From the author of the acclaimed Everybody Was So Young; the definitive and major biography of the great choreographer and Broadway legend Jerome RobbinsTo some; Jerome Robbins was a demanding perfectionist; a driven taskmaster; a theatrical visionary; to others; he was a loyal friend; a supportive mentor; a generous and entertaining companion and colleague. Born Jerome Rabinowitz in New York City in 1918; Jerome Robbins repudiated his Jewish roots along with his name only to reclaim them with his triumphant staging of Fiddler on the Roof. A self-proclaimed homosexual; he had romances or relationships with both men and women; some famousmdash;like Montgomery Clift and Natalie Woodmdash;some less so. A resolutely unpolitical man; he was forced to testify before Congress at the height of anti-Communist hysteria. A consummate entertainer; he could be paralyzed by shyness; nearly infallible professionally; he was conflicted; vulnerable; and torn by self-doubt. Guarded and adamantly private; he was an inveterate and painfully honest journal writer who confided his innermost thoughts and aspirations to a remarkable series of diaries and memoirs. With ballets like Dances at a Gathering; Afternoon of a Faun; and The Concert; he humanized neoclassical dance; with musicals like On the Town; Gypsy; and West Side Story; he changed the face of theater in America. In the pages of this definitive biography; Amanda Vaill takes full measure of the complicated; contradictory genius who was Jerome Robbins. She re-creates his childhood as the only son of Russian Jewish immigrants; his apprenticeship as a dancer and Broadway chorus gypsy; his explosion into prominence at the age of twenty-five with the ballet Fancy Free and its Broadway incarnation; On the Town; and his years of creative dominance in both theater and dance. She brings to life his colleagues and friendsmdash;from Leonard Bernstein and George Balanchine to Robert Wilson and Robert Gravesmdash;and his loves and lovers. And she tells the full story behind some of Robbinsrsquo;s most difficult episodes; such as his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his firing from the film version of West Side Story.Drawing on thousands of pages of documents from Robbinsrsquo;s personal and professional papers; to which she was granted unfettered access; as well as on other archives and hundreds of interviews; Somewhere is a riveting narrative of a life lived onstage; offstage; and backstage. It is also an accomplished work of criticism and social history that chronicles one manrsquo;s phenomenal career and places it squarely in the cultural ferment of a time when New York City was truly ldquo;a helluva town.rdquo;
#3319448 in eBooks 2015-11-10 2015-11-10File Name: B017TPT3VA
Review
