| Abstract |
"Is there anyone who has not heard of My Fair Lady or Camelot or Gigi? If so, no matter. Even for them this story will be sheer delight. Mr. Lerner insists that this book is not a memoir, and indeed it is not. It is a highly personal biography of three great shows. It is a warm, witty, loving, often hilarious, and poignant in its affection for a glorious era in the American theater. It is the story of what Mr. Lerner calls 'the sundown of wit, eccentricity, and, if you will, glamor.' The author himself, try as he will to keep himself out of his pages, emerges not merely as a great talent, but as a man of laughter and love. His principals, however, are Moss Hart and Fritz Loewe, giants in his eyes. But what a supporting cast! On- and off- and back-stage are Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Cecil Beaton, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron, Vincente Minnelli, Arthur Freed ... and on and on. They are seen intimately in moments of triumph, disaster, doubt and panic, pettishness and hilarity. Sometimes they were amateurs at private living, but they were always professionals at the creation of theater. And the creation of theater is the matrix of this wonderful book. Here is how a show is conceived, financed, written (and rewritten and re-rewritten), produced, staged, saved, and finally given to the public. How does a playwright like Mr. Lerner dare to attempt alchemy on already rare metal such as George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion? How does Fritz Loewe set it to such irresistible music? And just what was the magic of Moss Hart that drew a cast and a play so perfectly together and made him perhaps the best loved man in the world of the American stage? What is the essence of professionalism in an actor like Richard Burton, who, in Camelot, held his fellow actors in team when explosions seemed inevitable? And the magic of Julie Andrews, Chevalier, Caron, Harrison, and the others? They are all here. They first appear in the story of My Fair Lady from conception through pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Here is how it happened, why it was written as it was, cast as it was (including the panic of Rex Harrison at the thought of having to sing), and finally the production itself--the most successful musical, both critically and financially of all time. It is told anecdotally with marvelous pace; it instructs as it goes; and always it entertains. Then there is Gigi, the winner of more Academy Awards than any musical film ever produced, a story that takes place for the most part in Hollywood and in Paris. Lastly there is Camelot, unique in theatrical history for the mountains of troubles it had to climb before reaching Broadway and for the legend it became because of the death of President Kennedy (and the illness of Moss Hart at a critical stage in its preparation), and unique as a show which did not become a success until four months after it opened--and how it all happened. This is a book which evokes laughter in the solitary reader and an instant desire to tell its stories to anyone who will listen. Yet it is a book which tells more about the world of great Broadway shows than any in recent memory (perhaps not since Moss Hart's own Act One), and in a harsh world it is a happy journey with love--love for the times it tells of and for the people who made them what they were for Alan Jay Lerner."--Dust jacket. |
