Beach. Stone appeared in some 18 movies, from 1918 to 1940, including such western classics as The Westerner and Trail of the Lonesome Pine. In 1950, he retired from show business and during the last years of his life suffered from increasing blindness and heart trouble. He died at his Los Angeles home in 1959. ... Read more

Amazon.com

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 ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Excellent, quirky addition to theatre history
Arthur Laurents, by chance and by design, has been near the center of theatrical landmarks like WEST SIDE STORY. Thank God he lived to write this memoir.

The most fascinating character revealed is Laurents himself, a highly intelligent, ambitious writer driven and sustained for decades by anger, political self-righteousness, and sex.

The passages (there are many) about his busy love life come across too often as the barroom boasting of a man chronically insecure about his looks and physical appeal. Laurents tells us again and again how beautiful his lovers were, and how great they were in bed, etc. etc.

A gentleman would withhold most of this, but Laurents doesn't pretend to be a gentleman. He throws acid on everyone who ever crossed him or disagreed with him politically. For a man angered above all by "injustice", he shows little concern for the names or reputations of colleagues and friends he trashes on nearly every page. All this settling of old scores makes lively reading, but one is surprised that such an angry, vengeful, judgmental guy has any friends left at all.

Like so many in the arts, he uses leftwing politics as a substitute for personal morality. In other words, he may lie, cheat, deceive, and lay waste in his personal life, but his Leftist convictions automatically make him feel superior to everyone he knows.

All this adds to the psychological interest of Laurents' self-portrait, which reveals more, I suspect, than he knows. That said, it's a fine book, an important book, and should be read by anyone with an interest in 20th century American theatre, especially musical theatre.

Broadway and Hollywood Memoir
Original Story by Arthur Laurents is an excellent autobiography by a very talented man. His talents include screenwriting, directing, playwriting. His story is told with candor and humor. He is very upfront about being gay and his various affairs in Hollywood and New York, noticeably his long affair in the late 40's, early 50's with Farley Granger. The book takes you behind the scenes of the movie industry and the people who ruled Hollywood. He is frank in his opinion of the people he worked (and lived) with. A Marxist since the thirties, he shows no affection for director Elia Kazan who blew the whistle on many of Hollywood's greats during the '50s. Laurents has wonderful stories about working on Broadway with West Side Story and Gypsy. His priceless vignettes about Ethel Merman are worth the price of the book alone. Many other celebrities are mentioned throughout his book.He has lived a very full life and it is very evident in this entertaining book. And he's still going strong at 83.

The truth.


An 86-year-old friend who grew up in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, and who had her own works on Broadway, gave me this book for help with my writing (I'm 42). Laurents is remarkably inspiring, even when he doesn't necessarily intend to be. His stories about writing for the war effort, writing radio plays, mapping plots of popular films, and turning out work for deadline demonstrate a TREMENDOUS work ethic and a resilient willingness to write and re-write.

..., but gay lives weren't well documented in that era. Worse, "liberal" Hollywood was thought to be generally accepting, when in fact the opposite was true. Laurents was under enormous pressure to stay in the closet, as were most writers and stars.

The narrative hops around a bit, but he's a gifted writer, and soon you'll settle in. If you want to be a screenwriter, read this. Some of the political nonsense that goes into making a motion picture still happens, even in 2003!

Arthur Laurents is an amazing man whom I hope has a magnificent decade as an octogenarian. If his vibrant words are any indication, then in spirit he'll always be 33 and ready for the next adventure.

Damned good..Go out and Read it!
The best thing a book can have is the author's voice, and Laurents' autobiography certainly has his: argumentative, discrening, opinionated, political, sexy, candid. He has a bristly side to him and he doesn't hide it. And this makes his book seem genuine and compelling, not the kind of "I loved them all..we had a great time" gush that many older entertainment types write. His take on the blacklist is wonderful. His backstage stories about how his play ("Time of the Cuckoo") was a hit and his movie ("The Way We Were") got chewed up in the editing room are fascinating. And he doesn't hold back: Sydney Pollack comes off a clever swine, Jerome Robbins is shown warts and all. You may find that Laurents is the kind of man you might have trouble liking in real life, but you won't be able to put his book down. That's because he's a real writer with a voice...and it's in these pages. One of the best theatre books in quite a while, certainly the best since Neil Simon's first book. Seems like good playwrites make good memoir writers. Read this!

VITAL, JUICY AND BLUNT
Now THIS is an autobiography! It is the story of a man, the last of his peer group, who, at 81, is healthy, athletic, sexual, productive in his craft, and in love. He is joyous and it reflects in his writing. Vitriol, if not burned away, has often been reduced to pithy one-liners that zing with word-play. Apathy seems to have replaced anger. Mr. Laurents is too busy living to show resignation or to bemoan the passing of relationships, so his book is vital, alive.

He is blunt and ruthless and he shows us the sage as scrappy youth and unformed man as well as (bad)businessman and lover, plus playwright, director and Hollywood hack. He has little respect for the movie industry and when black-listed,was more relieved than aggrieved! He spares himself nothing, is quick to offer accolades and in stories that are pay-backs, with time and acoomplishment to back him up, chummy fact can be damning! He has a gift for knowing that someone loves and respects the famous people he mentions and he writes accordingly, whether he shares their regard or not, and even when a relationship has lapsed, if praise is due, he generously heaps it on.

Incidentals are rampant. Some add to the whole, like how Geraldine Brooks' breast cancer led to her marriage with HUAC informer Budd Schulberg and how this impaced her friendship with Mr. Laurents, or how Lillian Roth's fight with alcoholism helped Mr. Laurents direct her in I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. Other tidbits just make juicy reading, like the stoicism of Hal Prince learning to water-ski. It is so easy to link the vision of Prince dropping rather than veer out of the boat's wake, with his dogged direction of PARADE a few years back! It is fascinating to hear how life experiences made their way into his work, to hear the power 'stars' had to pervert an author's intent, and to see how some events became motivations or mere moments of dialogue in a play, while others became entire works. Sometimes, Mr. Laurents himself was unaware of where a line or a thought came from, and when he recognizes the origin, his delight is triumphant! Bad psycho-analysts become saccharine characters in admittedly mediocre plays, a handsome Jew in love with a Nazi becomes a portly Italian shopkeeper/love interest, and the Hollywood Witch Hunt becomes THE WAY WE WERE, before politics were 'expunged', Robert Redford collided with his role and the climax of the movie (not film) was edited out. (It seems Katherine Hepburn had a knack for turning her character into herself too, not the reverse!) Included too, is director Laurents' dealings with star-in-waiting Barbara Streisand, manipulative producer David Merrick, sweating co-star Elliot Gould, and costuming goddess Theoni V. Aldredge. He loved working with Jule Styne, Len Bernstein and Steve Sondheim and has high praise for master craftsmen Shirley Booth and Angella Lansbury. It was fascinating to hear him revisit GYPSY over the years as his role changed from author to director. Reading about Miss Lansbury performing the bows at the end of "Rose's Turn" was electric. I wish I could have seen an actual performance!

There is over-lap between Laurents and the ballet world through Jerome Robbins, Nora Kaye, and Harold Lang, and superstar Erik Bruhn makes a moon-lit naked appearance. Robbins seems to be the only one of the four Laurents didn't sleep with, and I question his use of 'balletomane' as a verb! His friendship with Robbins runs as deeply as Nora Kaye's and Robbins plays a major part in the book, as friend, informer, collaborator on famous works, and betrayer. To hear his stories of W.W. II, where he wrote training films, gays in the military should NEVER be an issue. Actually, he finds handsome men all over the world and his search to not only accept what he is, but to prefer it, turns up in much of his writing. Too much so in fact, if there is anything to criticize about ths book. His exploits during the war read like fiction!

Early on, he announces his intolerance of bigotry of any kind, especially against homosexuals, Negroes and Jews but I find this odd since he flatly dismisses his Bar Mitzvah as 'meaningless.' This is really the first book I've read that deals pointedly with McCarthyism and the Hollywood Witch Hunt. He voices what many must have felt, sharing freely his feelings of the time and his feelings now! Informers are pariah, yet some who informed remained Laurents' friend, some did not and we learn the whys of each, first hand. Judgments are presented factually along with consequences of decisions that were made.

This book is a wealth of history but for those interested in fair play and looking at all sides of an issue, don't bother picking it up. This is Arthur Laurents' story, and I not only respect his right to tell it, I revel in it! Five stars for this one, and the moon has come out again! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Joanna Rotte has written an brilliant book.
At first, you could be not attracted by this book to give you an explanation of Stella Adler's Techniques of Acting. Because Joanna Rotte "seems" to be an external person from Adler's Techniques. You would be wrong. It' s not the case. Joanna Rotte has been in touch with Stella Adler for 3 years as a student, then as an actress. Therefore, she has a great understanding of Adler's Techniques. But, the most important, she has been able to organize this knowledge in a book which is CLEAR, complete, precise. If you' re interested by Adler' s Techniques of Acting, get it. ... Read more

Book Description

For over half a century, John Houseman played a commanding role on the American cultural scene. Nobody in the business has been a major part of so much of it. Almost every significant talent and personality collaborated with Houseman in the theater, Hollywood, radio and television. In Unfinished Business, the 1500 pages of his three earlier memoirs, Run-Through, Front and Center and Final Dress have been distilled into one astonishing volume, with fresh revelations throughout and a riveting new final chapter which brings the Houseman saga to a close. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Intriguing, thorough, engrossing memoir of 20th C theater
As an actor who worked in theater, films and television for nearly the entire 20th century, Houseman has seen it all, heard it all, experienced it all -- and knows nearly everyone. He has put it all in the pages of this modest little book - gossip, media moguls, lovers, wives, boards of directors and politicians. Beginning with The Mercy Theater, Houseman takes us to the Negro Theatre Project in Harlem then on the "Men from Mars," "Citizen Kane," "The Voice of America," "The Blue Dahlia," Brecht's "Galileo," "Playhouse 90," The American Shakespeare Festival, Juilliard, Paramount, Universal, MGM, the Acting Company and the Oscars. It's a broad picture of film and theater arts in America as well as a fine portrait of a successful actor.

Houseman's other books, RUN THROUGH, FRONT AND CENTER and FINAL DRESS have been praised by critics as some of the best memoirs extant about the American theatrical scene. UNFINISHED BUSINESS is a distillation of the essence of the more than 1500 pages of those volumes.

Unputdownable
When I started this book, I had no idea who John Houseman was, other than that he was vaguely associated with theatre arts. From page one, I was hooked. I had just finished "Goldwyn" by A. Scott Berg, and was pleasantly surprised to find many similar names - people, places, movies, plays. The book is well written, with a novelist's pleasure in words and phrases. John Houseman, with no false modesty, but with no avoidance of the fame and honour that came later either, tells his own, remarkable and colourful story. A tale that chronicles, in a unique way, the history of American theatre since 1918 or so to the 1980s. What makes John Houseman's life interesting to read about is not only the famous people he worked with (and the famous collaboration with Orson Welles plays a significant yet overall only a small part in the complete story), but also Houseman's own personality: born of a Jewish-Alsatian father and a British (Welsh-Irish) mother, Houseman grew up in Europe and was educated in Britain before leaving for Argentina and then the US. He jumped at exciting opportunities throughout his life, and did not let facts like complete lack of experience or qualifications deter him! He produced, directed, managed, helped write scripts and screenplays, started theatres and theatrical programs, got into movies, radio, the Voice of America, and much later television and acting. He doesn't seem to have been much of a father or husband, but this does not detract from his fascinating and inspiring story. My only gripe was the large number of typos (in the Applause paperback 1989 version).

Outstanding memoir of Orson Welles partner in radio &theater
This complete collection of the three volumes of John Houseman's autobiography is one of the finest memiors that I have ever read. The book begins with Houseman's early life in pre WWI Europe and his post war experiences as a grain trader in Argentina, London and new York. For anyone interested in international business in the 1920's this provides a brief but facinating view into a somewhat closed world. The story becomes especially interesting with Houseman's career in the Theater, particularly following his fateful first meeting with the 19 year old dramatic prodigy, Orson Welles. Many biographers have tried to capture the relationship between these two talents, but for me no one has come close to Houseman for incite and sense of the dramatic in their relationship. He chronicles their triumphs and failures and his almost half century career following his professional separation from Welles.

Houseman reveals himself to be a brilliant writer and the book is a joy to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Early in the century, Marie Dressler was hailed as one of America's finest comics. Her talents far exceeded the expectations of slapstick, and her movies earned sums far greater than those of Garbo, or Harlow, or even Gable. This work examines Dressler's life from vaudeville to talkies. Based on extensive research and interviews with Dressler's surviving friends, costars and colleagues, including Maureen O'Sullivan, Jackie Cooper and Anita Page, it details her public and personal successes and failures. A listing of her stage appearances, vocal recordings and films is included. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The evening star of Marie Dressler
Louis B. Mayer once said that the three greatest actors who ever worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were Greta
Garbo, Spencer Tracy and Marie Dressler. Beloved actress Marie Dressler (1868-1934) was my writing
obsession for four years. How did this delightfully idiosyncratic woman overcome so many demons in
herlifetime? How did she shape her epoch and how did it shape her? Known simply as "Marie" to millions of
fans, she is a fascinating creature of American popular culture. She is most known today for her amazing
popularity in early talkies such as MIN AND BILL (Academy Award, Best Actress, 1930/31), TUGBOAT
ANNIE and DINNER AT EIGHT. In fact, the large, unlovely sixtysomething year old was the number one
box-office attraction of the early Depression. Her earlier years were equally compelling. In the 1880s, she fled
an abusive father by joining a horse drawn carriage pulling a third-rate theater company. Later she charmed
Broadway and was the comic foil to legendary stage stars Lillian Russell, Eddie Foy and Weber & Fields. She
co-starred with Charlie Chaplin in Mack Sennett's 1914 hit TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE, the first
feature length comedy every filmed. She was a passionate advocate of women's suffrage and the American
participation in World War I. In 1919, she co-founded Actors Equity. Her career took a nosedive in the 1920s
and she was broke and pitiable at the time of her rediscovery by the brilliant screenwriter Frances Marion. Her
final makeover as warmly embraced mega-star remains one of Hollywood's great comeback stories.
Researching the life of Marie Dressler took me to screening rooms, dusty archives and quiet libraries all over
the United States and Canada. In addition to interviews with her surviving colleagues at MGM, I had moving
conversations with Joseph Newman, assistant director on MIN AND BILL and DINNER AT EIGHT, and
Grace Ruthrruff, the generous nurse who was at Marie's deathbed in 1934. It is my hope that this biography will
help restore Marie Dressler's legacy as one of the twentieth century's great entertainers.

Bullseye!
Ever since Marie Dressler knocked my socks off when I first saw DINNER AT EIGHT I have been frustrated that most biographical sketches of her life recycled the same tantalizing ten pages or so of information, and although Betty Lee's competing biography was welcome, it left as many questions as answers. This book finally does this fabulous star justice with comprehensive research on her now-obscured early life; loving, intelligent coverage of all her extant films; savvy, well-written documentation of her stage career; and endlessly perceptive reconstruction of what Dressler was like as human being. Catching Dressler in a rare showing of her films EMMA and TUGBOAT ANNIE in San Francisco some years back and espying a notice that this biography was being written, I spent years anticipating it, and was never disappointed in the slightest. Truly a bravura performance -- Dressler lives again. But WHEN will more of her work be released on video? ... Read more

Book Description

In his outstanding autobiography, Konstantin Stanislavsky reveals his own ideas and experience.

Written with the same warmth, liveliness and ability to re-create reality that made Stanislavski a great actor, his autobiography tells of his childhood in the world of Moscow's wealthy merchants, his successes and failures as an amateur actor, how he studied human beings, and developed what has come to be known as the "Stanislavski Method," how his group of dedicated amateurs became "perhaps the greatest acting group the world has ever known (Washington Post)," The Moscow Art Theatre. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

For the actor and the historian
"Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art."Truly one of the world's greatest arts educators, Stanislavsky's autobiography is beautifully written.It is a fascinating portrait of the history of modernacting and also of Russian history.Absolutely key for understanding theMethod, and the development of today's theater. ... Read more

Book Description

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett wrote the screenplays for some of America's most treasured movies, including It's a Wonderful Life, The Thin Man, Easter Parade, Father of the Bride, Naughty Marietta, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Legendary films, indeed, but writing both the play and screenplay for The Diary of Anne Frank was their crowning achievement.

Controlled chaos best describes their writing method. They discussed a scene at length, sometimes acting it out. Afterwards, they each wrote a draft, which they exchanged. "Then," Frances said, "began 'free criticism'-which sometimes erupted into screaming matches." Noisy and contentious, the method worked splendidly.

Enormously successful and remarkably prolific, Goodrich and Hackett began their thirty-four-year collaboration in 1928. Married after the first of their five plays became a hit, they were in many ways an unlikely pair. Frances, the privileged daughter of well-to-do parents, graduated from Vassar, then played minor parts on Broadway. Albert's mother put him on stage at age five, when his father died, to help pay the bills, and he became a highly paid comedian.

The Hacketts were known for their wit and high spirits and the pleasure of their Bel Air dinner parties. They waged memorable battles with their powerful bosses and were key activists in the stressful creation of the Screen Writers Guild. Once they had created Nick and Nora Charles, The Thin Man's bright, charming, sophisticated lead couple, played memorably by William Powell and Myrna Loy, many people saw a strong resemblance, and the Hacketts acknowledged that they "put themselves into" Nick and Nora.

The Real Nick and Nora is a dazzling assemblage of anecdotes featuring some of the most talented writers and the brightest lights of American stage and screen. The work was arduous, the parties luminous. On any given night the guests singing and acting out scripts at a party might include F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham, S. J. Perelman, Oscar Levant, Ogden Nash, Judy Garland, Abe Burrows, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell and June Allyson, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, James Cagney, and Dorothy Parker. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

You Love Movies? Must Read
One of the finest books on Hollywood in recent years. Through the biographical prism of one of the most engaging, accomplished and loved couples in American screen and stage writing history, Goodrich captures the excitement and tears of movie production. A must read for movie lovers, the stage struck, aspiring writers, lovers of the Thin Man series, It's a Wonderful Life, Anne Frankf and mid-century cultural studies. ... Read more

Amazon.com

It's hard to believe that Betty Comden is still out there writing musicals more than 50 years after she helped pen the immortal words, "New York, New York, a helluva town . . ." for Leonard Bernstein's On the Town.In her new memoir the distaff half of the team of Comden & Green ("Betty & Adolph" to insiders) looks back on a life that took her from tart Greenwich Village revues in the 1930s, through her early Broadway successes in the 1940s, her Oscar for Singing in the Rain and a long Broadway songwriting career that has included Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Wonderful Town, On the Twentieth Century, The Will Rogers Follies and more projects currently underway. Backstage stories about the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Mary Martin and Kevin Kline are mixed with lessons learned as a working woman and wife. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

WHO WOULDN'T LOVE BETTY COMDEN?
Even if she weren't one-half of the legendary theatrical writing team of Comden and Green, Betty Comden's life would be worth reading about.Collaborating with Adolph Green for some 70 years the brilliant duo gave us such blockbuster Broadway shows as "On The town," "Bells Are Ringing," "The Will Rogers Follies" and "Applause."

Alone, she was a doting wife, a mother who thought she could never master motherhood, and a woman left to mourn the death of her husband, son, and many dear friends.

Born in Brooklyn to Russian immigrant parents, the young Betty had a love for words and was intrigued by the theater.While her teaming with Green made theatrical history, her unprecedented success did not shield her from tragedies and disappointments.These, along with her joys and triumphs, she recounts with candor and humor.

- Gail Cooke

Bor-ing Whiny Book
Maybe I shouldn't have bought the book in the first place.I have always liked Betty Comden on a professional basis.But after reading this boring and terribly self-indulgent book, my opinion of her has lowered drastically.

Quite frankly, her life growing up and all of her wonderful friends and aches and pains are not worth reading about.Now if this was more of a balanced autobiography that combined her professional and personal lives, the book would be much better.She grew up rich (she admits the Great Depression did not affect her much) and became quite successful.She admits to guilt about being a part-time mother and talks at embarrassing length about her son who died of HIV due to his years as a drug addict.

...

A wonderful read, a wonderful person
If Betty Comden had done nothing more than collaborate on the great musical On The Town, she'd be a star in my personal pantheon. But she's had a wonderfully varied career, as creator and performer, and she has set highstandards in all projects. Ms. Comden has lived long enough to haveexperienced many sadnesses, and she writes about them as openly as she doesthe happinesses.This book is a gift from a true Broadway original, and agenuine professional. Not to be missed, and bless you, Betty, for giving itto us! ... Read more

Book Description

This enduring biography of the popular writer begins with Ferber's last years in New York City, exploring the setting in which she did all of her great writing. Diaries, copious correspondence, and the cooperation of distinguished living friends have resulted in a rich portrait of a period and a literary circle not yet fully documented, and an insightful engaging analysis of a woman writer highly influential in the shaping of twentieth century America. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Ferber & American Literature
Is there a renaissance of interest in the writings of Edna Ferber? Stamps were minted honoring her this past summer [2002], and now the reissuance of this biography, written by Ferber's greatniece and originally published about 1978. I hope this indicates a resurgence of interest in her writings -- but you would be better served to read Ferber's writings themselves, than this biography.

I've been in love with the writings of Edna Ferber since I was 12 and someone gave me a used edition of "Amreican Beauty". I realize that she won't go down in the annals of the classics of American literature, such as Faulkner or even Carson McCullers: her writing lacks the quality of universality, and I suppose, self-discovery [on the reader's part]. But she is great at the sociology of America, at giving the reader an intuitive feel or understanding of an era or people. I even did my first term paper in high school on her: "The Effects of Minority Races on the Writing of Edna Ferber" -- and I still remember with pleasure the note the instructor wrote, to the effect that my love for Ferber's writings was apparent.

So although I had read reviews to the effect that Ms. Gilbert did not let her closeness to her aunt affect her objectivity, I couldn't resist reading it. I was prepared for her to be critical. I was not prepared for her to be vindictive and viperish. She related Ferber's life backwards: 1960 to 1968, 1952 to 1960, 1938 to 1950, 1916 to 1938, etc. -- so you begin by seeing her as a crochety old lady [and indeed, this was the bulk of the book, rather than the period in which Ferber was writing -- although I suppose it is understandable, as that is when Ms. Gilbert would have known her] without having any idea what made her that way.

What did come out was that Miss Ferber took over of the support of her extended family [besides her mother: her sister, her sister's 2 children, and their children] -- and that the family felt some guilt at this, and I felt Ms. Gilbert's book was an attempt to whitewash the family's guilt, saying in effect, "See, it wasn't easy for us, we had to put up with this disagreeable old lady." When she sticks to facts, it isn't too bad; but she's always jumping to pseudo-freudian conclusions, or attaching a moralistic interpretation to the actions of others. For example, although she quotes letters of praise from Noel Coward [who was not a person to suffer fools gladly] fairly frequently, she usually adds that the work "wasn't Ferber's best" [I wonder what she did feel was her best?] and that he undoubtedly did it out of friendship. She makes numerous allusions to a freudian problem which Miss Ferber had in her relationship with her mother, but during her tale of the early part of Ferber's life, never mentions anything to provide support or justification for such comments. If someone outside the family had written it, I'm sure they would be subject to a lawsuit for libel and inneundo.

The biography is entitled "Ferber and her Circle", but is only tangentially about her "circle". ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Extreme Boredom!
This is the worst "biography" I've ever read. So much that it took me more than a year to complete.

It's just a succession of VERY long-winded, very boring critiques of each of the writer's plays. Biographical facts are only half-heartedly tacked on at the start, and reading them I came to find out that I didn't even like Orton and his "friend" and felt they got the exact fates they deserved.

This book was so stagnant and such a frustrating read that I actually began to hate the author! I wish I had NEVER ordered it.

Lahr captures a true original.
Joe Orton was an original, no getting around it. His plays, especially "Entertaining Mr. Sloan," "Loot" and "What the Butler Saw" are considered classics of the blackest form of comedy. He enjoyed shocking people, while always maintaining that his characters and the situations he places them in were grounded in reality.

This is a theatrical bio as bold and brash as its subject. Lahr has done a thorough job of exposing this most controversial of playwrights. Joe was a sexual compulsive, an in-your-face homosexual who enjoyed sex with strangers in public places. He also loved to brag about his exploits, never skimping on a detail.

Just when "things" were finally coming together for Orton professionally, things were beginning to unravel for his companion Kenneth Halliwell, who brutally murdered Orton in August 1967. Some would say his rude death befit how he lived the rest of his life. I think that would be judging Joe too harshly. Perhaps he would have been a flash-in-the-pan or as lasting and popular as Stoppard. We'll never know. That's the tragedy. Good job Lahr.

Intrigue in Tangiers
I love a good biography, and this one is GREAT! John Lahr writes brisk, delighfully breezy, and information-saturated biographies. He has another great one of his Father - Bert Lahr - the cowardly lion in Wizard of Oz. "Prick up your Ears"...is a page turner that kept me riveted as I came to an appreciation of the latter 60's London gay scene, and the Svengali/Frankenstein-like relationship between Orton and his 16-year lover, Ken Halliwell. Halliwell brutally murdered Orton in a frenzy of jealously and sheer madness in 1967, at Orton's peak of fame. I knew nothing of Joe Orton or his plays until I caught the last hour of the movie by the same title on BBC America last month, which starred Gary Oldman. The book is much better than the movie, in that it gives you all the "behind-the-scenes" information the movie does not have time to elaborate upon. Lahr treats Orton's horrible sex-addiction sensitively, and illustrates the magnitude of his genius and vision in a very articulate manner. Though Halliwell's murder/suicide was tragic for both men, Lahr helps the reader understand the reasons which lead to his fatal mistake, without excusing it by tapping the support of many of their old friends, living family, and aquaintences. Who knows, if only Orton had acknowledged Halliwell's contributions to his work, perhaps they'd both be with us today...

Strong Start... fizzles out
This biography indeed has a powerful, engaging start as it first presents the murder of Joe Orton and the causes that lead to it, then goes back to explore his bleak upbringing and the fascinating pre-published period he spent with his companion (they were trying to avoid work at all costs while writing much-rejected fiction and mutilating library books). However, once Lahr begins covering Joe The Playwright, the book frankly gets slow, boring, and exhaustive. The biography turns into a literary criticism, as Lahr spends many a page giving his own interpretation and biased opinions on Orton's works. He does this with each and every play. This has no place in the story of his life and should've been put in The Complete Plays where it would've been appropriate.

Lahr also feels the need to cover the drudgery of his subject's professional dealings at a snail's pace. All of this is somewhat understandable, since Lahr admitted in the foreword that informaiton on Orton was downright scarce during certain periods, but IMO, he should've just shortened the book as a result because we all know good things come in small packages, less is sometimes more... it's quality not quantity... you get my point.

I recommend this book if only for the first half. Though the movie isn't as rich (as it's pressed for time) it moves along in a satisfying pace and covers all the major events in an OBJECTIVE way. I advise curious people to see the movie, hardcore fans may want to invest in the book.

Interesting biography of a minor playwright.
Prick Up Your Ears is a biography of Joe Orton, who achieved a measure of fame in Britain and the US for his plays such as "What the Butler Saw." Orton, who was gay, got much of his literary education from his lover. The lover, who went from being the dominant person in the relationship to the lesser when Orton became famous, eventually developed such a rage against Orton that he murdered him and then killed himself.

Orton's plays are often funny, but not deep. They depend on the breaking of social and sexual conventions. Now that those conventions have largely been broken anyhow, Orton's plays seem less shocking than they were at the time. Orton liked to be thought of as another Harold Pinter, but somewhat to his horror he found that his admirers included conventional middlebrow playwrights of the day. In fact, Orton's plays do have more in common with the works of these more conventional writer than with Pinter. Perhaps Orton's greatest comic invention were his letters to the editor of various British publications, always written under a false name and always espousing an absurdely conservative point of view. Orton, whether he admitted it or not, needed these conservatives for his plays to work.

Lahr's biography is well researched, and is likely to remain the definitive biography of Orton. Lahr himself has a fluid writing style, and the intelligence to know what to put in and what to leave out. Thus, he avoids swamping the reader with meaningless details as do many American biographers. ... Read more