[DOC] The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation by Frederic Spotts at Arts-Photography

Description

From Arthur Laurents; playwright; screenwriter; directormdash;a mesmerizing book about theater; the art; the artist; the insider; the outsidermdash;and the making of two of the greatest musicals of the American stage; West Side Story and Gypsy. It is a book profoundly enriched by the authorrsquo;s two loves; love for the theater and love for his partner of fifty-two years; Tom Hatcher; who shared and inspired every aspect of his life and his work.Laurents writes about the musicals he directed; I Can Get It for You Wholesale; its producer David Merrick (the ldquo;Abominable Showmanrdquo;); and its (very young) stars Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould . . . He writes about Stephen Sondheimrsquo;s Anyone Can Whistle; which starred Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick; marking the debut for each in musical theater. He summons up the challenges and surprises that came with the making of La Cage aux Folles; the first big Broadway musical that was gay and glad to be.He writes in rich detail about his most recent production of Gypsy; how it began as an act of love; a love that spread through the entire company and resulted in a Gypsy unlike any other. And about his new bilingual production of West Side Story.And he talks; as well; about the works of other directorsmdash;Fiddler on the Roof; Kiss Me; Kate; Spring Awakening; Street Scene; The Phantom of the Opera; LoveMusik; Sweeney Todd.Moving; exhilarating; provocativemdash;a portrait of an artist working with other artists; a unique close-up look at todayrsquo;s American musical theater by a man whorsquo;s been at its red-hot center for more than five decades.From the Hardcover edition.