Arthur Laurents

Laurents passed away early in 2011, but not before writing The Rest of the Story, in which he revealed all that had happened in his life since Original Story By, filled with the wisdom he gained in growing older and a new perspective brought on by Laurents' experience of deep personal loss, including the death of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Leona Samish, a single American woman of a "certain age" takes a long-planned European vacation from her job as a secretary and finds herself in a pensione in Venice, Italy. At a street market, she meets the handsome proprietor Renato DiRossi, entering into a casual flirtation which turns into an affair. Her complacency is jolted when she discovers he is married, has several children and is quite happy with the arrangement as is. Long-dormant frustrations and anger come to the surface as Leona faces the harsh reality of this new found infatuation and her own romantic notions of love. Shirley Booth and later Katharine Hepburn ("Summertime") played the leading role.

As a playwright screenwriter and director Arthur Laurents has a unique place in the history of theater. In this moving exhilarating and provocative account he presents readers with a front-row look at the making of two of the greatest musicals of the American stage ÊWest Side StoryÊ and ÊGypsyÊ. He writes in rich detail about his new bilingual production of ÊWest Side StoryÊ along with his most recent production of ÊGypsyÊ how it began as an act of love and how that love spread through the entire company and resulted in a ÊGypsyÊ unlike any other.ÞLaurents offers behind-the-scenes details about the musicals he directed including ÊI Can Get It for You WholesaleÊ its producer David Merrick (the Abominable Showman ) and its (very young) stars Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould. He dishes on Stephen Sondheim's ÊAnyone Can WhistleÊ which starred Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick marking the debut for each in musical theater. And he recounts the challenges and surprises that came with the making of ÊLa Cage aux FollesÊ the first big Broadway musical that was gay and glad to be.ÞThroughout the book is enriched by Laurents's two loves ä his love for the theater and his love for his partner of fifty-two years Tom Hatcher who shared and inspired every aspect of his life and his work. ÊMainly on DirectingÊ presents an unforgettable portrait of an artist working with other artists a unique close-up look at today's American musical theater by a man who's been at its red-hot center for more than five decades.

A Clearing In The Woods is a play written by Arthur Laurents. The story revolves around a wealthy family, the Kingsleys, who live in a luxurious mansion in the countryside. The play begins with the arrival of a stranger, a young man named Joe, who is seeking a job as a gardener. The family takes him in, but tensions begin to rise as Joe's presence causes secrets and hidden desires to surface. As the play progresses, the characters are forced to confront their own personal demons and the consequences of their actions. A Clearing In The Woods explores themes of class, power, sexuality, and the destructive nature of secrets. The play is known for its complex characters and intense emotional drama.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Drama / 2m, 3f / Simple Set Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are, a play by the widely-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning theatre legend Arthur Laurents, is an intimate, emotional drama about a cabaret singer coping with the devastating death of her husband, while trying to navigate her overbearing, controlling mother-in-law and the aggressive advances of a sexually persistent, handsome, new suitor. Recently widowed Sara must comes to terms with her husband's death but is haunted by visions of him. Her fixation on his posthumous messages dampens her historically lukewarm relationship with Marion, her therapist mother-in-law, who is disturbingly pragmatic about the passing of her son. Sara's grief is also altered by Michelle, her under-appreciated sister-in-law, who is struggling both with her sexual identity and her relationship to her deceased brother. All is complicated by Dougal, a picture framer who is struck by the earnest Sara. Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are is a gripping drama about grief and the ability of a family to cope with loss. But at its heart, it is a play about love. It was part of the 2009 season at the George Street Playhouse. "The prolific Laurents has given his play a crisp staging, cramming the 90-minute wake with enough heartbreak and ardor to fill a grand opera." - Variety

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 ÊWest Side StoryÊ ÊGypsy Anastasia The Turning PointÊ and ÊThe Way We WereÊ appear. Laurents' highly praised memoir is a dazzling portrait of his life ä 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 ÊI Can Get It for You WholesaleÊ. He writes about the creation of ÊGypsyÊ 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 ÊWest Side StoryÊ. Throughout Laurents is funny fierce and frank ä a life recounted as richly as it was lived. This is a historic work. A 'must' for show biz mavens. ä LIZ SMITH Newsday & Syndicated

The musical tale of a domineering stage mother's inadvertent creation of a burlesque stripper, now available in paperback for the first time.